The F-22A fighter is a second-generation stealth combat aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin. The U.S. Air Force initially planned to equip more than 700 of the aircraft. However, due to the impact of the economic crisis and the reduction of the defense budget, the US Air Force finally determined to equip more than 180 F-22As. The F-22A was officially equipped in 2005 and became operational in 2007. The F-22A fighter is distinguished by stealth, supersonic cruise, hypermanic maneuverability and short take-off and landing. Since 2013, the U.S. Air Force has used F-22A fighter jets to simulate air confrontation tests in the Red Flag Exercise, and the U.S. military claimed that the F-22A once simulated "shooting down" 144 enemy aircraft in a week-long exercise, and it was unscathed.
However, since the F-22 entered service, it has had various problems, which have earned it a less honorable nickname - the bench player in the fighter. In the end, the combat capability urgently needs to be tested and tested in the real combat environment. Many believe that the F-22A stealth fighter has not participated in actual combat since it entered service in 2005, and even in the joint airstrikes in Libya in 2011, the F-22A did not take the opportunity to participate in the war, which became another ironclad proof that the F-22A is a vase.
In fact, the F-22A has already "driven the meat" and participated in actual combat. In September 2014, after nine years in service, the F-22A carried out its first actual combat mission, airstrikes on ISIS fixed positions. Although this is suspected of "oversized and underused", in any case, it also shows that the F-22A has participated in actual combat. If this result is not very convincing, then the US Air Force will deploy an F-22A stealth fighter squadron in the United Arab Emirates to be responsible for patrolling and guarding the air over Syria, and this kind of real combat deployment operation should be enough to make the F-22A stealth fighter remove the title of not participating in actual combat operations!
According to the data released by the Pentagon, the 94th fighter squadron of the US Air Force equipped with F-22A stealth fighters has dispatched more than 590 times and accumulated 4600 flight hours in the six-month deployment mission in the Middle East, including 587 sorties of missions to drive away enemy aircraft. Who the enemy aircraft is, of course, is a Russian-Syrian air force fighter operating over Syria. The F-22A stealth fighter's main task at that time was to intercept areas close to the activities of the United States and its allies ground forces over Syria and avoid dangerous situations such as false hits.
In Syria, the F-22A and the Su-35 have been really guns. In 2018, the US F-22A penetrated deep into Syrian airspace, close to the Russian Su-35 fighter jets that were on combat patrol missions in Syria, the F-22A used its strong stealth ability to stare at the Su-35 in the distance for a long time, and the Russian ground radar and the Su-35 fighter in the air did not respond. So the F-22A approached the Su-35, opened the public frequency band within the line of sight, and the Su-35 came back to life. Not thinking that the F-22 has not yet landed, the Russian side released the F-22 imaging photos. The F-22 was locked by the Su-35 at close range with the OLS-35 optical tracking system and took clear pictures. Military experts believe that the Su-35 was shot at an altitude of 3,000 meters, with a roll of less than 90 degrees to the left. This confrontation showed the radar stealth capability of the F-22A and the close combat capability of the Su-35 fighter. It is a two-way exploration and flirtation, and there is a winner or loser for each other.
It should be known that an F/A-18E Super Hornet carrier-based fighter of the US Navy once shot down a Su-22 fighter-bomber of the Syrian Air Force while performing such a mission, which shows that the unpredictability of this task is very high, and it is not as simple as taking off-patrol-landing in daily training. It is reasonable to divide such tasks into actual combat tasks.
Many people like to argue that the F-22A stealth fighter has no actual combat experience, the range is too short, the number of equipment is small, the pampering is habitual, the avionics system is beginning to lag behind, there is no helmet display system, and the data exchange with other models is not easy to talk about, so as to negate the real combat capability of the F-22A stealth fighter.
However, as far as the current real situation is concerned, the F-22A stealth fighter does have many minor problems, with the limitations of the times, but these still cannot change the fact that it is a perfect fifth-generation aircraft. After all, at this stage, the J-20, F-35, and Su-57 all have their own shortcomings, and it still takes time to improve and perfect. For example, China's J-20 needs to further overcome the engine problem. Therefore, it can still be said that the F-22A stealth fighter is the most advanced fighter in the world, and the contempt for the F-22A stealth fighter may cause some very serious consequences.