Fun note, or not, depending on your view: I spend a great deal of my time thinking about issues related to the F/A-22 Raptor.

Fascinating piece of machinery. For one thing, all of the weaponry is integrated into the body. That means the whole bird is "low observable". Aside from this meaning that, if you do any sort of work on it, nearly every nut and bolt has to be coated again to make it keep it's stealth profile, it also means that all of the weapons are carried internally, so they don't add to the overall radar signature. Add to that a range for it's own radar that's miles and miles beyond anyone else's, and it's possible that air-to-air combat can be won without making visual contact. The thing is an amazing piece of machinery.

But here's a question I don't bring up much: what the fuck do we need it for? Russia's air force is pretty much useless, and they'd never use it against us now. Most countries that don't outright hate us buy our derivative stuff, so it'd be pairing the f-22 against, say the f-15 or f-16, which is just ludicrous without US trained pilots. Or, you have the people that really hate us, like Iran, who are flying old Russian-derivative stuff that's sitting and rusting in place, ready to be flown by guys who might have a couple hours in a training simulator. There's China, of course, but they're at least 1-2 generations behind the f-18. And, they've shown a preference for attacking non-fighter aircraft and their own satellites. Are we really worried about massive air-to-air dogfights? Is it all that useful to keep figuring out how to re-win WWII's RAF-vs-Luftwaffe scenarios?