The aircraft was first introduced in December of 2005; the F-22 Raptor fighter jet delivered some of the first strikes in the U.S.-led attacks on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, when aerial bombing began in 2014After delivering some of the first strikes in the U.S. Coalition-led military action against ISIS, the F-22 began to shift its focus from an air-dominance mission to one more focused on supporting attacks on the ground. For the long term, given that the Air Force plans to fly the F-22 well into the 2060s, these weapons upgrades are engineered to build the technical foundation needed to help integrate a new generation of air-to-air missiles as they emerge in coming years
The age of the Navy’s F/A-18 fleet is one key reason why the Pentagon once considered making the F-22 a carrier-launched aircraft, something which would have potentially introduced a first-of-its-kind sea-launched stealth jet years ahead of the F-35C. A stealthy, fifth-generation F/A-18 replacement did not exist in the years prior to the emergence of a carrier-launched stealth fighter with the F-35C.
F-22 & F/A-18
The need for a carrier-based fighter like the F-22 clearly did exist.
For years leading up to and after the arrival of the F-35C, the Navy consistently sought to acquire more Block III Super Hornet F/A-18 aircraft. Yearly Navy budgets in 2013, 2014, and 2015 consistently placed a sizable amount of F/A-18s on the unfunded priorities list, something which showed the need for a new platform or bridge to extend sea-launched air attack until the F-35C could become operational in the early 2020s.
While the F/A-18 is a combat-proven, reliable platform, which has been massively upgraded over the years, it is by no means stealthy. Therefore, a stealthy fighter jet such as a Navy variant of the F-22 for carrier attack would certainly expand the power projection possibilities for Carrier Air Wings.
A maritime F-22 would have offered a high-speed, air-superiority complement to the F/A-18 and F-35C. The question this raises is would such a development have further delayed the F/A-XX program currently in development, should a maritime variant of the F-22 exist?
The F-22 may be regarded as the most pre-eminent air superiority platform the world has ever seen, yet the high-profile Raptor almost became a new bomber platform.
B-52, B1-B, and B-2 Bomber Fleet
In the challenging time during the height of the Cold War in the 1980s, there was no shortage of a need for stealth and integrated air attack given the threat posed by the Soviet Union. There was not only a need to elude advanced Soviet-designed air defenses but also to exact a catastrophic effect quickly to cripple an enemy.
At the time, the B-52 had run its course over several decades and had not yet been upgraded to the extent it is today. The B-2 Spirit had been cut short. Perhaps this means that the Pentagon sought to address the bomber deficit created by the decision to truncate B-2 production and massively reduce anticipated fleet size. The Cold War was nearing and at the time it may have seemed as though there was less of a need for a high-end stealth bomber such as the B-2.
Newly intensified U.S.-Russian tensions in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union may have resurrected the belief in a need for a larger stealth-bomb attack fleet, a circumstance that may have inspired thinking to adapt the emerging 1990s-era F-22 as a new bomber.
At the same time, however, there was a pressing need to make efforts to stay in front of the Russian Su-27 and Chinese J-10. The considerations of a bomber platform for the F-22 point to a bomber fleet deficit the Air Force is seeking to correct today.
The service has been working on a bomber-vector fleet strategy for many years as the B1-B bombers are approaching retirement, the highly effective and revered B-52 is of course non-stealthy and the B-2 fleet had been massively truncated at the end of the Cold War.
Senior Air Force leaders say there is still a need to address a service-wide bomber deficit, one reason why there is so much discussion about fast-tracking the B-21 Raider and possibly expanding the planned B-21 fleet size.
This also explains why the service continues such intense efforts to sustain and modernize its B-52, B1-B, and B-2 bomber fleet through upgrades and moves intended to ensure that the Air Force bomber force continues to present a significant threat to adversaries until sufficient numbers of the B-21 arrive.
At the time, there was also clearly a competing need for a new air-supremacy fighter, given the threat equation. However, in a manner quite similar to the rather sudden and unexpected reduction in the planned B-2 bomber fleet size, the service also cut F-22 production short of its original goal.
The end of the Cold War decreased the need for a large great-power strike platform, and decisions were made in the 1990s – a time period often referred to as a procurement holiday.
With the re-emergence of great power threats, some weapons developers are likely looking back with disappointment upon the decision to decrease the bomber and fighter jet fleet, given that the threat environment quickly shifted moving into great power competition.
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