How Many F 22 Are In Service

The F-22 Raptor was designed to supervene upon the F-15. Credit: Jeff Hormann.

F-22 cockpit has two displays which provide flight information. Credit: D. Miller.

A full of 183 aircrafts are currently in service with the Us Air Forcefulness. Credit: D. Miller.

The F-22 Raptor is powered by two F119-100 engines from Pratt and Whitney. Credit: U.Southward. Indo-Pacific Command.

The F-22A Raptor is an advanced tactical fighter aircraft adult for the Usa Air Forcefulness (USAF). It entered service with the USAF in Dec 2005 to supersede the F-15, with emphasis on agility, stealth and range.

Developed at Aeronautical Systems Eye, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, the F-22A Raptor is a supersonic, dual-engine fighter jet, which has won the 2006 Robert J Collier Trophy from the American National Aeronautic Association (NAA).

In Apr 2009, production of the F-22 fighter jet was officially terminated when Defence force Secretary Robert Gates announced that the Pentagon would end the Lockheed-run F-22 plan and increment the production of the F-35 joint strike fighter. The last produced F-22 was delivered in 2012 and 183 F-22 aircraft are currently in service with the USAF.

Lockheed Martin received a $7bn five-yr contract to maintain the USAF fleet of F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, in December 2019.

F-22A Raptor evolution

Past 1990 Lockheed Martin, teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics, had built and flown the sit-in prototype shipping, designated YF-22. The first F-22 fighter aircraft was unveiled in April 1997 and was given the proper noun Raptor.

In September 2002, the USAF decided to redesignate the aircraft F/A-22 to reflect its multi-mission capability in ground attack besides as air-to-air roles. The aircraft's designation was changed once more to F-22A when it achieved initial operating capability (IOC) in December 2005.

The decision to proceed to depression-rate initial product (LRIP) was authorised in August 2001 and Lockheed Martin delivered 49 shipping under LRIP contracts.

Initial operational test and evaluation began in Apr 2004 and was successfully completed in Feb 2005. The F-22 Raptor achieved full operational capability in December 2007.

A further 60 Raptors were ordered in July 2007, bringing the total ordered to 183, with product to 2011. In November 2008, $40m of funding for four additional raptors was approved by the Pentagon, increasing the total ordered jets to 187, with the buying scheduled in the 2nd half of the fiscal twelvemonth 2009.

In May 2019, the USAF's F-22 armada received an upgrade to modernise the application evolution procedure.

F-22A Raptor deployment and bases

The first operational wing of F-22A Raptors was Langley AFB in Virginia with a armada of twoscore shipping. Elmendorff AFB, Alaska, became the second in August 2007 and Holloman AFB, New Mexico the tertiary in June 2008. Operational Raptors are also based at Hickam AFB Hawaii.

"The F-22A Raptor is a supersonic, dual-engine fighter jet, which has won the 2006 Robert J Collier Trophy from the American National Aeronautic Association (NAA)."

In February 2007, 12 F-22 shipping began the starting time overseas deployment of the fighter at Kadena Air Base in Japan. The shipping returned in May 2007. In January 2009, 12 F-22 jets were deployed at the Kadena Air Base from Langley Air Force Base in Japan for three months as a part of the 27th Fighter Squadron.

During flight tests, the F-22A has demonstrated the power to 'supercruise', flying at sustained speeds of over Mach 1.5 without the employ of afterburner.

Lockheed Martin has put forrard proposals for a fighter-bomber version of the F-22, the FB-22, which will accept larger delta wings, longer range and the power to carry an external weapons payload of 4,500kg and total weapons payload of fifteen,000kg.

F-22 Raptor design and features

The shipping has a length of 18.9m, superlative of 5.1m and wingspan of xiii.6m. It has a range of more than 1,600nm.

The F-22 construction is 39% titanium, 24% composite, sixteen% aluminium and 1% thermoplastic past weight. Titanium is used for its high strength-to-weight ratio in disquisitional stress areas, including some of the bulkheads, and also for its heat-resistant qualities in the hot sections of the aircraft.

Carbon-fibre composites have been used for the fuselage frame, the doors, intermediate spars on the wings, and for the honeycomb sandwich construction skin panels.

F-22 cockpit

The cockpit is fitted with hands-on throttle and stick command (HOTAS). The cockpit has 6 colour liquid crystal displays. The Kaiser Electronics projection master multifunction display provides a plan view of the air and ground tactical situation including threat identity, threat priority and tracking information.

2 displays provide communication, navigation, identification and flight information. Three secondary displays testify air and ground threats, stores direction and air threat data.

A BAE Systems head-up display (HUD) shows target condition, weapon status, weapon envelopes and shoot cues. A video camera records data on the HUD for post-mission assay.

F-22 weapons

A variant of the M61A2 Vulcan cannon is installed internally in a higher place the right air intake. The Full general Dynamics linkless armament handling organization holds 480 rounds of 20mm ammunition and feeds the gun at a rate of 100 rounds a second.

The F-22 Raptor has four hardpoints on the wings, each rated to carry 2,270kg, which can behave AIM-120A AMRAAM or external fuel tanks. The Raptor has three internal weapon bays. The principal weapons bay tin can comport six AMRAAM AIM-120C missiles or two AMRAAM and two 1,000lb GBU-32 joint direct attack munition (JDAM).

The bay is fitted with the EDO Corp. LAU-142/A AVEL AMRAAM vertical ejection launcher which is a pneumatic-ejection system controlled by the stores management system. Raytheon AMRAAM air-to-air missile is an all-weather brusk- to medium-range radar-guided fire-and-forget missile, with a range of 50nm. The side bays can each be loaded with 1 Lockheed Martin / Raytheon AIM-9M or AIM-9X Sidewinder all-aspect short-range air-to-air missile.

The GPS-guided, Boeing pocket-size diameter bomb (SDB) was integrated on the F/A-22 in February 2007. Viii SDBs can be carried with two AMRAAM missiles.

Radar

The AN/APG-77 radar has been developed for the F-22 by the Electronic Sensors and Systems Sectionalization of Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Electronic Systems. The radar uses an active electronically scanned antenna array of 2,000 transmitter / receive modules, which provides agility, low radar cantankerous-section and wide bandwidth. Deliveries of the AN/APG-77 began in May 2005.

Countermeasures of F-22 Raptor

The aircraft's electronic warfare organization includes a radar alarm receiver and a BAE Systems information & electronic warfare systems (IEWS) (formerly Lockheed Martin Sanders) missile launch detector.

Navigation and communications

The TRW CNI communications, navigation and identification organisation includes an intra-flight datalink, articulation tactical information distribution organisation (JTIDS) link and an identification friend or foe (IFF) system.

Boeing is responsible for mission software and avionics integration. The aircraft has a Northrop Grumman (formerly Litton) LTN-100G laser gyroscope inertial reference, a global positioning system and a microwave landing arrangement.

F-22 engine

The F-22 is powered by 2 Pratt and Whitney F119-100 engines. The F119-100 is a low bypass subsequently-called-for turbofan engine providing 156kN thrust. The F119 is the first fighter aircraft engine equipped with hollow broad chord fan blades which are installed in the first fan stage.

Thrust vectoring is controlled by a Hamilton Standard dual redundant total authority digital engine control (FADEC). The FADEC is integrated with the flight control computers in the BAE Systems flying controls vehicle management system.

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