You’ve probably seen the grainy footage of the F-22 Raptor swatting a Chinese spy balloon out of the sky back in 2023. It felt a little bit like using a Bugatti to deliver a pizza. Overkill? Maybe. But for the pilots sitting in the cockpit of the most advanced air-superiority fighter ever built, it was just another day at the office.
Honestly, it’s wild to think the Raptor first took flight in the late 90s.
Technology usually rots. Your phone is a brick after four years, yet here we are in 2026, and the U.S. Air Force is still pouring billions into a jet that was technically "canceled" over a decade ago. People keep saying the F-35 is the future, or that drones will take over, but the Raptor is basically the heavyweight champion that refuses to retire. And why would it?
Nothing else can touch it in a dogfight.
What most people get wrong about the Raptor
The biggest misconception about the F-22 Raptor is that it’s a "failed" program because they only built 187 of them. Initially, the Pentagon wanted 750. Then the Cold War ended, budgets got slashed, and the Obama administration pulled the plug on the production line in 2011.
That was a massive gamble.
By killing the line, we capped the fleet at roughly 183 remaining airframes today. Of those, only about 143 are "combat-coded." The rest are test birds or training jets. Because the fleet is so small, every single F-22 is treated like a priceless heirloom. You don't just "replace" one if it crashes. You lose a percentage of your national security.
The 2026 Viability Upgrades: Keeping the King on the Throne
If you thought the Raptor was staying the same, you haven't been paying attention to the FY2026 budget requests. The Air Force is currently rolling out a massive "Viability" package.
They aren't just changing the oil. They’re gutting the brains.
The new upgrades include Low-Drag Stealth Fuel Tanks (LDTP). This sounds boring, but it’s actually a game-changer. Historically, if a Raptor carried external fuel tanks to fly long distances, it lost its stealth. It became a big, shiny target on radar. These new tanks are shaped like jagged slivers of glass and can be jettisoned along with their pylons, leaving the jet completely "clean" and invisible the second it enters enemy airspace.
The New "Eyes" of the Raptor
For years, the F-22 had a glaring weakness: it lacked an Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor. Basically, it was a ninja that could hear everything but couldn't see heat signatures at long range.
In 2026, that changes.
The Air Force is finally integrating passive IRST pods. This allows Raptor pilots to "see" enemy stealth jets like the Chinese J-20 by their heat alone, without ever turning on their own radar. If you turn on your radar, you’re basically screaming in a dark room. Passive sensors let you hunt in total silence.
- AN/ALR-94 Modernization: The electronic warfare suite is getting a digital refresh to handle newer, "noisy" threats from Russian and Chinese jamming.
- Helmet-Mounted Displays (HMD): Raptor pilots are finally getting the same "look-and-shoot" helmet tech that F-35 pilots have had for years. No more aiming the whole nose of the plane just to lock a missile.
- Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Integration: This is the big one. The F-22 is being turned into a "quarterback" for drone swarms. In a 2026 fight, a single Raptor might lead four or five unmanned "loyal wingman" drones into the fray.
Why don't we just build more?
It’s the question everyone asks. If it’s so good, why not restart the factory?
Lockheed Martin actually looked into this a few years ago. The answer was a staggering $50 billion price tag just to get the tools and the people back in the room. The jigs used to build the fuselage were put in storage, sure, but the supply chain is dead. The companies that made the specific microchips or the specialized fasteners for the 1990s-era design don't exist anymore.
It’s cheaper to build a whole new sixth-generation jet—the NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance)—than to bring the Raptor back from the dead.
The Stealth Tax
Maintaining the F-22 Raptor is a nightmare. Period.
The "skin" of the jet is made of Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) that is incredibly finicky. It hates humidity. It hates heat. It hates being touched.
At bases like Tyndall or Langley, maintainers spend roughly 20 to 30 hours of maintenance for every single hour of flight. A huge chunk of that time is spent just smoothing out the stealth coatings. If a panel is unscrewed to check an engine component, the "tape" and "caulk" that makes the jet stealthy has to be reapplied and cured.
It’s like having a car that needs a full paint job every time you go to the grocery store.
The "Balloon Hunter" vs. Real Combat
Critics love to point out that the F-22’s only "kills" are a balloon and a few unidentified objects. That’s a bit unfair.
The Raptor’s real job is deterrence.
When a flight of Raptors shows up in the Middle East or the Pacific, the "bad guys" usually stop flying. We saw this in Syria back in 2018. During the Battle of Khasham, an F-22 was reportedly used to provide top cover while U.S. forces engaged Wagner Group mercenaries. The Russian pilots in the area knew the Raptor was there, but they couldn't see it on their screens.
That psychological edge is worth more than a dozen dogfight kills.
Is the F-22 obsolete because of the F-35?
Nope. Not even close.
Think of the F-35 as a high-tech Swiss Army knife. It’s great at everything—bombing, spying, electronic warfare—but it’s not a pure athlete. The F-22 is the Olympic sprinter.
The Raptor can Supercruise, which means it flies faster than the speed of sound without using afterburners. The F-35 can’t do that for long. The F-22 also has Thrust Vectoring, allowing its engine nozzles to tilt up and down. This lets the Raptor do "physics-defying" flips and turns that would snap the wings off other jets.
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In a 2026 scenario, the F-35s find the targets, but the F-22s are the ones sent in to kick the door down and kill the enemy fighters so everyone else can do their jobs.
Actionable Insights for 2026
If you’re following the future of air power, here is what you need to keep an eye on over the next 18 months:
- Watch the Block 20 Retirement Battle: The Air Force wants to retire about 32 older "Block 20" Raptors that are currently used for training because they cost too much to upgrade. Congress has been blocking this, fearing we’ll lose too much "mass." If these jets get retired, the total fleet drops to a dangerously low number.
- Monitor the NGAD Delays: The replacement for the F-22 (often called the F-47) is getting hit with massive cost overruns. If that project slows down, expect the F-22 to get even more upgrades to stay in service until 2050 or 2060.
- Check the Datalinks: One of the quietest but most important upgrades is Link 16 and MADL compatibility. For a long time, the F-22 couldn't "talk" to the F-35 without a translator plane in the middle. They’ve finally fixed this, making the Raptor a much more effective team player in a digital war.
The F-22 Raptor isn't just a plane; it's a statement. It represents a time when the U.S. decided to build something so advanced that it would take the rest of the world 30 years just to catch up. As we head deeper into 2026, the "Old King" is looking faster and meaner than ever.