From IEEE Spectrum:
When the first of the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptors was officially fielded in 2005, it was without question the world’s most advanced fighter, far surpassing any of its competitors. It was also, in many ways, an acquisitions failure.
This fighter jet had been conceived in the 1980s as a counter to two hypothetical Soviet aircraft that military analysts believed likely to be fielded by 2010. To meet the projected threat, the F-22 was designed as a “fifth generation” aircraft having stealth technology, supercruise capability, high maneuverability, and a state-of-the-art avionics suite. In other words, it was a fighter pilot’s dream machine. At a projected and highly optimistic cost of US $35 million per plane (or $74 million in today’s dollars), 750 of them were to be fielded by 1995.
“The F-22 demanded a step ahead in technology across multiple fronts that had not been done before,” says Ralph Heath, executive vice president of aeronautics for Lockheed Martin, the lead contractor on the F-22.
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