The U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-22 Raptor, arguably the most advanced fifth-generation fighter jet in the world, has now achieved a major milestone.
Raytheon announced on September 16 that the F-22 Raptor scored the longest known Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) shot during a series of tests conducted in the fall of 2024 in collaboration with the USAF Air Combat Command.
The tests, conducted at the Eglin Air Force Base, demonstrated that the AMRAAM could significantly improve the lethality of fifth-generation aircraft by extending its period of flight, as per the official press statement.
The company credited this success to the USAF’s form, fit, function refresh (F3R) development initiative as well as its own commitment to research and development of AMRAAMs.
“Achieving air superiority in the future, highly contested battlespace depends on the precision and lethality of air-to-air missiles,” Sam Deneke, president of Air & Space Defense Systems at Raytheon, was quoted as saying.
“AMRAAM is already known as the gold standard for the air dominance arena, and these tests prove it will continue to play a critical role for the U.S. and its allies for decades to come.”
The USAF has not disclosed the exact distance covered by the weapon, and the AIM-120’s range remains classified. Nonetheless, the milestone highlights the ongoing work on AMRAAM as well as increasing emphasis on long-range air-to-air missiles as the US military prepares for a potential conflict in contested environments with near-peer adversaries.
📰NEWS: Raytheon achieves longest known AMRAAM shot on a fifth-generation fighter, demonstrating AMRAAM's extended time of flight capability.
Details: https://t.co/rMYhTPxtwL pic.twitter.com/7h5fbwkpzD
— RTX (@RTX_News) September 16, 2025
The F3R version of the AIM-120 AMRAAM, used in the test, is an upgrade program focused on modernising the missile’s guidance section with 15 new circuit cards, updated software, and enhanced electronics.
This enables improved performance against a wider range of threats and an extended range while maintaining compatibility with existing launch platforms, such as the F-22 Raptor.
“We were able to fly it much longer,” Jon Norman, Raytheon vice president of requirements and capabilities, said, as per the Air and Space Forces report. “The propulsion and aerodynamic properties of the missile … in that F3R variant … always had the capability to go further. We just had not been able to take advantage of it. So at this point, it’s the way we’re flying it. It’s flying higher and longer. We can fly at a much faster speed at release, which just improves the performance of the missile.”
The improvements will allow “pilots the ability to take shots that are further than they ever imagined before,” Norman said. The new software will also give the AMRAAM capability “against a wider variety of threats and increase the probability … targeting that threat.”
The F3R was developed for the existing AIM-120D AMRAAM and the AIM-120C-8 (an export variant). Though the range of these missiles is classified, it is believed to be somewhere around 80 to 100 miles, or between 128 to 185 kilometres.
However, in an operational setup, numerous factors affect a missile’s range, particularly the target’s and the launching aircraft’s energy and altitude states. The F3R version exploits the high speed and altitude of fifth-generation platforms, including the F-22 and F-35. Additionally, the F-22’s active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, which is an AN/APG-77, is a powerful tool for longer-range air-to-air missile engagements.
China, for one, wields long-range missiles such as the PL-15 (200-300 kilometers) and is already working on longer-range AAMs like the PL-21.
Before the 2024 Raptor tests, the longest-ever AMRAAM shot was secured in 2021 when the missile was launched from the F-15 Eagle. At the time, the missile hit a BQM-167 sub-scale drone at Tyndall AFB in Florida during the Weapons Systems Evaluation Program (WSEP) East.
The latest effort seems to be in line with the attempt to enhance the range and lethality of the AIM-120, at least until the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) is ready for induction. In 2022, the USAF published a rendering of a Raptor firing the AIM-260, indicating that it will be the preferred carrier for the longest-range air-to-air missile in the USAF’s inventory.
Speaking of the latest long-range shot, Norman told the Air and Space Forces Magazine that the company will keep working with the USAF to extend the range of the existing AIM-120s. “That missile is just going to get better. To further enhance it using software, “a lot more work needs to be done,” he said. “We’ll continue to refine missile flight to maximize the weapon’s aerodynamic potential, and we can accomplish this through a Software Improvement Program.”
The AIM-120 AMRAAMs are expected to remain operational well into the 2030s, supported by ongoing production, upgrades, and life-extension efforts. In July 2025, the US Department of Defense awarded Raytheon (RTX) a record-breaking $3.5 billion contract for AIM-120 Production Lots 39 and 40—the largest in program history.
Separately, the US Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) in April 2025 also hinted at the development of an AIM-120E variant via a $94.5 million sole-source contract to Raytheon for risk reduction and processor upgrades, as earlier noted by TheWarZone.
However, it is also pertinent to note that the test shot also points to continued efforts to enhance the F-22, which remains a mainstay of the USAF despite work accelerating on the next-generation F-47 combat aircraft.
The F-22’s Capabilities Are Being Enhanced
The F-22 Raptor, which entered service in 2005, is the crown jewel of the US Air Force (USAF) and the most coveted combat aircraft in the world due to its unmatched capabilities like supercruise, stealth technology, and sensor fusion.
The Raptors made their first deployment in West Asia in 2009 at Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE, around 360 kilometers from Iran. On 22 September 2014, F-22s performed their first combat sorties by conducting some of the opening strikes of Operation Inherent Resolve, the American-led intervention in Syria, dropping bombs on Islamic State targets. They also performed missions in Afghanistan.
Interestingly, this ace air superiority aircraft has never scored an aerial kill against an actual fighter jet in combat. The only time it took out an aerial target was when it shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in February 2023 using an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
Despite this, there is little doubt about the Raptor’s capabilities in combat, including in dogfighting, which is why the USAF is always ensuring that the Raptors are armed to the teeth and ready for any potential contingency.
The USAF currently has approximately 183 F-22 Raptors in service. While there were plans to replace them with the next-generation aircraft, the service now plans to keep them operational into the 2040s. In fact, these stealth fighters are receiving an array of new “viability” upgrades to help protect them from emerging threats and keep them relevant in the evolving combat scenarios against adversaries like China.
In line with these plans, the USAF awarded Lockheed Martin a US$270 million contract for embedding the TacIRST Infrared Defensive System (IRDS) on the F-22 Raptor in January 2025. This will allow the Raptor to detect and track an array of aerial threats, including stealthy ones. The distributed sensors will bolster the aircraft’s overall situational awareness, thus boosting its survivability, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.
Further, the F-22 Raptor’s Pratt and Whitney F119 engines will get a software refresh to unlock additional thrust, efficiency, and supercruise performance, drawing on data from F-35 and other fifth-generation platforms. This will enable extended mission endurance and better fuel management. A full implementation of this upgrade is planned across the 143 combat-coded F-22s by 2026-2027.
Work is also being done to improve the aircraft’s stealth by upgrading radar-absorbent materials (RAM) and coatings to reduce infrared and radar signatures and countering advanced detection systems. Moreover, upgrades to the AN/APG-77 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for improved range, resolution, and multi-target tracking are also ongoing. This effort includes integration of Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) for faster software updates and obsolescence mitigation.
The viability upgrades include expanded Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities for the F-22 Raptor via the Project Keystone. This includes advanced threat warning receivers, jamming pods, and digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) for spoofing enemy radars and is meant to bolster survivability in high-threat zones.
Some of the anticipated upgrades for the F-22 Raptor were revealed in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal documents and in an official artwork that was provided by the Commander of the Air Combat Command at the time, Gen. Mark Kelly. The artwork showed three Raptors with two underwing faceted pods, a new, unidentified air-to-air missile, and new, stealthy external fuel tanks.
Additional enhancements for the Raptor listed in the budget request included a new Operational Fight Program, advanced radar Electronic Protection, Embedded GPS/Inertial Navigation System (INS) Modernization (EGI-M), Link 16 and Multifunction Information Distribution System Joint Tactical Radio System (MIDS JTRS), a Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), new encrypted radios, and Open System Architecture (OSA).
F-22 pilots are also testing a new helmet as part of the Next Generation Fixed Wing Helmet program, which aims to replace the HGU-55P helmet, which has been the standard supplied helmet for over three decades. In addition to this, the F-22 was earlier designated as a test bed for the NGAD and might be able to receive some cutting-edge technology meant for the sixth-generation fighter jet.
If that was not all, US President Donald Trump announced he was interested in a “super variant” of the F-22 Raptor in May 2025.
So, it may be safe to say that testing and integrating long-range weapons is a part of that mammoth effort to keep the potency of Raptors alive.
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