[3e] F-22 Raptor

[Phaelen Bleux]

Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
America's premier fifth generation fighter, the F-22 was developed in the 1990s as a replacement for the F-15 Eagle. The jet features advanced stealth technology, 2-D vectored thrust, excellent speed and agility (including the ability to "supercruise"--exceed Mach 1 without the afterburner engaged), and sophisticated avionics for superb situational awareness. It has been hailed as the best overall fighter in the world today, which ironically, is one of it main criticisms--there are no competitors in the sky which require a fighter of this caliber in U.S.A.F. Russian and Chinese 5th generation fighters have yet to appear. Plans to procure 750 aircraft have been scaled back to 187, of which 168 have been produced to date.
The Raptor is constructed of radar absorbing materials and composite and metal alloys. It furthermore features reductions in heat emissions and sound baffling, as well as featuring a passive sensor capability helping it to avoid detection. Although the aircraft can carry external ordnance and drop tanks on wing pylons, this is generally avoided, as it increases the aircraft's radar signature. Instead, the F-22s weapons payload is carried internally in three weapon bays, which are open only momentarily to release ordnance. The Vulcan cannon is considered a "last-ditch" weapon, and carries only enough ammo for 5 seconds of continuous fire. If the F-22 does carry external ordnance, the pylon itself can be jettisoned once the payload is dispatched, conserving the jet's stealth capabilities.
The F-22 is banned from export (despite Australian interest in procurement); the F-35 Lightning II is to be used for export sales.
The F-22A has a crew of one. It burns 1,410 gallons of jet fuel per hour at routine usage. A full tank of fuel costs $8,310. A typical internal payload (cannon rounds, missiles and bombs) is $1,111,104. It has a ferry range of 2,000 miles and a combat radius of 471 miles.

Subassemblies: Body with Superior Streamlining +4, High-Agility Wings +3, 3 retractable small Wheels +1.
Powertrain: Two 23,500-lb. thrust Turbofans with Afterburners and 2-D Vectored thrust, 2,300-kWs advanced battery.
Fuel: 2,770 gallons jet fuel (Fire 13) in standard self-sealing fuel tanks (Fire +0) [Body and Wings].
Occupancy: 1 NCS.
Cargo: 0.

Armor
All: 4/25

Weaponry:
20mm 6-barrel Gatling/M61A2 Vulcan [Body:F] (480 rounds SAPHE).
2x AIM-120 AMRAAM [Body:U].
2x AIM-90 Sidewinder [Body:U].
2x 1,000-lb. JDAM [Body:U].

Equipment:
Body: Basic stealth (-3), modest sound baffling (-1), modest IR cloaking (-1), long range radio with scrambler (300-mile), very long range radio with scrambler (3,000-mile), inertial navigation system, precision navigation instruments, military GPS, IFF, autopilot, ejection seat, refueling probe, terrain following radar, 150-mile radar (Scan 24), 250-mile PESA (Scan 25), advanced radar/IR detector, HUDWAC, decoy discharger with 12 chaff/flare reloads, datalink, two mini-computers, terminal, dedicated targeting computer, light amplification, 0.25 man/days limited life support. Wings: 4x 5,000-lb. hardpoints.

Statistics:
Size: 62'x44'x17' Payload: 20 tons Lwt.: 41.8 tons
Volume: 1,294 cf. Maint.: 3.8 hours Price: $26,974,502

HT: 12. HPs: 3,306 Body, 2,520 each Wing, 300 each Wheel.

aSpeed: 1220/1500 aAccel: 11/19 aDecel: 58 aMR: 14.5 aSR: 4
Stall Speed: 156 mph.
gSpeed: 537 gAccel: 27 gDecel: 10 gMR: 0.25 gSR: 3
Ground Pressure: Extremely High. No Off-Road speed.

Design Notes:
Body is 880 cf; wheels are 44 cf; wings are 207 cf each. Wing volume was reverse-calculated from historical wing area. Body structure is Extra-Heavy, Expensive with Superior Streamlining. Armor is Expensive Composite. Electronic (fly-by-wire) controls. Sealed. Design Loaded weight is 91,441 lbs.; this was decreased 9% to the actual value. Historical values for wing area and loaded weight were used for performance calculations. The design afterburner produced 77,550 lbs. of thrust; since the historical value is classified (although estimated at 70,000 lbs.), the design thrust was used for performance calculations.
The design runs heavy. Most of this "extra" weight seems to come in the form of the 2-D vectoring and stealth features. Several thousand pounds of design weight were shaved off by reducing the IR and sound baffling to "Modest" levels (p. VEi26), but even at that empty weight was over by 13%.
Design aSpeed is 1,549 mph dry, 1,989 mph with design afterburner. The historical values are shown above. See p. VE156 for the effects of vectored thrust on performance.
The flyaway cost of a single F-22 in 2009 was $150 million.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS
© 2010 by Jim Antonicic