F-22s Raptor Fighter Jet

Full Specifications

F-22s Raptor: America’s Stealth Air Superiority Fighter

The Lockheed Martin F-22s Raptor is the aircraft that defined the fifth-generation fighter category. Built to guarantee uncontested control of the skies, it pairs radar-evading stealth with raw speed and agility rarely matched by any jet flying today. Since entering service in 2005, the Raptor has never lost a mock dogfight against a foreign fighter and remains the U.S. Air Force’s benchmark for air dominance.

Manufacturer

The Raptor was developed by Lockheed Martin, with Boeing supplying the wings, aft fuselage, and avionics integration, and Pratt & Whitney building its engines. It emerged from the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition of the late 1980s, beating out the Northrop YF-23 to become the Air Force’s next-generation replacement for the F-15 Eagle. Only the United States operates the F-22s — federal law bars its export to any foreign buyer.

Speed and Range

Twin Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 afterburning turbofans push the Raptor to a top speed of roughly Mach 2.25, while its ability to supercruise at Mach 1.8 without afterburner lets it sustain supersonic speed without draining fuel reserves. Its combat radius runs around 590 nautical miles, extendable with external tanks, and its service ceiling exceeds 50,000 feet. Two-dimensional thrust-vectoring nozzles give it a turn rate and post-stall agility that few, if any, fighters can replicate.

Cost/Price

The F-22s’s price tag is famously split into two figures. The flyaway cost per additional aircraft ran close to $150 million in 2009 dollars, but because production was capped at 195 airframes instead of the originally planned 750, the fully burdened program acquisition cost — spreading the entire $67.3 billion program across the fleet — works out closer to $330–$350 million per jet. That limited run, combined with maintenance-heavy stealth coatings, is why the Raptor remains one of the most expensive fighters the Air Force operates.

Variants