US Air Force F-22 Gets New Target Tracking High-Tech Radar

By Kris Osborn

…into the F-22 is designed to enable the stealth fighter to counter attacks from emerging future enemy threats, dogfights successfully against Russian and Chinese 5th-generation stealth fighters,  and fly successfully well into the 2060s.

For example, newer F-22s have a technology called Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, which uses electromagnetic signals or “pings” to deliver a picture or rendering of the terrain below, allow for better target identification.

The SAR technology sends a ping to the ground and then analyzes the return signal to calculate the contours, distance and characteristics of the ground below. SAR enables pilots to dynamically survey target areas and adjust to new targets in flight. Previously, F-22s would take off with pre-determined target, F-22 pilots told Scout Warrior.

Many Air Force developers observers have credited the speed, maneuverability, weapons and stealth characteristics as advantages which make it the most advanced air-to-air fighter the world has ever seen. 

The  operational efficacy of the emerging Chinese J-20 and J-30 stealth fighters, and the Russian 5th-gen PAK-50 are not as of yet fully known.

F-22 Technologies

As a fifth-generation stealth fighter, the F-22 is specifically engineered for air supremacy and air dominance missions, meaning its radar-evading technology is designed to elude and destroy enemy air defenses. The aircraft is also configured to function as the world’s premier air-to-air fighter able to “dogfight” and readily destroy enemy aircraft.