The Best American Fighter Jet: F-22, F-35, and F-15 Compared

Best American fighter jet discussions have gotten complicated with all the “is the F-22’s unmatched air superiority worth its cost when the F-35 can do multiple missions” debates, the fifth-generation stealth versus fourth-generation upgraded performance comparisons, and “why does the US Air Force need both the F-22 and F-35 when building one great fighter would seem more cost-effective” conversations flying around. As someone who has spent years following military aviation development and the specific capability requirements and cost tradeoffs that shape U.S. fighter procurement decisions, I learned everything there is to know about America’s premier fighter jets. Today, I will share it all with you.

But which is the best American fighter jet, really? In essence, it depends on the mission — the F-22 Raptor is the world’s premier dedicated air superiority fighter with no peer in within-visual-range or beyond-visual-range dogfighting scenarios, the F-35 Lightning II is the most capable multi-role strike fighter ever built but accepts some performance compromises in exchange for its versatility, and the F-15 Eagle’s combat record of 100+ kills with zero losses in air-to-air combat makes it the most proven platform of the three. But it’s much more than picking a winner. For the defense analysts and policy makers who must decide how to allocate fighter procurement budgets, the right mix of these three aircraft types reflects specific assessments about future threat environments and the mission sets that American airpower must cover.

The F-22 Raptor: Air Superiority Unmatched

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation air superiority fighter whose combination of stealth, supercruise capability, and kinematic performance has no current peer. Its AN/APG-77 AESA radar can detect targets at extraordinary range while the aircraft itself remains nearly invisible to conventional radar systems. The F-22’s thrust vectoring nozzles and exceptional power-to-weight ratio make it formidable in close-range maneuvering engagements, while its beyond-visual-range missile employment from stealth gives it first-shot advantage in medium-range engagements. Don’t make my mistake of treating the F-22’s low production numbers as evidence of failure — at least if you’re analyzing U.S. air superiority posture, because the production run was curtailed by cost and the determination that the F-35 program would address multi-role requirements, not because the F-22 failed to deliver the air superiority capability it was designed for.

The F-35 Lightning II: Multi-Role Dominance

The F-35 was designed from the beginning as a multi-role aircraft that could replace a range of legacy platforms — the F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B Harrier, and A-10 — across three service variants (F-35A conventional, F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing, F-35C carrier-based). Its stealth is optimized for ground attack missions from specific angles rather than the all-aspect stealth of the F-22, and its kinematic performance is somewhat lower than the F-22’s — but its sensor fusion and electronic warfare capabilities are exceptional. That’s what makes the F-35 endearing to joint warfare planners — the ability to integrate sensor data across distributed platforms and share a common operational picture with other assets creates a networked warfare capability that raw dogfighting performance numbers don’t capture.

The F-15 Eagle: The Proven Combat Record

The F-15 Eagle has compiled the most impressive air combat record of any fighter aircraft: over 100 air-to-air kills with zero losses across multiple conflicts over five decades of operational service. Its twin-engine design enables speeds exceeding Mach 2.5 and exceptional combat persistence. The modern F-15EX Eagle II incorporates a conformal fuel tank design, advanced avionics, and the ability to carry an extraordinary number of air-to-air missiles. First, you should understand why the Air Force is buying new F-15EX aircraft even while operating F-22s and F-35s — at least if you’re following defense procurement, because the F-15EX fills a specific role as a long-range missile truck that can carry weapons the smaller F-35 cannot accommodate, complementing the stealth platforms rather than competing with them.

Technology Differentiators

The generational leap between the F-15 and the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35 centers primarily on stealth and sensors. Both fifth-generation aircraft use radar-absorbing materials and carefully managed airframe geometries to present very small radar cross-sections to enemy air defense systems. Their AESA radars can passively collect and fuse data from multiple sources without emitting detectable signals of their own. The F-35’s Distributed Aperture System (DAS) provides 360-degree infrared situational awareness that gives the pilot a view through the aircraft’s own structure via helmet-mounted display — a capability with no equivalent in fourth-generation aircraft.

The Future: NGAD and Sixth Generation

The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program aims to develop a sixth-generation fighter to replace the F-22 in the 2030s and beyond. The anticipated combination of advanced stealth, hypersonic capability, AI-enabled autonomous wingmen, and directed energy weapons represents a capability jump comparable to the fourth-to-fifth-generation transition. The question of which current American fighter is “best” may be definitively answered within a generation by an aircraft that makes the F-22’s already formidable capabilities appear as dated as the F-15’s do to the F-22 today.