Chapter 131

Hearing his teammates' curses, the pilot named William quickly spotted the missile in the stolen thermal imaging feed.

Immediately, he and his teammates pulled up hard to gain altitude.

However, once a fighter jet is locked by a missile, even an F-22 has a very slim chance of escape.

For although fighter jets possess certain maneuverability and flexibility, along with the skills of excellent pilots,

in actual combat, breaking a missile lock is usually an extremely difficult task.

This is because modern air-to-air missiles typically far exceed fighter jets in speed, generally around Mach 4, with some even surpassing Mach 6.

This means that once locked by a missile, the fighter must react quickly to avoid being shot down.

Furthermore, even experienced pilots feel immense pressure when facing a missile lock,

especially in tense and dangerous situations where they may lose their composure and make erroneous decisions, thereby increasing the probability of being shot down.

Generally, the escape probability lies between 10% and 20%.

Let alone the PL-21 fired by the J-20, which is an active radar-guided missile.

It should be known that with technological development, one thing is clear: the value of dogfight missiles is diminishing.

Currently, regarding dogfight missiles, various nations are improving flexibility rather than range, demanding all-aspect capabilities that allow coordination with helmet-mounted sights to guide missiles toward targets for off-boresight launches.

However, upon entering the fifth-generation fighter era, since both sides utilize stealth aircraft, beyond-visual-range decisive engagement has inevitably become the mainstream.

How to destroy targets at ultra-long ranges is the key to future fighter jets.

Past semi-active radar guidance has been eliminated; for instance, Long Country's PL-15 and PL-21 have both entered the era of active radar guidance.

Equipped with millimeter-wave common phased array radar, they can easily lock onto an F-22.

As an explosion rang out,

an F-22 fighter jet turned into a ball of fire.

"Matt...!!!" Pilot William watched in horror as his comrade's fighter jet transformed into a fireball, his heart unable to find peace for a long time.

It should be known that this was the first F-22 Raptor fighter jet destroyed since they entered the Syrian battlefield.

In the past, whenever they appeared in Syrian airspace, they were invincible.

Those surface-to-air missiles simply could not lock onto them.

Therefore, during this period, relying on F-22 fighters sharp as daggers, they had destroyed countless Syrian air defense weapons.

They had also killed many civilians.

Some pilots would even deliberately target missile strikes at civilian areas; even when condemned,

they would claim it was an aircraft accident.

Just as they had done when they bombed the embassy years ago.

But today, their supposedly invincible F-22 Raptor fighter jets

had actually been destroyed.

More importantly, they hadn't even detected the enemy.

They didn't know what kind of fighter jet it was, or which country it belonged to.

This beyond-visual-range combat made the Ugly Country's pilots feel instantly as if they didn't know how to fight anymore,

because in the past, no country possessed such capabilities.

To detect and lock onto an F-22 Raptor from such a great distance was astonishing.

It was as if the F-22's stealth capabilities were utterly useless against them.

Even more terrifying was the enemy's missile speed: Mach 6, equivalent to 2.052 kilometers per second.

This meant that in just one and a half minutes, the missile could traverse two hundred kilometers, exceeding the F-22's radar detection range.

This speed was too fast;

basically, by the time the F-22 detected the missile, it was already nearly upon them.

Without time to mourn the lost teammate, pilot William, who had just narrowly dodged the missile in a hair-raising maneuver, immediately spoke into the communication system:

"Thomas, scatter, Formation 5!"

"OK!"

Immediately, the remaining two jets banked sharply and scattered.

The two aircraft moved like two pincers heading toward the incoming missiles.

However, giving them no chance to catch their breath, more missiles flew toward them.

The F-22s immediately launched two AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles to intercept the incoming ordnance.

As for why they hadn't fired earlier,

it was because they hadn't even had time to react before the enemy missiles were already upon them.

Basically, once locked, aside from evading, they could perform no other actions.

But now, having learned from the recent lesson, they immediately began engaging the enemy missiles with their own in a missile duel.

Consequently, the two PL-21 missiles were intercepted.

However, they had no time to relax, as the dripping alarm sounds on their aircraft rang out again.

"FUCK!" William couldn't help but curse.

Because the enemy's tactic of never showing themselves while continuously firing sneak attacks from long range

felt too despicable to him.

If you have the skill, let us fight steel against steel and let our flying skills speak,

instead of constantly shooting from the shadows.

The enemy, relying on stealth capabilities and beyond-visual-range strikes, truly made the F-22 pilots feel extremely frustrated.

At this moment, they would never have guessed that,

Relying on their stealth capabilities, they slaughtered without restraint in the skies above other nations.

Wasn't that utterly despicable?

If Lin Yi, piloting the J-20, knew what the F-22 pilots were thinking, he would probably have scoffed.

Even in close-quarters combat, he had no fear of them.

After all, over 5,000 hours of life-or-death battles and hundreds of near-death experiences were no joke.

But conversely, why should he abandon his own advantages to fight them on their terms?

That wouldn't make him a hero; it would make him an idiot.

Moreover, Lin Yi possessed the advantage of unlimited ammunition and energy as long as he had money.

Under such circumstances, no matter how many missiles he fired, he could wear the enemy down to death.

However, these American F-22 pilots were completely unaware of this.

They retaliated with AIM-120 medium-range air-to-air missiles.

But the problem was their ammunition load.

Although the F-22 could carry a maximum of eight missiles—two more than the J-20's main bay—they had already fired theirs over Syria.

Now, the two aircraft actually had very little ammunition left.

"Thomas, how many missiles do you have left?"

William asked over the communication system.

"I only have one AIM-120 missile left!"

Thomas checked his remaining ammunition count, his expression turning extremely grim.

If the enemy fired another volley, he would be completely empty.

Yet, in just that brief moment, the opponent had launched seven of those ultra-fast air-to-air missiles.

The problem was, to this day, they still couldn't determine exactly how many enemy aircraft were present.

If they were fighting only one plane, the opponent should now be nearly out of ammunition.

But if there were multiple aircraft, they would have to retreat immediately.

Unfortunately, the opponent had been avoiding close-range combat the entire time, seeming to understand the F-22's radar system perfectly.

They simply couldn't lock onto the enemy.

This made the faces of the two F-22 pilots turn extremely ugly.

Before they could dwell on it further, the familiar beeping sound rang out again.

However, before they could dwell on it further, the familiar beeping sounded again.

Thomas immediately fired his last remaining missile.

Thomas immediately fired the last remaining missile.