20 Years Of F-22 Raptor Service: How Has It Held Up?

20 years after the aircraft entered service in December 2005, the F-22 Raptor remains the benchmark for United States Air Force air dominance. The jet fused low observability, supercruise, and extreme agility before rivals fielded comparable designs. The aircraft layered sensor fusion and secure links to create a “first-look, first-shot, first-kill” envelope. The airframe itself is rather large, with a 62 ft 1 in (18.9 m) length and a wingspan measuring 44 ft 6 in (13.6 m). This anchors America’s high-end air defenses, even though production of the aircraft ended years ago after just 187 were produced, far fewer than were originally ordered by the Air Force. Official data lists a ceiling of above 50,000 ft (15,000 m) and exceptionally high-mach performance, with the supercruise exceeding Mach 1.5.