Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor F/A-22A

This was not a distinct version but a change of name with political and budgetary intent: in the early 2000s the Raptor was redesignated F/A-22A to present it as a multirole fighter rather than purely an air superiority interceptor, at a time when the Department of Defense was questioning its relevance to counterinsurgency conflicts and cutting the buy. Government Accountability Office reports from those years refer to the programme by that name. In 2005, when the aircraft formally entered service, it reverted to F-22A. The airframes are the same as those of the corresponding production batches.