An F-22 Shoots Down a Chinese Surveillance Balloon
CONFIRMED82% CONFIDENCEAir & Space Forces Magazine reports that "at 2:39 pm Eastern time, an F-22 Raptor from the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder into the approximately 90-foot wide balloon" on 4 February 2023; 2:39 p.m. EST is 19:39Z.[1]
A single AIM-9X fired from 58,000 feet brought down a 90-foot Chinese balloon off Myrtle Beach on 4 February 2023, after it had drifted across the continental United States for a week. It was the F-22's first air-to-air kill, and it cost Antony Blinken his trip to Beijing.
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