F-22 Raptor
The F-22 is the newest Fighter in the Air Forces arsenal. The F-22 has trounced the best opponent that the USAF could muster. Despite its youth as a fighter the current pilots consider it to be nearly as reliable as mature F-15 and F-16 fighters. In the following essay we will cover the F-22 program, weapons, stealth, and avionics. I hope to some day be inside the cockpit of an F-22 as a full fledge fighter pilot in the USAF. The F-22 has been projected to be in services for more than 25 years as an active fighter. Its revolutionary design has been compared to the introduction of the jet engine, correlating aviations directional change to a new branch in design capability. The F-22 program was faced with many problems to overcome. These problems included reduced defense budgets and fewer fighters in the future. To overcome these problems the F-22s design team established three guidelines for a fighter that would be operational in an uncertain future. First, the F-22 was designed to exploit any and all information. It's designed to gather information from many sources and than compile all that information into a simple picture of the tactical situation for the pilot. This will provide the pilot a huge edge over most of today's fighters. Second, The F-22 was designed to deny the enemy information on its location and what its doing. Thirdly, The F-22 was designed to bring overwhelming lethality to a fight. The US hinted at this during Operation Desert Storm where fewer aircraft using precision munitions, accomplished greater destruction of military targets in a shorter period than in previous American wars. To build an aircraft that would embody all three of these guidelines the engineers turned to computers. One of the design characteristics that make the F-22 so unique is that it has been built around computers. In essence the F-22s growth is in direct correlation to the development of computer technology. The F-22 was also designed to "Super cruise",