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| THE NEW USAF F-22 RAPTOR | ||
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FIRST FA-22 FIGHTERS
DELIVERED TO LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE. These are great in-flight photos of the FA-22 as the first aircraft delivery was being made to Langley AFB in Virginia. Langley is to be the first operational AFB for the FA-22. It is a very beautiful AFB, located in a picturesque location, as you can see in these photos, near Norfolk and Hampton, VA. The aircraft flying along with the FA-22 in the last of these photos is the F-15, which will be replaced by the FA-22 which is several times better. In actual in-flight (simulated) combat operations against the F-15, two FA-22s were able to operate without detection while they went head-to-head against eight (enemy) F-15s. The FA-22s scored missile hits (kills) against all the F-15 aircraft and the F/A-22s were never detected by either the F-15s or ground-based radar. MajGen Rick Lewis said: "The Raptor operated against all adversaries with virtual impunity; ground-based systems couldn't engage and NO adversary aircraft survived!" FA-22 -- America's most advanced fighter aircraft for the 21st Century! They're a titanium and carbon fiber dagger. They're so advanced that if their on-board locator is switched off even our own satellites can lose track of them. They're the first military aircraft ever built that is equipped with a "black-out button." What that means is this: The best conditioned fighter pilots are capable of maintaining consciousness up to in the vicinity of 15+ G's. The Raptor is capable of making 22+ G-turns. If someday an adversary builds a missile that is capable of catching up to one of these airplanes and a Raptor pilot sees that a strike is imminent, he hits the "B.O.B," and the airplane makes a virtual U-turn, leaving the missile to pass right on by. They know that in the process he will temporarily lose consciousness, so the Raptor then automatically comes back to straight and level flight until he wakes back up. From www.military.com: History: The first flight of the F-22 occurred on September 7th, 1997. The Raptor entered operational service in December of 2005.Description: The Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor is a single seat, twin-engined air superiority fighter. Developed as a replacement for the F-15 Eagle, which entered service in the 1970's, the Raptor sets a new standard for air technology. Equipped with two 35,000-pound thrust Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 afterburning turbofan engines, the top speed of the F-22 exceeds mach 2.4 (1,600 mph-2570 km/h), while its aerodynamically efficient airframe allows it to "supercruise" at mach 1.72 (1,140 mph-1830 km/h) at military (non-afterburning) thrust.
The Raptor's airframe is made up of mostly carbon fiber composite panels and titanium, which serves as the cornerstone of the Raptor's stealthy profile. In addition, the Raptor is equipped with vectorable thrust nozzels on the engines which improve the aircraft's maneuverability.
The Raptor is equipped with a Northrop Grumman and Raytheon AN/APG-77 AESA (active electronically scanned array) solid-state radar. Made up of 2000 individual transmit/receive antenna, the APG-77 beam can be "steered" instantly by the pilot (conventional radars rely on physically moving the radar antenna to scan a region.)
The F-22 is armed with a single internally mounted General Electric M61A1 20mm rotary cannon with 480 rounds of ammunition. For air superiority missions the Raptor can carry up to two AIM-9 Sidewinder short range infrared missiles and six AIM-120 AMRAAM medium range radar guided missles. For air to ground missions the Raptor can carry two Sidewinders and either two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) or as many as eight 250-pound GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs. To maintain its stealthy profile all weapons are carried in internal bays, though it is equipped with 4 external wing hardpoints, each rated to 5,000 pounds. |
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