Third kill for the U.S. F-22 Raptor. This time over Canada.
One other day, one other “unidentified object” has been shot down by a U.S. Air Pressure F-22. It’s the third “kill” scored by a Raptor in a couple of days: the primary one was the well-known Chinese language excessive altitude balloon shot down on February 4, 2023, at 2:39 p.m. by an F-22 Raptor, belonging to the first Fighter Wing from Langley Air Pressure Base, shot down with an AIM-9X infrared-guided air-to-air missile off the coast of South Carolina and inside U.S. territorial airspace.
The second was a “excessive altitude object” described as “cylindrical and silver-ish grey” and gave the impression to be floating, was shot down by F-22 launched from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson on Feb. 10 over Alaska.
ATC audio from ANCHORAGE CENTER at this time for the second #ChineseSpyBalloon F-22 kill over the Arctic Ocean. LINK01? (x2 F-22s launched from Elmendorf Air Pressure Base) BIDEN63/65?! (KC-135s launched from Eielson Air Pressure Base) together with FATE01? (F-16s from Eielson Air Pressure Base for… https://t.co/6JwJMdVgmc pic.twitter.com/w7XUVSNio8
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) February 11, 2023
Some extra particulars in regards to the interactions between the interceptors and the unidentified object over Alaska have simply been disclosed, including much more thriller to the encounter.
BREAKING: Some pilots that interacted with the article over Alaska mentioned that it “interfered with their sensors”. Some pilots additionally claimed to have seen no identifiable propulsion on the article, and couldn’t clarify the way it was staying within the air – CNN https://t.co/dU1kZnK0oS pic.twitter.com/uzcqtbZGIR
— Faytuks Information Δ (@Faytuks) February 11, 2023
The third object was shot down on Feb. 11, over Canada. Particulars are nonetheless scarce, however the truth that the unidentified object was shot down by a U.S. F-22 has been confirmed by Canadian President Trudeau.
I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the article over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. plane had been scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 efficiently fired on the object.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
The realm of the engagement must be over Yukon:
🚨#UPDATE: Canada has simply CLOSED a part of their airspace within the Yukon space as a result of “excessive altitude contacts pic.twitter.com/sH7cKKUlS7
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) February 11, 2023
Curiously, no description of this newest unidentified object has been offered. Nor has the altitude of the engagement been disclosed but. For the second we will’t however discover the pattern is regarding. What’s notably fascinating is that whereas the primary one was clearly a balloon, the second and third stay unidentified, therefore probably belonging to the class of the so-called UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). Are these objects unmanned plane unleashed to spy on the U.S.? Perhaps. For certain one thing is going on and after the criticism brought on by the response to the China’s spy balloon (that flew over the U.S. for days earlier than being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean), NORAD has engaged the “intruders” earlier (off the coast of Alaska, over territorial waters on Feb. 10; likely over an unpopulated space in Canada, on Feb. 11).
BTW, the North American Aerospace Protection Command (NORAD) is a binational army command liable for aerospace warning, aerospace management, and maritime warning in North America. As a binational command, the NORAD Commander is appointed by and accountable to the Heads of Authorities of each Canada and the USA (US). Due to a binational treaty-level defence settlement between Canada and the US, fighters of each nations can fly air protection missions contained in the airspace of the opposite nation. And, interact an intruder with air-to-air missiles, if wanted. As occurred on Feb. 11.
We are going to replace this publish as new particulars emerge.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and skim army aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, masking aviation, protection, struggle, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with totally different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Pressure, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.
