F-22 Raptor: The YF-23 Flyoff, Rain-Damaged Stealth and Only 187 Jets

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The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor was conceived in 1981 to survive Soviet missiles and fighters such as the Su-27 and MiG-29 over a European battlefield, combining stealth, supercruise near Mach 1.5 without afterburners, and dogfighting agility. In the 1990 flyoff, Northrop's YF-23 was faster and stealthier, but Lockheed's YF-22 had thrust vectoring nozzles, flew more test hours and fired live missiles, and won in 1991. The production jet grew from a projected 50,000 to 60,000 pounds and relied on titanium alloys and bismaleimide composites for over half its structure.

Its 1.7 million lines of code, written in the military's Ada language, were debugged on a converted Boeing 757 carrying the F-22's nose and sensors. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and planned purchases fell from 750 to 648, 339 and 277 as program costs reached $67.3 billion. The Obey Amendment banned exports, production ended in 2011 with 187 combat jets, and the tooling went to the Sierra Army Depot. A 2017 Air Force study estimated about $50 billion to restart the line for 194 more jets. The jet's first combat came in 2014, bombing ground targets in Syria, and it now often acts as an airborne sensor hub for F-15s and F-16s.

Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates questioned its value during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Tail fins buffeted violently during high-angle maneuvers, requiring structural retrofits.
Tropical rain at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam degraded the radar-absorbent coating.
The F-22 bombed drug laboratories in Afghanistan.
The episode lists F-22 roles in 2025 strikes in Iran and 2026 strikes in Venezuela.

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