Author: Rainbow Kursk
The F-22 "Raptor" fighter is the world's first fifth-generation fighter, and has also dominated the throne of the world's first fighter for more than ten years, but in the recent future planning of the US Air Force, people are surprised to find that there is no F-22 fighter, and even the aging A-10 attack aircraft are required to "fight for another 50 years", how to abandon the world's first F-22?
There are many factors that need to be considered by the USAfrel, and the problems of the F-22 itself cannot be ignored, and one of the most criticized points of the F-22 is the "short-legged" range.
Image: The F-22 fighter has the world's largest combat effectiveness, but its range is not good.
Recently, someone posted a list of combat radii of classic American fighters, including fighters and bombers.
Let's take a hard look at the chart below, and we may be able to understand the entanglement in the hearts of the US Air Force!
Image: Table of combat radius of U.S. Air Force fighters and bombers.
In the table, the red line represents the combat radius of the fighter, and the green line represents the combat radius of the bomber.
The World War II-era P-40E Warhawk fighter had the shortest combat radius on the table, but was also able to accompany the B-17D Air Fortress bomber halfway through the flight.
P-51D "Mustang" and P-47N "Thunderbolt" fighter is the best fighter of the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, but also a specialized long-range escort fighter, the combat radius is more than 1000 nautical miles, especially the "Big Bottle" known as the "Thunderbolt" fighter, the combat radius has been close to 1500 nautical miles, not only can escort the B-17G bomber throughout the whole process, but also can basically meet the needs of the B-29 "Super Air Fortress" escort.
Image: P-40E Warhawk fighter.
Image: P-51D Mustang fighter.
Image: P-47N Thunderbolt fighter known as a large bottle.
In the jet age, the combat radius of fighters has dropped dramatically due to the high fuel consumption of turbojet engines.
Fighters such as the F-84F and F-101C have fallen below 1,000 nautical miles, and the F-4E Phantom has a combat radius of only about 600 nautical miles. Of course, these refer to flights that rely on the fuel of the aircraft without aerial refueling.
Image: F-84F Thunderbolt fighter.
Image: F-101C Voodoo fighter.
Image: F-4E Phantom fighter.
By the time of the F-15C, due to the further increase in hull size and the use of turbofan engines that were more fuel-efficient than turbojet engines, the range had rebounded, and the F-15C's combat radius was once again close to 1,000 nautical miles.
At this time, the bomber's range was also soaring due to the intercontinental combat mission. The combat radius of the B-52H strategic bomber is close to 4,000 nautical miles, and there are basically no fighters to escort it.
Even the B-1B "Light Cavalry" strategic bomber had a shorter range due to supersonic flight, with a combat radius of 3,000 nautical miles.
Image: The F-15C Hawk fighter has a combat radius of nearly 1,000 nautical miles.
However, in order to achieve stealth, the F-22 fighter adopts a smaller fuselage and compact design than the rival YF-23 fighter, which makes the subsequent upgrade of the aircraft very difficult, but also makes the internal fuel carrying is not much, and the transition often requires the installation of 4 large auxiliary fuel tanks, or the support of the air tanker.
The F-22 in the table has slipped below 500 nautical miles in combat radius, relying on in-flight fuel. Compared to several other aircraft types, the combat radius of the F-22 fighter is basically called the "airfield protector", so the F-22 fighter is mainly deployed in Alaska on the mainland as a North American air defense combat interceptor.
And because the United States is an ally everywhere and has airfields everywhere, the F-22 can often be deployed forward to offset its lack of range and combat radius.
Image: "Airfield Defender" F-22 fighter.
However, the problem of insufficient range will still limit the tactical use of the F-22 fighter.
Although there is no problem for small countries, for opponents who also have stealth fighters, F-22 fighters cannot carry auxiliary fuel tanks to destroy their stealth, nor can they let air tankers without stealth capabilities come forward to support, and if they cannot fly to the target area by relying on their own fuel, the F-22's tactical value is gone!
Because of this, the U.S. Air Force is determined to develop the sixth generation fighter and retire the F-22 fighter!