Top U.S. fighter jet makes airshow debut

FARNBOROUGH (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 "Raptor" fighter jet, widely considered the world's most advanced, streaked through a milestone performance on Monday for a warplane that money cannot buy.

The 15-minute display of dips, dives and pirouettes was a highlight of the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow, a global arms bazaar and aviation trade show held in alternate years in Farnborough and Paris.

It marked the debut of the single-seat, radar-evading Raptor at an overseas air show. Among crowd-pleasing stunts, the 43,340-pound F-22 shot nearly straight up into leaden skies, then dropped back in a "tail-slide" controlled by dual engines capable of twice the speed of sound.

Major Paul Moga of the U.S. Air Force 27th Fighter Squadron opened the weapons-bay doors after flashing the aircraft's belly at spectators, displaying the area where bombs and missiles would be stored.

A back flip was followed by a sharp slowdown that made it appear to float across the horizon before it roared supersonically, its after-burners glowing orange.

Unlike most fighter aircraft, no weapons are carried externally on the Raptor, to make it harder to detect on radar screens.

Crossing the Atlantic to England was itself a first for the aircraft, deployed last year to Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, the hub of U.S. air power in the Pacific.

Japan, Israel and Australia have shown interest in buying the F-22 if the U.S. Congress were to change a law that makes it unavailable for export because it is deemed too good at what it does. The ban was enacted 10 years ago, partly to prevent the spread of U.S. technological knowhow and partly to avoid regional arms races.

Also of concern is protecting the market for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a family of radar-evading fighters being developed by the United States with eight other countries.

After watching the acrobatics, Gen. Tan Sri Azizan, chief of staff of the Malaysian Air Force, was typically dazzled.

"If you know the principles of flight, it defies that," he told Reuters.

U.S. Air Force officials have said they need 381 Raptors to meet their requirements. But the Pentagon's fiscal 2009 budget request, unveiled February 4, made no provision for any beyond 183 jets already approved.

This left a decision to the U.S. president to be elected November 4 on whether to keep open or close the F-22 production line. If shut, it could be for good, given the high cost of resuming output.

Primarily an air superiority fighter, the F-22 also has capabilities for ground attack, electronic warfare and intelligence gathering.

The United States began operating it in December 2005, 20 years after it was conceived to defeat Soviet warplanes in air-to-air combat over Europe.

F-22s go for $142 million apiece not including development costs, according to the Air Force.

"The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft," according to an Air Force release that calls it "an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities."

Robert Stevens, Lockheed Martin's chief executive, told reporters on Sunday that he was unaware of any "discussion", by implication among U.S. decision-makers, about repealing the prohibition on F-22 exports from the United States.

In the absence of funding for long-lead materials used in the manufacturing process, Lockheed "probably" will have to notify suppliers toward the end of this year whether there will be any follow-on orders, Stevens said.

(Editing by Jason Neely/Rory Channing)