Upgrades.

This is coolbert:

Stealth compromised? F-22 Raptor now not so stealthy?

Upgrades a hindrance? Not an improvement?

"The F-22 Is Finally Getting Some Much Needed Upgrades"

https://theaviationist.com/2022 | Military Aviation | STEFANO D'URSO | May 3, 2022.

[original article from two years ago]

"25 years after it entered service in the U.S. Air Force, the F-22 Raptor is scheduled to receive some major upgrades to keep its edge over future adversaries. Some of these upgrades were unveiled last week in the Fiscal Year 23 Budget request documentation and in an official artwork shared by Gen. Mark Kelly, the Commander of Air Combat Command, in a post about the 15th anniversary of the approval of the first F-22 flight demonstration."

"In the artwork we can see three Raptors loaded with new stealthy external fuel tanks, two underwing faceted pods and a new unknown air-to-air missile, but there are even more novelties in the documents, which unveils a previously undisclosed relationship between the F-22 and the development of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), the 'system of systems' which includes the first Air Force’s 6th gen fighter aircraft. "

F-22 Raptor American air superiority/supremacy fighter plane the stealth feature threatened by the addition of EXTERNAL fuel drop-tanks?

Ordinarily all add-ons and weapons for maximum stealth operation carried in the weapons bay of the F-22.

In this instance however the EXTERNAL fuel drop-tanks also stealthy? They had better be!

See this most recent "Aviationist"post the F-22 now having been observed in flight with drop-tanks in place. It is now all a done deal?

coolbert.