I am no expert on this, just wanted to through that out there.
You can't compare these aircraft to the F-22 because there are not compareable. Anytime a missle/gun hangs on the outside of an aircraft; that alone will give enough radar return to identify it on just about anyone's equipment post WWII. The engine intakes are also a huge radar problem with most aircraft. I think you can campare the F-117 and the F-22 becaused they are trying to do the same job. be stealthy, survive the mission, and strike targets with little to no warning to the enemy. The F-117 should really be classified as a bomber rather than a fighter because it really can't dogfight. The US is currently making the F-35 fighter that will be a joint venture aircraft deployed to the USA as well as our alies. It is kind of steathy (to a point) and costs much less then the F-22. One of the reasons that the USA has reletivly low numbers of these stealth planes (F-22, F-117, B2 bomber) besides the fact they cost an arm and a leg is that there is really no competition for them out there. The F-15 has the best combat kill ratio in history and still serves us well and will continue to do so even if we did come up against the European, or Russian made planes for years to come. The US (since the 50's) has not wanted to fall behind in the arms race--that's why we have all of these planes/other technology to stay in front of everyone else. The Mig 17 and Sputnik taught the US a lesson that we took to heart.
