The F-22’s extraordinary stealth characteristics superior even to the B-2’s could be useful for penetrating airspace protected by air defense missiles and enemy fighters, and its supersonic speed would surely also prove an asset.
The end of the Cold War and changing priorities doomed the program.
Key point: The F-22 fell victim to budget cuts and there was no political will for a FB-22. However, now years later great power competition is back on the menu.
China is working on a medium-range stealth bomber, a bridge between the J-20 stealth fighter and the larger strategic bomber the People’s Liberation Army Air Force has long sought. News of this project has rekindled interest in the story of America’s own abortive stealth medium-bomber, if not in the acquisition of the aircraft itself.
Indeed, for a short time, the United States strongly considered building its own stealth medium bomber, based on the F-22 Raptor. A collision of short-term need and long-range thinking killed the FB-22 “T-Rex” before it could get off the drawing board.
Converting the Raptor into a bomber meant adjusting two key parameters: payload and range.
Here s What You Need to Remember: Doubling down on a Raptor bomber would have saddled the Air Force with two long-term issues: the first is the Raptor’s dated 90s-era computer system and data link, which aren’t highly compatible with new and far superior networked combat systems.
By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the United States had begun production of the F-22 Raptor, the world’s best air superiority fighter boasting a still unrivaled combination of sustainable high speed, maneuverability and low-observable stealth characteristics. Furthermore, the Pentagon was planning a more affordable multi-role successor for wider-scale production, the F-35 Lightning II. However, the air warfare branch had no new bombers in the pipeline after the B-2 stealth bomber was cut short with only twenty built.