It looks like you meant F-22 Raptor (not “Rapter”) — the U.S. Air Force’s 5th-generation stealth air superiority fighter. Here’s a quick overview:
✈️ F-22 Raptor Overview
- Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin (with Boeing as a partner)
- Role: Air superiority fighter (with secondary ground-attack and electronic warfare capabilities)
- First flight: 1997
- Entered service: 2005
- Production: 1996–2011 (only 187 combat aircraft built, plus test units — production is closed)
🔑 Key Features
- Stealth: Shaped to evade radar and coated with radar-absorbent materials.
- Supercruise: Can fly faster than Mach 1.5 without afterburners, giving it a speed advantage without huge fuel penalties.
- Maneuverability: Thrust-vectoring nozzles + advanced flight controls allow extreme agility.
- Avionics: Advanced sensor fusion, radar, and electronic warfare systems give pilots high situational awareness.
- Armament:
- Internal bays for stealth: AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-9 Sidewinder
- M61A2 20 mm cannon
- Can carry JDAMs and small diameter bombs for strike roles (but limited ground-attack compared to F-35).
📉 Why Was Production Stopped?
- High cost: Around $150M–$200M per jet.
- Post-Cold War context: U.S. shifted focus to counterinsurgency (Iraq, Afghanistan) rather than high-end air combat.
- Export ban: U.S. law prohibited selling the F-22 to allies, limiting the market.
- F-35 program priority: More versatile and widely exportable.
🚀 Current Role
- Still considered one of the world’s most dominant air superiority fighters.
- U.S. Air Force operates about 183 jets (with upgrades).
- Gradually being phased down in favor of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, expected in the 2030s.
- Some Block 20 (older) F-22s are already being retired.
👉 Do you want me to give you a comparison of F-22 vs F-35, or a deep dive into its current upgrades and future replacement (NGAD)?
