With costs continuing to escalate for the now suspended US Air Force’s proposed Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) project, I sometimes wonder if it was premature to abruptly end the F-22 production line in favor of committing the bulk of the manufacturer’s resources to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Historians, pundits and aviation aficionados all agree that the F-22 Raptor is an aircraft par excellence, with no equivalent ready to challenge it in the near term despite what some may say. So spending untold wealth on an aircraft still in development that could be outclassed within a decade’s time gives me as well as others pause to consider other viable options still within reach.
Recently, NBC news anchor Lester Holt lent his voice to a new deep-dive video that discusses the improved F-22, dubbed the “Super Raptor“, now taking wing with several USAF squadrons and how it differs from its forerunner. Although outwardly resembling the original F-22, the Super Raptor is packed with all sorts of improvements and enhancements that include advanced avionics, a retrofitted weapons bay capable of handling some of the latest missiles now coming online, and soon external conformal fuel tanks that will extend its range well beyond its intended operating regime, making it a powerful weapons platform capable of conducting a wide array of combat operations, the most notable being air supremacy.
With that, I invite you to watch the accompanying video and take note of the fact that it is not only intended for domestic consumption but for our adversaries too, several of whom may be contemplating turning a cold war hot in the not-too-distant future.