F-22’s First Combat an Overkill for US

On September 22, the Pentagon announced that the U.S. and its allies had begun targeted airstrikes within Syria against the Islamic State. The U.S. military disclosed that the F-22 fighters were used for the first time in combat for these airstrikes since they were put into service in 2005, indicating that the jets have been fully broken in. The fighters are at the commander’s disposal and in a state to carry out combat missions within any area of responsibility.

The debut of F-22 fighters attracted worldwide attention. This was also the first time the world’s fifth-generation fighter jets were introduced in combat. Although the opponent’s strength is too weak to fully demonstrate the fighters’ superior operational capability, the deployment of the fifth-generation jets was the first of its kind, changing the current pattern of fighter jet use and potentially inspiring a craze for a new round of research and development on the fifth-generation fighters.

The F-22 jet is a new-generation stealth fighter aircraft from the U.S. military with leading world-class combat capabilities and weapons. Many of its features are included for the first time in a fighter jet, such as all-weather stealth capability, supercruise, enhanced maneuverability, Beyond Visual Range Air Combat or BVRAC, high maintainability, a vectored thrust engine, easy maintenance, short takeoff and landing—STOL—and highly informational and network-centric operation. During air-to-ground strikes, an F-22 can be equipped with 1000 pounds of joint direct-attack munitions, two AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, suitable for striking legitimate military targets.

To many people’s surprise, F-22 fighters were used by the U.S. military to strike the scattered Islamic State in Syria. Countering the current Islamic State, which only has jeeps and armored vehicles in its possession with little air-defense capability, is clearly overkill with ulterior motives. U.S. President Barack Obama has officially announced his support for the Syrian opposition forces and that he would not cooperate with the current Syrian government on military actions in Syria. Its use of world-class F-22 fighters has the clear intent to demonstrate against Syria and related nations and potentially generates an impact on the civil war in Syria.

The baptism of fire as a test in real combat is conducive to further improving and upgrading the F-22’s combat system, and to securing the bridgehead for the development of new combat aircrafts for the American military, allowing the U.S. to maintain the upper hand in air. And through this military operation, the U.S. military tested in a real combat backdrop the four F-22’s capabilities: air defense, combat air patrol, suppression of air defenses, and targeted ground attack. With the Islamic State as the target and Syria’s limited air defense as the backdrop, the U.S. has tested the capability of its Prompt Global Strike system with the F-22 fighters, investigated the functions of its Air Sea Battle military strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, and explored the status and issues of its integrated combat system interconnected through networks, in order to flex its muscles on protecting its Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy.

An F-22 fighter jet can go straight to the depths of Asia with the support of a tanker aircraft. It plays the roles of an air defense system, a mission control center and a political unit. Therefore, the use of F-22 fighters by the U.S. military is also a chance for the U.S. to show the strength of its global strategy on the Asia-Pacific rebalancing. Under the backdrop of the shifting military focus toward Asia-Pacific, the U.S. has put a large number of advanced combat aircraft such as the F-22 fighters into service, posing a new challenge for Asia-Pacific region security.