The Eagle "may be the best fighter in the world right now, but it's losing that technical advantage," Jumper said.
The Air Force stresses that the Raptor has evolved from its original mission of facing off against other fighters to also attacking ground targets and gathering intelligence. "Everybody thinks this is all about dogfighting; it's really not about dogfighting, it's about being able to penetrate contested airspace and gathering information in that contested airspace," Jumper said.
"There is not a pilot who has flown the Raptor that isn't in love" with it, says Lt. Col. James Hecker, 27th Fighter Squadron commander.
(Jay Paul For The Washington Post)
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In this video, see the F/A-22 in flight and meet Lt. Col. James Hecker, commander of the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, the first operational F/A-22 Raptor squadron in the Air Force.
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Watch the F/A-22 Video
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The Raptor's Long Journey: This graphic timeline traces the 20-year history of the F/A-22 program.
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Transcript: Washington Post staff writer Renae Merle was online to answer reader questions about her article on the F-22 Raptor program. She was joined by Air Force Maj. Charles Corcoran, a pilot training to fly the new jet.
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The program also is an economic engine, with 1,000 suppliers -- and many jobs -- in 42 states guaranteeing solid support in Congress. Lockheed alone has 4,500 employees working on the plane in plants in Texas and Georgia.
The cost of producing the plane will fall with time, said Larry Lawson, the program's manager at Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin. Preserving the manufacturing line also creates the possibility of the Air Force ordering different versions of the aircraft later, perhaps even a bomber model, he said. "If we abruptly end Raptor production [early], we're basically making a decision that we can't recover from. We can't start production again," Lawson said.
Critics counter that the nature of war has evolved away from the Raptor.
"The Air Force's real strength no longer is the airplanes. The good old days of two incredibly maneuverable planes dogfighting are over and have been overtaken by data links, computers and satellites," said Richard L. Aboulafia, aviation analyst for Teal Group Corp., a research firm. Most potential enemies, including China, don't have tankers, which can refuel fighters in mid-flight, or Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) planes that can detect cruise missiles or enemy fighters, he said.
Despite expanding the Raptor's missions, it is still primarily an air-to-air fighter and it will be years before it gains significant new capabilities to hit ground targets, skeptics note.
"It's a great thing, but it does not address the challenges that we face," Earl H. Tilford, a 21-year Air Force veteran and military history professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, said of the Raptor. "The real threat is on the low end, from terrorism, criminal cartels, state-sponsored terrorism, and that's where the bulk of the energy" should be spent.
The Air Force could buy a "handful" of the new fighters to hedge against a conflict with China, where the Raptor could evade advanced surface-to-air missiles and penetrate the country's borders, said Robert A. Pape, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author on the use of air power. Any money saved should be used for unmanned aircraft and laying the ground work for a new bomber, he said.
Whatever the outcome of the funding debate, Langley will be the staging point for the Raptor's first combat-ready squadron, and that sends ripples of excitement throughout the base near Norfolk. "We're the first to deploy," said Master Sgt. Renee Daig, who runs an $18 million facility built to maintain the plane's stealth skin. "That's where it's all at."
