The forgotten F-22 Raptor stealth bomber, known as the proposed Lockheed Martin FB-22, was a delta-wing strike variant of the F-22 designed in the early 2000s for enhanced bombing capabilities. Featuring greater payload (up to 30,000 pounds), extended range over 2,600 km, and retained stealth with F119 engines, it aimed to bridge air superiority and deep strikes but was abandoned by 2006 in favor of the F-35 and longer-range bombers.
Many years ago, the US Military had plans for a F-22 upgrade. This would have been a strike fighter, with an emphasis on bombing. Details surrounding the project remain a mystery, with some suggesting that the project was never really cancelled, but rather postponed for possible future implementation – but this is doubtful.
The project has, by and large, been forgotten. The only discussions online reference video games such as Ace Combat, where enthusiasts have visualised designs. Today, we look at the actual project, and what could have been an upgraded F-22 multirole aircraft.
HISTORY
For years the F-22 had been perceived as the ultimate air superiority fighter, but today its production cycle has long passed. The final Raptor rolled off the production line in 2011.
The focus today is on multirole aircraft such as the F-35, with better system linking and communications between air, ground, and sea. But during the development of the F-35, the FB-22 concept was also in the works.
The FB-22 project dates back to 2001. The year prior, the X-35A – the prototype for the F-35 – had taken its maiden flight. Lockheed Martin had considered pitching another multirole aircraft to the military, this time based on the existing F-22 design. Some years earlier, an F-22 derivative with variable geometry wings was proposed for the Navy, known as the NATF-22. However, the design process required a complete overhaul of systems and would also add complexity beyond that found in the already complex F-22. For obvious reasons, it never saw the light of day.
The F-22 had limited air to ground capabilities, and Lockheed Martin understood that they could enhance such capability while retaining the core avionics. Several designs were proposed, each with varying structural changes to the wings and fuselage, but all retaining the same expensive internal avionics systems. This would save costs, which they hoped would be a selling point for the design. The bomber situation at the time was not clear; the ageing fleet of B-52s offered little in regard to stealth or speed, the B-1Bs had speed but lacked stealth, and the B-2 Spirit had a short production run of only 21 aircraft.
Nothing really existed which was small, stealthy, and affordable. The only comparable aircraft at the time was the F-117 Nighthawk, which was already on its way out of service. Thus, it seemed as though a lighter weight strike aircraft – heavier and more specifically tasked than the F-35, but smaller and far cheaper than the B-2 – may have been an option for the military. It would be something akin to a stealthy F-111, modernised for new missions. So, researchers got to work on a concept to meet this gap in the market.
It was reported that an early concept would have completely overhauled the fuselage, incurring a weight increase of up to 30%, and a far more costly development process. So attention was shifted away from these radical redesigns and back toward something which was more consistent with the existing F-22. Emphasis was then put on a delta wing design, which would retain the F-22 fuselage. No official visualisations of this concept are publicly available, only guesses as to what the design may have looked like. Early designs such as this lacked a tailplane, but soon thereafter a twin tailplane was added.
The larger surface area of this delta wing design would allow for more fuel and munitions. In fact, it was claimed that while the standard F-22 could carry eight 250 pound bombs, the FB-22 would have been able to hold up to thirty five, such as GBU-39s. This massive increase in weapons stores would have allowed the aircrafts combat load to be 30,000 pounds, or 15,000 pounds in a stealth configuration. This stealth configuration would use not only an internal weapons bay, but also faceted pods which could be detached from the fuselage, supposedly without adding any significance to the radar cross section. Standard configuration would allow for thirty GBU-39s – which could be switched out for larger air-to-ground weapons, as well as two Aim-120 AMRAAMSAMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) – A radar-guided, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile developed by Raytheon for the United States... More.
These reported air-to-ground capabilities – combined with a stealth option – had “Air Force Magazine” describe the aircraft as being a near equal to the B-2 bomber, in terms of range, payload, and stealth. It would not be capable of dogfighting, but still likely capable of beyond visual rangeBVR (Beyond Visual Range): In aerial warfare, engagements or combat operations that occur at distances where opposing aircraft cannot visually identif... More engagements. In fact, its capabilities have been compared to the F-15E, which in some ways it would have competed with.
The other major area of improvement was range. The standard F-22 could operate at ranges up to 1000 kilometres, whilst the FB-22 would have extended this range to somewhere between 2600 and 3300 kilometres, which could have been further extended with the aid of external tanks.
The design was reported to continue to use the F119 engines from the standard F-22. It was also claimed that the thrust vectoring system would be replaced by fixed nozzles, further saving costs. These engines would allow the aircraft to fly at speeds up to Mach 1.9, at altitudes up to 60000 feet. Unlike Lockheed Martins previous F-22 derivative – the highly complex NATF-22 – this new FB-22 strike aircraft was more than promising. In fact, it boasted outstanding specs, much in the same way that the proposed F-16XL did over the standard F-16.
FATE OF THE PROGRAM
This promising program saw interest immediately. In 2003, the Air Force Secretary stated that he believed the air force could yield 150 FB-22s to be used in various strike roles. It was also noted that the FB-22 program would be far cheaper than developing a new bomber, less than 25% the price of a new design, coming in at $7 billion. Proposals placed the FB-22 as being operational by 2018, if the program went ahead.
However, for unknown reasons, the program seemed to disappear. By 2006 the project no longer appeared in discussions, and focus turned to bombers with a far longer range. Very similar to the cancelled F-16XL, the FB-22 had the potential to give its operators a major upper hand when it came to both bombing missions, and suppression of enemy air defensesSEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses): A military operation designed to neutralize, destroy, or temporarily degrade enemy air defense systems to al... More missions, without relying on less stealthy aircraft such as the F-16. The lack of follow through on the FB-22 program was rather inexplicable.
Just how much the program could have achieved remains a mystery, although we can make some guesses with some degree of confidence. For one, the stealth aspect likely would have set the aircraft apart from any competition – at least within the US. It has been said that the F-22 boasts a lower radar cross section than the B-2, as well as an array of classified stealth technology which was not available during the development process of the B-2. If this is true, then the FB-22 likely would have been ahead of the competition in this regard. The faceted external stealth pods were also a step ahead of the competition, and we can see similar test pods on F-22s today.
Perhaps the program was perceived as out of touch in the early 2000s – proposing what was essentially a modernised F-111 – however, today we see that this may very well be the way of the future. In Ukraine, both sides utilise extensive SAMSurface-to-Air Missile: A ground-based or ship-launched guided missile system designed to detect, track, and destroy enemy aircraft, helicopters, crui... More coverage to create a stalemate in the air, which can only be overcome by stealth, longer range standoff weapons, or least preferably through low level incursions, which put the pilots at risk of infrared lock. One can see why an FB-22 design would have the advantage in this situation.
Hypothetically it would also be very useful in the Pacific given its range. Strike aircraft are usually ferried by carriers to get within range, and the operational range of these aircraft usually fall within striking distance of modern surface-to-surface missiles – such as those covering the South China Sea. This puts carrier groups at serious risk any time they are called upon to put aircraft within striking distance. The FB-22 could have operated from air bases in the Pacific, well out of harm’s way, fly and strike targets anywhere in the theatre – perhaps with aerial refuelling – and back to base without the need for carriers.
The FB-22 concept still has merit, and who knows, maybe in the boardrooms of Lockheed Martin the concept is still on the table, or has seeded something new we are yet to see.
