The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has for long been claimed to be the best air superiority fighter ever built. Raptor is an extremely good fighter, but every fighter has flaws that others can take advantage of, one fighter which is capable of using the F-22’s weakness is the German Eurofighter Typhoon.
Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a 4.5 generation multirole fighter that was introduced in 2003 by its creators BAE Systems, Airbus Group, and Alenia Aermacchi where it showed off a delta wing setup with canards and a brand new twin-engine.
The reason for it not to be a generation 5 fighter is the fact that it does not have stealth properties. But what it does have which it was very new with when it came is its P.I.R.A.T.E – IRST (InfraRedSearchandTrack) system.
This picks up heat changes around it and can by this spot subsonic aircraft as far away as up to 100km+
This means that the Typhoon can still shoot its advanced IR-tracking missiles at a target, even though its enemy has stealth features.
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
The F-22 Raptor is a Stealth featuring fifth-generation fighter built by Lockheed Martin and first presented by the United States’ Air Force in 1997.
It has a diamond-shaped wing and has a Gatling gun at the right vertical stabilizer (just like the Eurofighter) capable of shooting 100 bullets per second
It does not feature an IRST system but instead puts its faith in the fact that no other fighter (except for F-35) has stealth yet and therefore it only needs a normal radar.
It also features its unique Thrust Vectoring which gives the pilot the possibility to change the direction of the exhausts. This gives the Raptor really good turning-capabilities.
