In the 1970?s the US military decided it needed a joint strike aircraft, one that was a basic aircraft, but that could be converted slightly to meet the needs of each of the US Armed services, US Marine Corps, US Navy, US Army, and the US Air Force. There were a number of different aircraft that were used in the meantime, the F-14, the F-15 strike Eagle, even the F-16 and F-18 aircraft made their individual appearances, and each serve a distinct purpose in the US Arsenal. But it was not until the creation and final implementation of the F-22 joint strike fighter that the United States created an aircraft that with a few modifications could be used by each of the Armed Services.
The F-22 is the culmination of competition to build an aircraft that can be used by each of the individual joint Armed Services. It has stealth properties, and is a VTOL, or it can take off and land vertically. It is the most state of the Art aircraft currently in play in the United States Armed Forces, the Raptor, as it is known, is the newest addition to the aviation division of the United States Air Force. Along with lessons that were learned by the Stealth fighter and Stealth bombers, it actually benefits from lessons that were learned from flying against the Soviet Union in the 1950- 1980s. The Flanker and the Fulcrum were aircraft that the Soviet Union used during these years, and while they had a lot of different flaws, they also provided design advancements that were light years ahead of their time. Each of the Soviet Aircraft had specific flaws but the good parts of their design bring new factors to the operation of the F-22 Aircraft. The F-22 was first commissioned in 1981 as the next generation Air Force and US Military Jet Fighter, but it has been renamed both the F-22 Raptor and the multi force Strike ATF fighter. Few mechanics had ever seen an F-22 and there were no trained mechanics to work on it. The Support specialist that works on the F-22 has had to study a number of different designs that are brand new. Because of the design theories that the US used in building it, it has created a whole new area of mechanical support.
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The vortex and lift performances have created a new area of operations mechanical theory, and it takes a band of trained mechanics and technicians to keep the F-22 flying and operationally ready. The Soviet Union made advances in different airframe performance that has since been borrowed an incorporated into the F-22 Joint Strike Fighter. A mechanic will study from between 12 and 18 weeks to become minimally proficient in F-22 Raptor mechanical systems.