They’re a titanium and carbon fiber dagger. They’re so advanced that if their on-board locator is switched off even our own satellites can lose track of them. They’re the first military aircraft ever built that is equipped with a ‘black-out button’.
What that means is this: The best conditioned fighter pilots are capable of maintaining consciousness up to in the vicinity of 15+ G. The Raptor is capable of making 22+ G turns.
If someday an adversary builds a missile that is capable of catching up to one of these airplanes and a Raptor pilot sees that a strike is imminent, he hits the ‘b.o.b.’ and the airplane makes a virtual U-turn, leaving the missile to pass right on by.