[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Dave Majumdar<\/b><\/p>\n
Security, Asia<\/em><\/p>\n Kill a ‘Raptor’: How to Shoot Down an F-22 Stealth Fighter<\/p>\n The Chinese\u2014like the Russians\u2014have formidable electronic attack capabilities including DRFM jammers.<\/em><\/p>\n The U.S. Air Force has as a tiny fleet of 186 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stealth fighters. That\u2019s all that survived out of 187 production aircraft (195 jets if developmental airframes are included) that were built out of the 750 that were originally planned. Of those 186 remaining Raptors, only 123 are \u201ccombat-coded\u201d aircraft with another twenty that are classified as backup aircraft inventory machines. The rest are test and training assets.<\/p>\n But even if 186 aircraft remain in the Air Force\u2019s inventory\u2014not all of those fighters are operational. At least two\u2014possibly more\u2014jets are not currently flyable. One test aircraft\u2014tail 91-4006\u2014at Edward Air Force Base (AFB) in California has avionics that are so old; it\u2019s not worth bothering to fly it anymore. Another aircraft\u201402-4037\u2014was badly damaged in a belly landing at Tyndall AFB, Fla. It\u2019s going to take at least four years and $98 million to repair the damage. The Air Force has also had trouble with repairing other F-22s due to snafus with retrieving improperly stored production tooling for the jet<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n This first appeared in October 2015.<\/em><\/p>\nIt could happen.<\/h3>\n