If the F-22 wasnt supposed to dogfight why was is it so maneuverable?

If you put external weapons on a F-22 it will lose it's stealth.

Therefor they are relying on it's internal 2 missiles, and being able to shoot in a dogfight up close.

Plus doesn't it have the first offensive laser for a jet fighter?

MISSLE AVOIDENCE.> that is one reason you would want an aircraft to be highly manueverable

Originally posted by Pervius
If you put external weapons on a F-22 it will lose it's stealth.

Therefor they are relying on it's internal 2 missiles, and being able to shoot in a dogfight up close.

Plus doesn't it have the first offensive laser for a jet fighter?

F-22 can carry internally 6 x AIM-120 plus 2 x AIM-9, that would be 8 air to air missiles. You can extend that using external weapons, but with reduced stealth capacity.

www.f22fighter.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

I know they can carry them, I've never seen a pic of an F-22 with external missiles. Has anyone here seen one?

Anyways regarding the laser, if you were talking about the HELLADS, they can make a fighter sized 1 Kw laser, but in order for it to be effective, it needs to have a minimum of 150 Kw, and with that, it only has enough power to heat internal fuel/warhead to the point of detonation, it wont be cutting metal like something out of Star Wars. So, it's still Sci-fi tech. Give it a another 50 years, and we might see a capable weapon. In other words, it wont be on an F-22.

Here is a picture of an F-22 with external missiles:

en.wikipedia.org...:F-22_AIM-120.jpg

The maximum air to air missile load (internal + external) is 16

www.aerospaceweb.org...

reply to post by kondor


Very nice picture, I'm really hoping at some point they show the F-22 with its maximum weapon load.

I have spoken to an F-22 pilot on this matter and his answer to my question is basically very simple. Dogfighting isn't dead and never will be. Dogfighting is more of a last resort if there are no other options.

Originally posted by Xeven
MISSLE AVOIDENCE.> that is one reason you would want an aircraft to be highly manueverable

This. These days, a good number of enemy aircraft are utilizing long range missiles and all-weather long range airborne radar just like we are.

The Russian Zhuk-AE radar, for example, can track up to 60 targets at up to 200 kilometers away.
The Russian R-27 and R-77 Anti-Air missiles can engage targets over 150 kilometers away.

The AN/APG-77 radar being used in the F-22 Raptor has a range of approximately 240 kilometers and the aircraft has the added benefit of stealth technology. But that doesn't guarantee that it won't be engaged at long range.

But the AIM-120 AMRAAM only has a range of approximately 70 kilometers. The AIM-9 Sidewinder only has a range of 35 kilometers.

That is a significant disadvantage. Especially when the Russians and Chinese finish developing their their 5th generation fighters.