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It took nearly two decades in service for the F-22 Raptor to record its first air-to-air kills — both of which have come within the past week, but neither kill was against the jets it was actually designed to fight.
US officials said an F-22, a fifth-generation stealth fighter jet, shot down an unidentified, high-altitude “object” over Alaskan airspace on Friday that was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a threat to the safety of civilian flights. The Pentagon described the object as being around the same size as a “small car.”
This incident comes nearly a week after an F-22 downed a Chinese surveillance balloon — which a top US commander said was 200 feet tall and carrying a payload the size of a jetliner — as it was operating at over 60,000 feet off the coast of South Carolina.
Both jets fired a single AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile to down the respective systems. The engagement with the Chinese spy balloon marked the first known air-to-air kill for the F-22, as well as the first apparent use of the AIM-9X against a balloon target at that altitude, and Friday’s mission against the “object” brings the F-22’s tally up to two within just a few days.
