Summary The F-15EX beats the F-22 in speed and range. The F-22 excels in climb, ceiling, and power. The F-22 wins in stealth, but the F-15 wins in long-term usability.
That's right, dear readers, it's time for yet another on-paper showdown between two high-tech jet fighters, sponsored and refereed by Simple Flying. This time, we feature the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor vs. the Boeing F-15EX Eagle II .
So, who wins this hypothetical showdown? Is there even a clear-cut winner? In the immoral words of ring announcer Michael Buffer...
Tale of the Tape: F-22 vs. F-15EX head-to-head specifications (^^Continuing ever so briefly with the boxing references here^^.) Let's see how the tangible vital stats of these two warbirds compare side-by-side: F-22 F-15EX Advantage Max Airspeed: Mach 2.
25 (1,500 mph; 2,414 km/h; 1,303 kn)) at high altitude Mach 2.5 (1,650 mph; 2,655 km/h; 1,666 kn) at high altitude F-15EX Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 augmented turbofans, 26,000 lbf (116 kN) thrust each dry, 35,000 lbf (156 kN) with afterburner 2 × General Electric (G.E.
) F110-GE-129 afterburning turbofan, 17,155 lbf (76.31 kN) thrust each dry, 29,500 lbf (131 kN) with afterburner F-22 Combat Range: 530 mi (850 km; 460 NM) 791 mi (1,272 km; 687 NM) F-15EX Ferry Range: 2,000 mi (3,220 km; 1,740 NM) 2,070 mi (3,330 km; 1,800 NM) F-15EX Service Ceiling: 65,000 ft (20,000 m) 52,300 ft (15,940 m) F-22 Rate of Climb: 68,897 ft/min (350 m/s) 44,882 ft/min (228 m/s) F-22 Thrust/Weight: 1.08 (1.
25 with loaded weight and 50% internal fuel) 0.93 F-22 Armament-wise, the Raptor can carry twelve air-to-air missiles (eight in internal weapons bays, four on external hardpoints), whilst the Eagle II carries the same number of AAMs (all on external hardpoints), so the two warbirds are pretty even in that category. Both wield a single M61 Vulcan 20 mm rotary cannon, with the Eagle holding a very slight advantage in ammunition capacity (500 rounds vs.
480 rounds). Unsurprisingly, the F-15EX, being more ground attack-oriented, packs the greater air-to-ground payload, 29,500 lb (13,400 kg) vs. 7,000 lb (3,175 kg).
The F-15EX and F-35A are built for different roles and mission sets, so it makes sense that the Air Force buys both. The F-22 made its maiden flight on September 7, 1997, and made its operational debut on December 15, 2005, whilst the F-15EX made its maiden flight on February 2, 2021, and just went operational last month; ergo, the Eagle II is the "younger" of the two airframes and therefore will presumably have a longevity advantage. While the F-14 Tomcat has been retired, the F-22 Raptor remains active with the USAF.
Intangibles So then, if we were to equate the above-listed specifications to a scoreboard, the F-22 wins, 4-3. But what about the intangibles? An obvious advantage of the F-22 is its use of stealth technology, being a 5th Generation fighter (the original F-15 was 4th Generation, whilst the Eagle II could be considered a 4.5 Generation).
The F-15 series has a lot of great things going for it, but invisibility to radar isn't one of them; the radar signature/radar cross-section (RCS) on the Eagle II is quite substantial. However, the Raptor has a distinct logistical disadvantage vis-a-vis the Eagle II: the fact that it was discontinued, thanks to then Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Bob Gates' shortsighted and premature decision to kill the F-22 program back in 2009 after only 187 airframes were produced, which amounted to less than half of the required number of 381. For a highly detailed and damning account of SECDEF Gates's decision to kill the F-22, read the 2015 book Air Power Abandoned: Robert Gates, the F-22 Raptor and the Betrayal of America's Air Force by the late Robert F.
Dorr. For the existing F-22 fleet, this creates a serious long-term maintenance concern, especially pertaining to the availability of spare parts. As noted by a March 2022 editorial in Military Watch Magazine : "The clearest sign of the F-22 program’s failure is that despite only a fraction of the originally planned airframes having been produced, and despite the being relativity [sic] new in service, the Air Force announced in May 2021 plans to retire the aircraft while keeping on the F-15EX.
In March 2022 it further indicated that the first units would begin retirement imminently. Click here to read more about the F-22. "This confirmed longstanding suspicions that the F-22’s primary issue was not its high manufacturing cost, with even those airframes already manufactured being favoured for early retirement and likely leaving service while some Cold War era F-15Cs still continued to fly.
Rather, excessive maintenance needs, an inability to easily incorporate upgrades, and multiple performance issues, were to blame. The F-15EX will meanwhile continue to be acquired, with its advantages in performance over the Raptor beyond its much greater ease of maintenance and higher availability rates became increasingly apparent." Combat history For all of the Raptor's amazing capabilities, it's only been used in combat once, and not against an enemy fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft either.
Rather, the F-22's first (and thus far only) air-to-air kill was against that Chinese spy balloon back in February 2023. Granted, downing an enemy balloon isn't as easy as it might be assumed at first (as I touched upon in my article on the balloon-busting American WWI fighter pilot Lt. Frank Luke), but it's still not the type of air superiority combat that this high-tech fighter was envisioned for.
Meanwhile, the Eagle II, by virtue of barely having gone operational last month, hasn't been used in combat a'tall yet. However, the F-15 platform (both the single-seat and twin-seat Strike Eagle variants) is a **very** combat-proven platform. To repeat what I said two months ago in my F-15EX vs.
F/A-18 article : " Though F-15s have certainly suffered their fair share of losses to enemy ground fire, the platform has, after five decades, NEVER been shot down in air-to-air combat; as I noted in a May 2022 article for 19FortyFive, we're talking about an absolutely mind-boggling 104:0 kill ratio against enemy aircraft, ladies and gentlemen!" And the winner is...
? Well, if I were an American fighter pilot, and I knew that I had to go up against a ChiCom J-20 "Fagin" or Russian Sukhoi Su-57 "Felon" stealth fighter tomorrow, I would definitely want to strap myself into the cockpit of an F-22 for that 5th Generation technical superiority. So, for short-term scenarios, the F-22 is the winner. However, as the saying goes, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," and likewise, "Quantity has a quality all its own.
" To use a WWII tank analogy, the German Tiger tank was technically superior to the American M4 Sherman tank; however, the Sherman could be produced in far greater numbers (and was more mechanically reliable), which tuned out to be a difference maker in the Allied victory in Europe. Likewise, having a substantial number of Eagle IIs that are fit to fit beats having a smaller number of Raptors sidelined due to a lack of spare parts. For long-term planning considerations, the F-15EX would have to be considered the winner.
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