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F22 Raptor - "I can't see the %$!@! thing,"
Long review of the F-22 at the link. Excerpt:

"In the Raptor, "I can outmaneuver an F-16, F-15, F-18. It doesn't matter…" [and] the F-22's radar works in a way that allows him to use it without revealing himself. Though its exact workings are classified, the F-22 is known to emit radar signals in extremely short bursts over multiple frequencies.

"Even if you detect me, you're not going to know where I am a second from now," said Joe Quimb, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, the Raptor's principal builder.

Tolliver said that radar and other sensors, along with information fed into the Raptor's computers from ground-based radars and other planes, gives F-22 pilots an exceptional, unified view of potential threats and targets aloft and on the ground…. "It's amazing the information you have at your fingertips," Tolliver said. In no-holds-barred mock battles with F-15s, F-16s and the Navy's F/A-18 Hornets, he and other Raptor pilots generally "destroy" their adversaries before those foes even realize they're around…."

That was proven in the June 2006 Northern Edge exercise, when even E-2C and E-3 AWACS aircraft reportedly weren't much help. Read this DID article for more coverage of the F-22's active & passive sensor capabilities, which functioned as the Raptor's last weapon in Northern Edge.
It won't let me put a weapons system on it, even when I can see it visually through the canopy. [Flying against the F-22] annoys the hell out of me.
Even when all of their missiles were gone, the Raptors remained in the fight, flying as stealthy forward air controllers and guiding their colleagues to enemies in the "Blue" AWACS' blind spots behind mountains and such. When the AIM-120D AMRAAM missile enters wider service, F-22s will also have the option of actively guiding missiles fired by other aircraft.

Then there's this surprising review from Red Flag "Colonial Flag" 2007, as an Australian pilot offers his impressions:

"I can't see the [expletive deleted] thing," said RAAF Squadron Leader Stephen Chappell, exchange F-15 pilot in the 65th Aggressor Squadron. "It won't let me put a weapons system on it, even when I can see it visually through the canopy. [Flying against the F-22] annoys the hell out of me."
The plane has the equivalent of 2 Cray supercomputers dedicated to sensor fusion and real time info analysis.

This sort of capability is why we need our bright kids to be majoring in math, science & engineering. Because already, a lot of new work is being done in China by graduates from our university programs.



Posted by: lotp 2007-10-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=201371