The F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters have very different roles in the US military: The U.S. military is the most technologically advanced force in the world, and most likely the most fearsome fighting machine of all-time. The Department of Defense’s cutting-edge platforms has been in part responsible for the U.S. global preponderance since the end of the Second World War.
Besides technology, the Pentagon can also field numbers. For example, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy are respectively the first- and second-largest air forces in the world with a combined fleet of almost 8,000 aircraft. In comparison, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force, the third-largest air power in the world, can fleet a bit more than 3,000 aircraft.
But the U.S. military has long placed emphasis on quality over quantity, in contrast with its old Soviet and current Russian and Chinese adversaries. At the heart of this focus on quality is America’s fighter and bomber jet fleets. The F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter 5th generation stealth fighter jets are prime examples.
But despite being the most advanced fighter aircraft on the planet, these two jets are not the same. Equally important, these two fighter jets aren’t competitors, despite comparisons that have surfaced.
Indeed, to think of the F-22 and F-35 as competitors is to lose the point of their existence.
The F-22 Raptor: The Best Air Superiority Fighter
Introduced in 2005, the F-22 is an air superiority multi-role fighter jet. The Raptor was the first stealth fighter jet in the world to become operational, and to this day, remains one of four stealth fighters flying (the F-35, Russian Su-57, and Chinese J-20 completing the stealth quattro).
The F-22 is extremely maneuverable due to the aircraft’s two-dimensional thrust vectoring capabilities and high thrust-to-weight ratio. With respect to the former, the Raptor can literally be flying in one direction but use its thrust vectoring tech to point the thrust of its engines elsewhere, allowing it to change directions rapidly. As far as the latter, the F-22 has a weight of about 43,000 pounds, while its two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines can produce more than 70,000 pounds of combined thrust.
As a result, the F-22 can fly well in the thin air of higher altitudes—the aircraft has an operational ceiling of 65,000 feet—but also do impressive aerobatics in the thicker air at lower altitudes. Spectators at air shows have seen the Raptor defy physics and naysayers and do backflips.
As we have discussed previously in 1945, the F-22 can carry a formidable arsenal and maintain its stealth characteristics. The aircraft has a 20-millimeter cannon and can carry a combination of smart and dumb bombs and air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles in its three internal weapon bays. This capability to carry weapons within it means that the F-22 Raptor can deploy in a non-permissive environment and dominate the fight without losing its stealth.
Capable of reaching speeds of Mach 2 and supercruise—or fly at a supersonic speed without the use of its afterburners—the Raptor has an effective range of about 1,850—but that is with the addition of two external fuel tanks that would limit its stealth characteristics.
By 2011, when the production line closed, the Air Force had purchased 186 aircraft, despite initially aiming for 750 F-22s. Out of those 186, only a fraction remains operational.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: The “Quarterback” Of the Skies
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is also a 5th generation stealth multi-role aircraft. There are three versions of the aircraft. The F-35A is the conventional take-off landing iteration; the F-35B is the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) version; and finally, the F-35C, is the aircraft carrier iteration of the aircraft.
As a multi-role fighter jet, the F-35 can effectively conduct six mission sets (Strategic Attack, Close Air Support, Air Superiority, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), Suppression Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) and Destruction Enemy Air Defense (DEAD)).
The F-35 can carry a smaller loadout in its two internal weapon bays but has a larger effective range without sacrificing stealth.
From supporting a Green Beret team in Africa to taking out Russian radars in Crimea to tracking terrorists in the Philippines, the F-35 can do it all.
