F-22 Struts Its Stuff

[Ryan Ruck]

F-22 Struts Its Stuff

In recent exercises over Alaska, the F-22 has been put to the test. The results have been staggering. F-22s notched an impressive 108 to 0 "kill ratio" often when outnumbered by as much as 8 to 1 by simulated Su-27/30 aircraft.

In a very real sense, this is a preview of what is to come for forces facing the F-22. The F-15 and F-18 scored a 2:1 kill ratio against the simulated Flankers. This is not the only time that F-22s have shown their capabilities. Eight F-22s faced off against 33 F-15Cs earlier this year, and "shot down" all of the F-15Cs with no loss to itself.

Why does the F-22 dominate? The answer lies in the two biggest rules of air combat. The first rule is, "Speed is life." The F-22 has speed reaching nearly 2,600 kilometers per hour, and having the ability go faster (up to 1,830 kilometers per hour) than the speed of sound without using its afterburners. It is faster than a Eurofighter, Flanker, or Rafale. It can catch its target, or get out of a situation, should that rare occasion arise.

The second rule is, "Lose the sight, lose the fight." The F-22 is very capable of making an opponent "lose sight" of it often through its stealth features that cause enemy radars to perform poorly when looking for an F-22. This means the F-22 will "see" its opponent far sooner than it will be seen itself. In aerial combat, 80 percent of those planes killed in air-to-air combat never knew the opponent that killed them was there.

In a very real sense, the F-22 is the superfighter of the 21st Century. The F-22 is emerging as a long-range fighter (with a range of over 3200 kilometers), capable of fighting when outnumbered 4 to 1 (or more), and it also has significant edges in the areas of speed and stealth. The F-22 is proving to be a very reliable plane (with less than 7 percent of sorties being aborted). Some problems have emerged as the F-22 joins the operational force, most notably with a titanium boom on the first 80 planes, but these problems are being fixed. The F-22's high speed and performance also gives weapons like the AMRAAM and JDAM much more range than from the F-15E or F-16.

The F-22's biggest weakness seems to be its price tag ($361 million per plane). But it is quickly proving it is capable of clearing the skies against as many as eight opponents per F-22. When you consider that the Eurofighter costs $58 million per plane, and the Rafale pushes $66 million, while the F-35C pushes $61 million, the F-22 isn't that bad, particularly when two F-22s at $274 million can easily wipe out eight Eurofighters at $464 million.

While the U.S. Air Force may be engaging in some puffery when it comes to describing the F-22, the track record of new American combat aircraft over the last few decades, indicates that the F-22 is, indeed, an impressive combat aircraft. But, as with any warplane, it won't be until the aircraft actually experiences combat, that it's reputation can be established as more than just potential.

Those are some phenomenal kill ratio numbers!

Now, how about we actually order enough of these to matter, get on with implementing the conceptual F/B-22 program, and come up with a working aircraft carrier based variant of the F-22!!!

[American Patriot]

Think the FA-22 is too expensive and not worth it? Read this...

Posted on 10/05/2006 11:53:36 AM MDT by TexasPatriot8

Think the FA-22 Raptor is over priced and not worth it? Might want to read this below. I got this from an olf Army friend of mine, who corresponds with a Air Force pilot he's talked to for many years. He felt the same way about the FA-22 until he was involved with the testing and training involved with the FA-22 a couple years ago. The comments made by this guy are pretty striking. The more of these in the Air Force arsenal the better, especially with the looming threats from China, North Korea, Iran, and now Venezuela with their military build up.

The FA-22 is literally a plan that just one squadron of 15 of them could, given time for refuling and rearming, destroy a small nations entire air force and navy single handedly, not to mention ait strips, docks, fixed army targets and tanks and other armored vehicels. A couple hundred FA-22s can do what it would take two or more thousands of F-15s, F-16s, and FA-18s to do. That's how good this plane is. How do you put a price tag on that? The cost of the plane is cheap when you consider that one FA-22 is better then five or ten older planes, which would cost more for that number of planes, then one F-22. So price is relative to capability and ability to force project and improve on America's already established air superiority.

NOTHING in the air comes close to the FA-22 in any area. It makes the most advanced fighter/interceptor/bomber any opposing nation has, obsolete overnight. The truth of this is not being recognized by its critics. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of a test pilot who went in skeptical of the FA-22. That says it all.
"Global Hawk ... Les- I worked on Global Hawk several years ago during it's OT&E out of Edwards. It has really long legs- can stay up for almost 2 days at altitudes above 60k. They flew it via satellite control to Australia, and we flew missions during OT&E that went from Eddy to upper Alaska and back non-stop."

"I also got the chance to work as pilot debriefer and test evaluator on the FA-22 OT&E summer before last at EDW. I was totally blown away by the airplane. Unless you have ever watched them go 2 or 4 V many on the big electronic game board, you have no idea what stealth brings to the battle. Basically, they come into the fight at a high mach # in mil thrust, start killing people way out with AMRAAMS, and continue doing that until everyone is dead, and no one ever sees them or paints them on radar. There is practically no radio chatter because all the guys in the flight are tied together electronically, and can see who is targeting who, and they have AWACS direct input and 360°situational awareness from that and other sensors. The aggressors had a morale problem before it was all over. The only shots that I ever saw taken on a 22 were when someone screwed up and popped up high enough to leave a contrail. I went in a skeptic and came out a true believer. It is to air superiority what the jet engine was to aviation."