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From a purely numbers, standpoint, this is the first "combat" kill for an F-22, and also the highest-altitude air to air kill in history. My gut tells me that the pilot is going to enjoy a lot of grief from their squadron-mates for years to come. Callsign Helium, or something equally silly.
Here's the most random picture I can find, which depicts my niece's dog's *** bumping against the back of my head, which it did almost continuously for roughly 2,400 miles over the course of a week and a half as we drove from Florida to Texas and back in their RV, to attend the graduation of my godson.
From a purely numbers, standpoint, this is the first "combat" kill for an F-22, and also the highest-altitude air to air kill in history. Callsign Helium, or something equally silly.
"gasbag" ?
Do missile tests count as "kills"? Probably not, but if so then an F-15 took down a satellite in an ASAT missile test in the mid 80s. Pic from wikipedia:
Also, I read somewhere that the modern practice is to paint all kills as just a star, rather than a silhouette.