The F-22 equals, and probably surpasses, the agility of any other fighter. Its stealth characteristics which descend from the success of the F-117 stealth fighter and B-2 stealth bomber provide invisibility against most radars and sensors. Its integrated avionics, equal in power to seven Cray supercomputers, and sensor-fused displays are a generation ahead of anything under test elsewhere.

The F-22's primary mission is air superiority, defined by the USAF as "the ability to achieve local air control at a time and place of our own choosing." The odds are in favor of the side with the faster aircraft with greater range, operating under the fewest artificial constraints. The Raptor's secondary goal is to destroy as many of the enemy's front-line fighters as possible for the smallest possible number of losses.