Bad News For The Bad Guys our new stealth F-22A Raptor

This is a sleek lookin' machine; the new stealth F-22A Raptor. It is our latest and greatest. Scheduled to build 183 planes until 2012 at 135 million each.



Two F-22A Raptors from the 94th Fighter Squadron fly toward Langley Air Force Base, Va., March 3, 2006. The 94th FS is the second squadron at Langley to receive the new stealth fighter. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Ben Bloker, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

Photo by: TSGT BEN BLOKER, 1ST COMMUNICATIONS SQ.
Record ID No. (VIRIN): 060303-F-2295B-035
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Air Force Reserve F-16 pilots from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., who deployed to Nevada to fly their aircraft against the F/A-22 came away very impressed with the capability of the Air Force's newest air-superiority fighter.

"If the Raptor is full up and doesn't run out of missiles, there is no way to fight it," said Lt. Col. Tom Harwood, 302nd Fighter Squadron commander. "You are literally a target, and that's the end of it."

Colonel Harwood headed up the deployment to Nellis AFB Dec. 12-17. He said "flying an F-16 against the F/A-22 Raptor was like flying a World War II P-51 against an F-16." There might be rare instances where an F-16 might have a fleeting chance at a shot opportunity. Otherwise, the Raptor completely dominates the Fighting Falcon.

Even though the F-16 proved to be no match for the Raptor, Colonel Harwood said the deployment was a great experience. And his pilots didn't do a bad job.

"We did very well," he said. "When given an opportunity, we made the Raptor guys work pretty hard. They said we helped them learn some things about their jet."

Colonel Harwood said the F/A-22 "makes big leaps in every technology important to fighter success in combat. It's great to have it on our side. We'll see some of these technologies migrate to other platforms, maybe even to our old 'legacy' F-16s."

Factsheet (more here)

General Characteristics
Primary Function: Air dominance, multi-role fighter
Builder: Lockheed-Martin, Boeing
Power Plant: Two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines with afterburners and two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles.
Thrust (each engine): 35,000-pound class.
Length: 62 feet, 1 inch (18.9 meters).
Height: 16 feet, 8 inches (5.1 meters).
Wingspan: 44 feet, 6 inches (13.6 meters).
Speed: Mach 2 class.
Ceiling: Above 50,000 feet (approximately 15 kilometers).
Empty Weight: 40,000-pound class (approximately 18,000 kilograms).
Armament: One M61A2 20-millimeter cannon with 480 rounds; side weapon bays can carry two AIM-9 infrared (heat seeking) air-to-air missiles and main weapon bays can carry (air-to-air loadout) six AIM-120 radar-guided air-to-air missiles or (air-to-ground loadout) two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAMs and two AIM-120 radar-guided air-to-air missiles.
Crew: One

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