A competitive four-year demonstration followed, culminating in the flight test of two demonstration prototypes, the YF-22 and YF-23. One was made up of Lockheed, Boeing, and General Dynamics, while Northrop and McDonnell Douglas constituted the competition. It was a response to the Soviet MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker that threatened American air dominance.
In the early 1980s, the Air Force wanted what it called the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF), a new air superiority fighter to replace the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon. The Raptor was all about air-to-air combat from the very start. It was designed to be the multipurpose, data-integration platform that could do all kinds of things in the air-to-ground arena." Welsh told Defense News last year, the F-35 "was never designed to be the next dogfighting machine. eventually will deploy the Joint Strike Fighter, but as Gen. The next big thing, of course, is the F-35. Trouble is, America has 186 Raptors, only 123 of which are combat-capable.
But the F-22-the first 5th generation fighter and still the only operational one-retains an edge over such threats.
They're on the cusp of fielding airplanes like the Sukhoi PAK-FA and Chengdu J-20 that can beat 4th generation fighters like the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18, preventing these and other strike aircraft from penetrating their defenses. Russia and China are catching up with American airpower. When you hear enough stories like this one, it becomes no surprise to find out that many people-including members of Congress-are toying with the idea of restarting the F-22 production line and making more Raptors. And then he pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said, 'You really ought to go home.'" "He flew under their to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there. "Showtime is an Air Force Reservist … he flies the F-22. One of the Phantoms got to within 16 miles of the MQ-1. Mark Welsh would tell the crowd what happened next: As the Predator flew its pre-planned route, two Iranian F-4 Phantoms approached and acquired the drone on their radars. Kevin "Showtime" Sutterfield was the escort, heading toward the drone in case of trouble.Īt the annual conference of the Air Force Association later that year, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Stennis aircraft carrier or F-22s deployed to nearby Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. After that, the Pentagon decided subsequent drone patrols would be escorted, either by F/A-18 Hornets from the USS John C. Several months earlier, a pair of Iranian Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes had attempted unsuccessfully to shoot down another patrolling Predator. Air Force knew trouble might be lurking ahead. On an otherwise unremarkable day in March 2013, an American MQ-1 Predator drone was flying in international airspace off Iran, conducting a routine surveillance flight over the Persian Gulf.
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