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The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft.As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was designed as an air superiority fighter, but also incorporates ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence capabilities.
Flight testing for the F-22 continued until 2005, and on 15 December 2005 the USAF announced that the Raptor had reached its initial operational capability (IOC); with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Department of Defense focused on counterinsurgency at that time, F-22 production only reached 195 aircraft and ended in 2011. [67] [68]
Delivering almost 22% more thrust with 40% fewer parts than its F100 predecessor, the F119 allows the F-22 to achieve supercruise speeds of up to Mach 1.8. [1] [2] The F119's nozzles incorporate thrust vectoring that enable them to direct the engine thrust ±20° in the pitch axis to give the F-22 enhanced maneuverability.
Plans called for MANTA technologies to be demonstrated on either an F-22 Raptor or F-15. An X-44 prototype would begin test flights by fiscal year 2007. NASA planners stated that developing technologies for the X-44 could have application to the F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter programs and commercial supersonic ventures. [2]
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has chines along its nose section that align with its engine air intakes. [2] The small horizontal surfaces forming a fillet between the forward wing root and the air intake is more usually called a leading edge root extension (LERX) or leading-edge extension (LEX).
According to Lockheed Martin in 2004, the only fifth-generation jet fighter then in operational service was their own F-22 Raptor. [2] [40] Lockheed Martin uses "fifth-generation fighter" to describe the F-22 and F-35 fighters, with the definition including "advanced stealth", "extreme performance", "information fusion" and "advanced sustainment".
Some of the most expensive fighters such as the US Grumman F-14 Tomcat, McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and Russian Sukhoi Su-27 were employed as all-weather interceptors as well as air superiority fighter aircraft, while commonly developing air-to-ground roles late in their careers. An interceptor is generally an ...
The Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) was a program undertaken by the United States Air Force to develop a next-generation air superiority fighter to replace the F-15 Eagle in order to counter emerging worldwide threats in the 1980s, including Soviet Sukhoi Su-27 and Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters under development, Beriev A-50 airborne warning and control systems (AWACS), and increasingly ...