F-22 Raptor

Type Stealth Air superiority fighter
Manufacturers Lockheed Martin AeronauticsBoeing Integrated Defense SystemsMaiden flight 7 September 1997 Introduction15 December 2005
Number built 112 (as of February 2008)
Primary user United States Air Force
Unit cost US$137.5 million
Variants X-44 MANTAFB-22

The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology. It is primarily an air superiority fighter, but has multiple capabilities that include ground attack, electronic warfare, and signals intelligence roles. The United States Air Force considers the F-22 a critical component of the U.S. strike force.

Faced with a protracted development period, the aircraft was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 during the three years before formally entering US Air Force service in December 2005, as the F-22A.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is the prime contractor and is responsible for the majority of the airframe, weapon systems and final assembly of the F-22. Program partner Boeing Integrated Defense Systems provides the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and all of the pilot and maintenance training systems.

The F-22 is claimed by several sources to be the world’s most effective air superiority fighter. The US Air Force claims that the F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft.Chief of the Australian Defence Force, then-Air Marshal Angus Houston, said in 2004 that the "F-22 will be the most outstanding fighter plane ever built."
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