Over the years, Israel has requested the chance to become the F-22 Raptor’s sole foreign operator.
While the F-35 Lightning II fighter is often considered to be the best of its kind in service today, another American-made fifth-generation jet, the F-22 Raptor, may have surpassed it. The older F-22 Raptor features all the latest and greatest features. The platform’s unmatched stealth, impressive speed, and sophisticated avionics and sensors makes the F-22 arguably the most coveted fighter series across the globe. Israel is perhaps the Raptor’s biggest fan. Surrounded by hostile adversaries and currently embroiled in a multi-front war against Iran, Israel relies heavily on its existing fleet of American-made jets to secure its borders and to launch offensive operations alike. Over the years, Israel has requested the chance to become the Raptor’s sole foreign operator on several occasions. However, the United States has yet to grant its Middle East ally with this capability and likely never will.
An Overview of the F-22 Raptor
When the Raptor was introduced to service in the early 2000s, the cutting-edge platform was meant to replace the US Air Force’s F-15 Eagle platform and become the American military’s newest air superiority fighter. The F-22 concept was derived from the service’s Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program initiated during the 1980s, which aimed to create formidable counters to the former Soviet Union’s advancing fighter fleet, including the Sukhoi Su-27 and the Mikoyan MiG-29. Lockheed Martin would become the prime contractor of the platform, in collaboration with Boeing and Pratt & Whitney. The jet may have suffered from a protracted development phase and initial operational setbacks, but the roughly 185 airframes that remain in service today are top tier.
In terms of stealth and speed, the F-22 is certainly unmatched when it comes to its contemporaries. The Raptors reduced radar cross-section and twin thrust-vectoring F110-PW-100 turbofan engines enable the platform to outpace other fifth-generation near peers. Notably, the F-22 is considered to be more stealthy and faster than the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The jet series can travel at speeds in excess of Mach 1.8 (times the speed of sound) without using its afterburners. Armament-wise, the Raptor is also difficult to beat. The jet features three internal weapons bays which can store a variety of weapons, including two Aim-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and six Aim-120 AMRAAM radar-guided air-to-air missiles. Additionally, the F-22 can be fitted with two AIM-120 AMRAAM and two GBU-32 JDAM bombs in its center weapons bay.
Why Israel Won’t Acquire the F-22 Raptor Anytime Soon
Considering these impressive specs and capabilities, Israel’s desire to fly the F-22 makes sense. However, US legislation ensures that Israel and all other American allies will never obtain the fighter series, or more specifically, the technology it uses. Congress voted to explicitly forbid the sale of the F-22 in the early 1990s, stating that “None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to approve or license the sale of F-22 advanced tactical fighters to any foreign government.” In order to ensure the Raptor and its components don’t end up in the hands of adversaries, its sale to other nations should remain prohibited.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: DVIDS.
