A B-50D of the 97th Bomb Wing lands while a B-29 prepares to take off, early 1950s
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Soooooo an F-22 Raptor just got its entire product line's first confirmed air-to-air kill... against that Chinese weather balloon the news was freaking out about
The F-22 Raptor program began in the early 90s and has cost a total of, according to one source, $32.4 billion dollars. It has been by most metrics a complete failure which has failed to produce a viable multirole air superiority fighter. It has - by the act of replacing certain obsolete aircraft but then being cancelled after the aircraft it replaced were retired - punched holes in the USAF's lineup that the F-35, its successor, cannot fill. It also has the dubious distinction of its production process being so monstrously fucked that it would, at this point, cost less money to invent a new aircraft than to restart F-22 production.
Until today, it had zero confirmed kills. It now has one - an unarmed, unmanned balloon.
In a very real way, the United States just paid $32.4 billion to pop a balloon.
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Incoming: F-22 Raptor edition
@Smitchphoto via X
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Man, that pool cleaner must be glad that psycho had literally the worst aim ever.
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Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress "Big Yank" (44-6405) starting up her engines. This Fortress is credited with 3 Me 262 kills and one probable on March 24, 1945.
NARA: 195654
source
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