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Sunday, June 26, 2016

Building the F-22C "Super Raptor" - Article Announcement & Updates


Image 1: Notional F-22C Super Raptor.

My apologies for the long publishing hiatus, I wanted to check in with my new employer before publishing articles. In celebration of 500,000 site views, I'll publish the article "Building the F-22C 'Super Raptor'" in a week or so. The article will discuss the option of upgrading the current raptor fleet to the F-22C standard given the USAF increasingly seems as if it will adopt a systems of systems approach with respect to sixth generation aircraft i.e. developing several new technologies and integrating them on current platforms. The F-22C would incorporate many of the upgrades originally planned for the F-22 such as side looking arrays, advanced infrared search and track system (AIRST) and HMD in addition to new sixth generation technologies such as variable cycle engines. I'll also discuss various options with respect to the F-22 fleet such as upgrading the 36 increment 2.0 aircraft used for training and the possibility of a production restart.


2 comments:

  1. Is the F22B diagram an official release or one you made up? It is well laid out and has some intelligent and interesting upgrades listed.

    A

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    Replies
    1. I made it up with my limited photo editing skills since the article is a proposal of what the USAF could do rather than what they are doing. I did not credit the image to myself simply because its component parts of the composite image I do not own e.g. the F-22 in the center pic is from a USAF image. There is only one image I have ever seen in which the F-22C designation was present on an official document, but the document is pretty old.

      Courtesy of BDF, F-16.net: http://www.f-16.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12098

      They skip the F-22B because in most U.S. designations the B and D variants correspond to two seaters e.g. F-16B, F-15B, F/A-18B, etc. (I just changed mine now to reflect that). I'll have a lot more details later this week in the article.

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