The F-22 is the force in the sky. Nothing else comes close. Being the only operational fifth generation fighter, it has ‘first look, first strike, first kill’ capability over any other aircraft. And if it decided to get close enough to have a dogfight with any other fighter, the F-22 would just be toying with it. Observe:
The thing is, this fifth generation fighter started its development in 1986, and it wasn’t being bought for actual military use until almost 20 years later!
How long have we been working on a sixth generation fighter, and what on earth are its capabilities? Will they be manned or unmanned?
I was raised around military planes, My dad was a Crew chief in the military and one of the top mechanics… He taught me that as soon as a plane is being planned another one is right there behind it. The planes on the design table are way past 6th generation. There will be manned and unmanned. You will still have to transport humans and the sleek designs of fighters make getting in and out easy. One person may be needed in one small area, so a fully armed stealth plane will be needed for transport in and out of that area. Also drones might not be worth the cost. Not enough testing and use yet for a full comprehensive report. Their potentials look good though.
In a dogfight, F-22 is at disadvantage. SU-37 can carry more weapons and has better missiles, and it is also pretty maneuverable. Vympel RVV-AE has a range of 175 km, while Aim 120-C has only 105km. Once SU-37 points its nose at F-22, F-22 is dead. (Even while F-22 is trying to outmaneuver the missile, all the SU-37 has to do is close the gap and fire another one).
Kris, the planes on the table can’t be past the sixth generation by definition…unless some part of the government has alien technology they’re not telling the others about. I agree that the sixth generation will probably be manned and unmanned, though; fully unmanned won’t be for another while.
Pandora, the Sukoi beat the F-15 in a mock exercise done with the Indian Air Force, but it only one something like 60-70% of engagements, and that was mostly because American pilot’s dogfighting skills are getting lax. The F-22 kicks the F-15’s ever-loving-rear-end in pretty much every way…how much chance do you think the SU-37 has?
The F-22 is comparably maneuverable to the Sukhoi, has supercruise and stealth technology, and better avionics. The Sukhoi would be dead in a dogfight.
Yes, yes, and its avionics went out when it crossed the international dateline, and a pilot got stuck in the cockpit when the canopy refused to open. We can talk about the SU-47, too:
They’re actually $220 mil. I saw something in the 300s, but I think the 220 figure is the most accurate.
The Berkut looks like it’ll be more maneuverable than the F-22. It may win in an all-out dogfight, but the F-22 is still dominant as far as the first look, first shot, first kill capability goes, especially when you look at it as a system with support aircraft. Apparently the SU-47 will be stealthy as well (although the forward swept wing prototype doesn’t look stealthy yet, so they’ve got some work). I wonder what battles between two forces with stealth fighters will be like?
Why all the hate on the F-22? I’m not all that patriotic, but the F-22 is obviously much superior to any other operational plane.
The F-35 isn’t as good as the F-22, though still very nice. The F-35 is to the F-22 what the F-16 is to the F-15: comparable; not quite as capable, but much cheaper.
Honestly, we probably should’ve bought a bunch of F-35s instead of the F-22. The F-35 would provide air dominance for a long period of time, and given the current military expenditures and the cost of the F-35 compared to the F-22, it was kind of stupid to buy the F-22s right now when they’re not absolutely needed.
We’ll probably end up selling them both. The trick is downgrading the avionics and radar before you sell them, which is what gives the real edge in combat these days. The Israelis, for example, have had the F-15s for a while, but not with the best software or radar.
In testing and so forth the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter does very comparable to an f-22, its still a lesser technology feat, enough to beat the older F-15’s though.
Nova Logic software used to have a multi player game about this plane, F-22 Raptor. I played until I got good enough to create a squad of my own. The name of our squad was ‘The Wildcats’. Our forte was ‘Guns’, but we were formidalble in ‘Guns and Missles’ too. They also had a room which teams would do bomb drops. We were fair in that, but dominators in the ‘Guns’ room.
Care to guess as to my ‘callsign’ in that game?
I would like to add that the creators of this game also took into account for the physics of the game. Weight of the ammo, ordinance, fuel and flares and chaff. Plus it used the ailerons, rudders, thrust vectoring and the little known use of landing gear down for tighter turns for ‘dogfights’ in close combat.
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