The F-22 Raptor is America’s top-line Air Force fighter. For now...
The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an American single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed exclusively for the United States Air Force (USAF). The result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but also has ground attack, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence capabilities.[2] The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, built most of the F-22's airframe and weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while Boeing provided the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.
...Service officials had originally planned to buy a total of 750 ATFs. In 2009, the program was cut to 187 operational production aircraft due to high costs, a lack of clear air-to-air missions due to delays in Russian and Chinese fighter programs, a ban on exports, and development of the more versatile F-35.[N 1] The last F-22 was delivered in 2012. The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter system is expected to be a successor to the F-22.[6][7]
The F-22 is a victim of small numbers. Although it is generally considered perhaps the best aircraft of its type in the world, it is expensive to maintain and operate, and supporting it is not viewed as cost-effective over the long term given the size of the fleet. The Air Force is planning to phase it out in ten years.
US Air Force (USAF) Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. revealed that the F-22 fighter is not part of the service’s long-term plan, according to a report by Air Force Magazine.
Speaking during a recent conference, the USAF chief of staff stated that the air force’s current fleet of seven aircraft needs to be pared down to “four… plus one.”
The mix will include the A-10 “for a while”; the Next-Generation Air Dominance system; the F-35, “which will be the cornerstone” of the fleet; the F-15EX; and the F-16 or its successor.
Apart from the F-22, Boeing’s F-15E was also missing from the pared-down list of aircraft to remain in service, the outlet observed.
For those wondering why we’re putting money into the F-35 Lightning II with its long list of problems that have gotten a lot of attention, and why the F-22 is on the way out, there are some basic considerations dictating that choice.
- Unlike the F-22, we’re selling F-35s to allies, which spreads the costs over a larger production volume. (For example, the Royal Navy needs the short take off and vertical landing F-35B for its carriers.)
- The F-35 production lines are currently running; restarting F-22 production is not in the cards.
- Stealth capability is essential given the likely threat analysis. The F-35 is; the F-15EX Eagle II is not. The first combatant to be ‘seen’ in the combat air space is the first to be shot down. (We’re also getting a new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, that is expected to incorporate the latest stealth technology and be a lot more cost-effective to build and operate than the B-2. And although non-stealthy, the B-52 will still be around.)
- As an older aircraft design, the F-22’s systems have problems talking to newer Air Force systems. It’s about more than having a plane in the air — it’s about the ability to make a plane and its sensors part of an integrated information sharing network across the combat airspace.
- The Next Generation Air Dominance System is setting development records with the speed at which it is being designed, tested and built. Instead of decades for an F-22 replacement, the time frame is just years. They’ve already designed and built a prototype, and flown it, reportedly within about a year.
- As always, anticipating the threats the Air Force will be asked to face factors into the decision process. China is seen as the adversary that will be of increasing importance, and Russia can’t be ignored either. A certain amount of planning is aimed at creating credible deterrence to encourage opponents to avoid open conflict — which is why Dominance is the key word.
There’s another factor that is making life in the F-22 community difficult: the lasting effects of Hurricane Michael that devastated Tyndall Air Force Base in October 2018.
...“I think the Air Force always knew the … hurricane would have a multi-year impact on the F-22 community, and it has,” a former high-ranking Air Force official told Air Force Times.
Then-Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson chose to temporarily relocate the 325th Fighter Wing — which includes the service’s only F-22 training unit — to Eglin to avoid a dip in Raptor pilot production while the F-22 force was already stretched thin. The wing was expected to permanently move to Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, sometime later.
Their stay at Eglin has lasted much longer than some airmen anticipated, tanking morale and presenting financial issues like spending extra money to indefinitely rent a home in an in-demand market rather than buy property.
“We’re already running a skeleton crew here to try to keep jets flying,” one noncommissioned officer told Air Force Times. “Then the pandemic happens and you drop down to a very bare-bones skeleton crew, one week on, one week off. Everybody’s holding onto that idea that we’re only going to be here for another six months.”
“It keeps going,” they said. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.”
emphasis added
The article is a litany of problems compounding each other, making life miserable for all involved. The people trying to keep F-22s flying at Eglin are in a kind of limbo: the base lacks some of the specialized equipment they need; people can't make long-term housing plans; staffing and transfers are a sore point… There are a lot of things not going well, all under this shadow:
The service is reviewing options for which aircraft will be part of its future combat inventory — but the F-22 isn’t expected to be one of them.
“By about the 2030 timeframe, you’re talking about a 40-year-old platform, and it’s just not going to be the right tool for the job, especially when we’re talking about defending our friends like Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines against a Chinese threat that grows and grows,” Lt. Gen. Clinton Hinote, the service’s deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration and requirements, said of the F-22 in May.
Nothing lasts forever in aviation, with the possible exceptions of the B-52, the C-130, and the DC-3.