Defense Media Network

The Last F-22 Raptor

This collection of footage shows the very last F-22 Raptor to be built by Lockheed Martin during its first test flights and then in warpaint on its way to its new home in Alaska, where it will become the 525th Squadron’s flagship aircraft. Only 195 Raptors were built, including eight test examples, with 185 left as operational aircraft. The Air Force once hoped to procure 750 aircraft, reduced to 648 aircraft by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, reduced again in 1994 to 438 aircraft, in 1997 to 339, falling to 243 in 2008, and finally being capped at 187, with the final Raptor, tail number 10-4195, rolling off the Lockheed Martin assembly line in December 2011.

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From Employee Accounts