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Topic: Air Warfare Blog Brand: The Buzz Region: Americas Tags: Department of Defense (DoD), F-22 Raptor, Fifth-Generation Aircraft, Military Budget, North America, United States, and US Air Force Forget the F-47: The Pentagon Is Betting on the F-22 Raptor for the Long Haul January 13, 2026 By: Brandon J. Weichert
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For a fraction of the cost of the new NGAD sixth-gen plane, the US Air Force is preparing to keep the F-22 Raptor as the world’s greatest fighter jet until at least 2060.
With the world order deteriorating all around the United States, as the Pentagon must continue dealing with an industrial base that is unable to meet the new demands, the United States Air Force is committed to making enough upgrades to the F-22 Raptor that it will potentially keep flying as far out as the year 2060.
Of course, this is a welcome development, seeing as the F-22 is likely the most advanced warplane on the planet…and it has been woefully underused until now.
The F-22 Raptor’s Specifications
- Year Introduced: 2005
- Number Built: 187
- Length: 62 ft 1 in (18.9m)
- Wingspan: 44 ft 6 in (13.56m)
- Weight: ~83,500 lbs. (38,000 kgs)
- Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 afterburning turbofans with thrust vectoring (~35,000 lbf each)
- Top Speed: ~1,500 mph (2,414 km/h)
- Range: 1,864 miles
- Service Ceiling: 65,000 ft (20,000 m)
- Loadout: One 20mm M61A2 Vulcan cannon; internal weapons bays; four external hardpoints; approx. 20,000 lb. (9,000 kg) total payload capacity
- Aircrew: 1
Stealth, Sensors, Software, and Firepower: The F-22 Gets a Second Wind
According to media reports, the Air Force is adding new stealth coatings, upgrades to the plane’s already advanced avionics and sensor gear, and significant software improvements. Moreover, the Air Force will be updating the plane’s already impressive weapons.
In other words, for a fraction of the cost of the F-47 sixth-generation warplane, the F-22s will be even more advanced than they already are.
Consider that the Air Force’s budget for the F-22 upgrades total around $8-9 billion by the decade’s end for complete modernization of the F-22 Raptor. As part of this, the Air Force is working to ensure that the F-22 will be compatible with their growing Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, meaning that one of the key capabilities that the ghastly F-47 boasts as making it worth the cost, will already be available on the F-22—which, again, remains the most advanced warplane in the world.
More to the point, the upgraded F-22s will be infinitely more advanced that the F-22s that first took to the unfriendly skies in the 1990s.
It’s also time to address why the Air Force wants to spend $50 million per F-22 in their fleet upgrading it, ensuring that these planes could fly for the next 40 years. That comes down to the unreliability of the proposed Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), the F-47. It is unreliable because the US defense industrial base is going to take an inordinate amount of time producing even a small number of the F-47s due to the complexity of the sixth-generation birds.
F-22 Upgrades Are a Fraction of the Cost of the F-47
Whereas the Air Force is spending $50 million per F-22 unit to upgrade the plane to ensure it remains a dominant actor in the unfriendly skies for the next 40 years, the Air Force is asking to spend $20 billion for development—and as much as $300 million per F-47 unit!
The Air Force and the Trump administration proponents of the F-47 sixth-generation warplane believe that the United States must spend whatever it takes and dedicate whatever resources (and time) it takes to build these new planes. They point to the growing presence of China’s sixth-generation birds, which have already appeared in the skies over Beijing. But we have no clue as to whether China really has working sixth-generation capabilities, or if Beijing is bluffing.
And the secret about why the Air Force is spending money to extend the lives of planes they ultimately plan to retire and replace with the F-47 is that the Air Force correctly fears there will be an insufficient number of F-47s, so they want to extend the lives of the F-22s, lest the Pentagon be left empty handed.
The Pentagon Fears a Fighter Gap
All we really know is that the United States has a fleet of fifth-generation air superiority warplanes—and these planes continue giving America’s adversaries nightmares.
With all the new modifications the Pentagon is installing on these planes to make them fly for decades it truly makes little sense why the Defense Department believes it needs to even waste time and money on the fantasy that is the F-47. For a fraction of the cost, the Pentagon could just spend it on the F-22.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is a senior national security editor at The National Interest. Recently, Weichert became the host of The National Security Hour on America Outloud News and iHeartRadio, where he discusses national security policy every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern. Weichert hosts a companion book talk series on Rumble entitled “National Security Talk.” He is also a contributor at Popular Mechanics and has consulted regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including The Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, and the Asia Times. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / Greg Meland.
The post Forget the F-47: The Pentagon Is Betting on the F-22 Raptor for the Long Haul appeared first on The National Interest.
Источник: nationalinterest.org