AMERICA’S F-22 WILL SEE SERIOUS UPGRADES BEFORE RETIREMENT
Alex Hollings | December 15, 2022
Despite the Air Force’s intention to retire the Raptor within the coming decade, the aircraft is expected to remain in service until its replacement — the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter — comes online. As a result, updates, and upgrades are still underway for America’s F-22 fleet — some of which are intended to offer a bridge between the Raptor and the NGAD fighter to come.
In April 2022, we got a glimpse at what some of these upgrades will entail, thanks to social media posts from U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command’s General Mark Kelly, and the branch’s 2023 budget request. Among them were new stealthy underwing fuel tanks and associated pylons, missiles, and what could be new electronic warfare or infrared search-and-track (IRST) pods.
Stealth fighters like the Raptor are designed to fly without any external munitions or fuel tanks when maintaining a stealth profile. Yet, fighting over the sprawling expanses of the Pacific (for example) would demand that the Raptor carry more fuel than its internal stores allow. Today, the Raptor has 600-gallon fuel tanks it can carry underwing, but these tanks reduce its observability to a degree. The new fuel tanks intended for the F-22 are meant to offset some of that reduction.
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