The F-22 is the world's most advanced stealth fighter and retiring it will leave a gap in the USA's airpower around the globe. Stealth isn’t a technology of the future, it’s technology from the past. In the 1980’s the United States was in need of a new fighter to match up against newer Russian Sukhois and Migs. The contest that followed put two aircraft designs to the test. The Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor and the Northrop Grumman/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 Blackwidow. After much consideration, the F-22 Raptor was chosen as the winner of the contract, was set into production in 1997, and delivered to the airforce in 2005. What about this aircraft made it so capable that just about every country was lining up to buy it, but at the same time soiling their pants? The F-22 is the first generation five air superiority all-weather stealth fighter. The F-22 features Planform Alignment which is a design used to make an aircraft stealthy. The F-22 features an advanced engine that can travel faster than the speed of sound without an afterburner or using extra fuel, plus with advanced avionics and thrust vectoring, the F-22 is the most advanced aircraft in the world. After an exercise performed by the USAF, Col Richard Toliver said “a great opportunity to work with all those assets and find out what the Raptor really does bring to the fight.” Other countries like Russia and China have tried developing their own gen 5 stealth aircraft, but even those aircraft cannot match the f-22’s superior strength, with the Chinese J-20 in limited supply and the Russian SU-57 program currently in development.

Stealth is a major necessity in Air Combat in the present and Future. Advancements in Surface to Air defense systems like SAM sites and radar stations are becoming a threat to unstealthy gen 4 fighters like the McDonnell F-15 Eagle and Grumman F-18 Super Hornet. Radar is one of a fighter pilot’s greatest tools of Combat, But it's also his greatest enemy. Whoever sees the other first gets the first shot. During the Gulf War, the United States pushed to obtain air superiority in Iraq. But at the time, Iraq had and most likely still has the second-best air defense networks in the Middle east, only second to Israel. Their borders were littered with SAM sites, like anti-personnel mines just waiting to be stepped on. To achieve air superiority in Iraq, the US turned to the F-117 Nighthawk, the first stealth aircraft ever designed. The US made huge success with this aircraft in Iraq and only lost one aircraft in combat of its 27 years in service. However, this plane was made using older computers, so the computer-generated the aircraft using flat, irregular angles that lead to the plane being highly unstable in flight. This early kind of stealth couldn't be used in a dogfight as the plane would just completely break up in flight or would be an easy target for far more agile Mirage F1’s. Eventually, scenarios like this were solved by the F-22’s improved stealth characteristics of Planform alignment, making for a far more aerodynamic and stealthy aircraft.

Missiles are a big threat to any aircraft. In the 1950’s, the United States and Russia were locked in an Arms race to develop the better and larger military. During the 1950’s, Russia was the major leader in air to Surface Missiles and still is to this day. “In 1944 the company managed by Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomey, the outstanding designer and scientist, was charged with the task to create a new type of weapons: a pilotless aircraft-missile to arm the Air Forces and then other branches.”(Mashinostroyenia, Missile company in Russia, about page). Today, Russian SAM sites and missiles lay all across the middle east and Asia. Russia is the world’s leading SAM site marketer since the 1950’s. They have continued to produce updates within SAM and Radar stations which have made them more efficient and deadly. Even some stealthy aircraft in the future may become the prey of SAM sites with continued missile development from Russia. The Most current sales of Russia’s Missile programs are the S-300 being sold to Iran, and the S-400 to Turkey as of 2015. More rumors have been spread of China purchasing the S-400 SAM system from Russia. “the contract has been signed and is being prepared for materialization.”( Vladimir Kozin, Putin’s advisor). “Moscow will ensure that the deal’s implementation goes in strict accordance with Russian strategic interests,”( Vladimir Kozin, Putin’s advisor).

With the F-22 being the most formidable fighter ever built to date, the US Government takes good care of its limited number of only about 187 operational F-22’s. It is known that the F-22 has a life of only 8,000 flight hours. This is because the body of the aircraft starts to wear down as Fighter jets constantly pull aggressive, high G maneuvers that stress the body of the plane. In fact, just flying the plane is stressing the airframe. Commercial airliners have a life of 20 years because they don’t pull highly aggressive maneuvers like the F-22. The Plane itself has a special onboard computer that actually monitors the aircraft's health and won’t let the pilot over-stress the aircraft over 9 G’s. If the aircraft have a life of only about 8,000 flight hours, the first F-22’s delivered to the airforce in 2005 are now 16 years old. 16 years is more than enough time for a fighter to wear out its airframe. In the next 4 years F-22 will start being retired due to old age. This raises the issue. The F-22s left will soon be retired and be unable to perform any longer, meaning the USAs small supply of these planes will deplete.

With the most advanced fighter now out of commission with none left, the United States air force no longer has an aircraft that can match the skill and strength of the F-22. The United States Airforce has the F-35, however the F-35 lacks super cruise and high speed. The F-22 can fly without an afterburner and cruise at a speed of Mach 1.5, some 1,150 miles per hour, accompanied with a top speed of over mach 2, some 1400 miles per hour. The F-35 only manages to push out a max speed of mach 1.3, some 1,000 miles per hour. Regarding killing power, maneuverability, radar, and technology, by no means is the F-35 weak. However the F-35 still cannot quite match the speed or maneuverability of the F-22. So while the US government may be able to operate the F-35 to great extent, they still lose a pure air to air superiority fighter meant to outmatch anything in the skies. Newer updates in the Mig 39s, SU-39s, MKI Flankers, and Mirage Refeals have made all of them worthy opponents to the F-35, but the goal is to make sure no aircraft can stand up to you. In addition to that, the Government quietly admitted the F-35 program was a failure. They admitted that the F-35 is years away from being completely ready as well as the cost they plan on spending in the next 40 years on the F-35 is estimated to be 379 billion dollars. With that money, the air force could purchase approximately 2,661 new F-22’s. “This plane has a long way to go before it’s combat-ready,” (Dan Grazier, defense analyst, Government Oversight in Washington). The F-35 was planned to replace the A-10 Warthog( ground attack aircraft) and the F-16( fighter bomber), however the US Government has new plans to make a carrier capable F-16 for the Navy and the A-10 will continue to remain in service. The F-22 was meant to replace the F-15c, which was an air superiority platform. If the F-22 is retired officially, they either have to rely upon unstealthy gen 4 fighters like the F-15, or they have to rely upon the F-35. However as previously mentioned, newer gen 5 stealth fighters being developed are likely going to have some speed and maneuverability advantages over the F-35. With the Su-57 program back up and running in Russia, we can bet the Su-57 possesses a problem to F-35’s as they are stealthy aircraft and are much more agile than the F-35.

If the F-22 were to remain in service, its effectiveness could be multiplied by linking F-35s and F-22s data links together to share combat data. With this, communication between these two fighters gives fighter pilots the upper hand in a dogfight when it comes to information. What one Pilot sees is projected to all others. This way everyone can see the same picture, making planning simplified and easier. Now pilots can create more sophisticated and effective plans during combat situations. “We want to be able to integrate sensors. We want to get data off of them. We want to secure the process. We want to be able to put applications [on the system] and connect capability and people together. And we want to output an effect.”( Preston Dunlap, Chief architect of the US Air Force). 

The F-35 and F-22 are currently the world’s leading fifth generation fighters, with the F-35 being the only tactical stealth fighter to be exported to allied countries. The F-22 and F-35 undoubtedly are the premier fighters to be operated by the US, and F-35 in allied countries, for the next decade. The F-22s official retirement will place the F-35 at the top spot in the USAF’s fleet of aircraft. However, The F-22 is far too advanced to be given up. The Raptor is capable of achieving a kill-to-death ratio(KDR) of 241-to-2. This KDR is far higher than combat fighters ever built to date. Also to mention is technologies today are always in constant updates. The technology industry tries to push computing and engineering limits past the borderline every day. Since the F-22s production ended, we can only hope to assume the f-22 has received some update to its technology. Newer materials and composites may even allow the Airframe to have a longer life and be able to handle more stress in the future or new updates to weapons may be more effective in killing enemy targets. The F-22 was predicted to be the deadliest fighter until close to 2050. With more countries starting to develop their own generation five aircraft, the F-22 is currently the only aircraft capable of achieving the success needed in air to air combat against generation 4 and 5 fighters in present and future air combat.