F-22 Raptor

The world's first operational fifth-generation fighter, combining all-aspect stealth, supercruise, thrust vectoring and fused sensors — the US Air Force's premier air-superiority asset since 2005, with a combat record that runs from the opening night of the ISIS air war to the 2025–26 stand-off with Iran.

Overview

The Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor is a single-seat, twin-engine air-dominance fighter built for penetrating counter-air operations against the most advanced surface-to-air systems and opposing fighters of its era. It is the only combat aircraft to combine very-low-observable (stealth) shaping, sustained supersonic cruise without afterburner (supercruise above Mach 1.5), two-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles for exceptional high-alpha agility, and an integrated avionics suite that fuses data from its own AESA radar, passive receivers and off-board feeds into a single pilot-centric picture. The US Air Force (USAF) accepted 187 operational jets between 2002 and 2012; with production capped at 195 airframes (including eight test articles), the fleet is both the service's most potent air-superiority weapon and a shrinking, high-demand asset that is only now receiving the mid-life upgrades needed to keep it viable into the 2040s.

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