A buddy of mine was a jet AF jet mechanic. War games in Alaska. F-6s versus F22s. F22s were shooting the F-16s as they were taking off.
Everything about the plane is classified. The only cops that know the true capabilities of the planes are the designers, the crews and the pilots.
He told. S that even against F-5s they’d have to modify the rules to make it competitive.
And to think, of the 5 largest air forces in the world, 3 of the top 4 are the USAF, US Navy, US Marine Corps, if I remember correctly.
When Israel was fighting the Syrians, Israeli AF F-5s were shooting down Syrian jets as they were taking off.
F-5s? Don’t you mean F-15s?
Just read a decent article on the F22.
Without repeating all of it - yes it is a quantum leap over the F15 (or 16 for that matter).
One way of looking at it is kill ratio. Way, way back in the day the F15 had a kill ratio of 8:1 (which is a bit of a theoretical number because IIRC an F15 has never been shot down IRL). (Much of these numbers come from wargames).
But with the advances made by other fighter jets, that theoretical kill ratio has been brought down to 3:1.
With the F22 you get back to the halcyon days of 8:1.
The whole trick is to kill the enemy before he can even see you much less engage you. The F22 fulfills this mission (at least according to what I read).