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.
The F-22 Raptor engaging its cloaking device! It doesn't get any better than the Raptor, vapor, and afterburners! Florida may be humid, but that's a recipe for awesome vapor.