A supersonic trainer jet, likely a T-38 Talon, achieved a simulated kill against an F-22 Raptor during what appears to be a training exercise captured on video in 2009. The footage, which spread rapidly across aviation forums and news sites, challenged popular assumptions about the Raptor’s near-invincibility and exposed the persistent threat that small, agile aircraft pose even to the world’s most advanced stealth fighter. Five years later, the Air Force itself confirmed the logic behind such matchups, revealing that T-38s regularly fly as adversary aircraft against F-22 squadrons to keep Raptor pilots sharp in close-range combat.
The Video That Sparked a Debate
On April 18, 2009, a YouTube video surfaced showing what appeared to be a small jet maneuvering into a firing position against an F-22 Raptor during a training sortie. The footage quickly drew attention from defense writers and aviation enthusiasts, with early coverage noting that the clip seemed to show a simulated kill against the stealth fighter. The clip was grainy and brief, but the implication was clear: a much cheaper, older aircraft had outmaneuvered the Air Force’s premier air superiority platform in a mock dogfight, at least for a few critical seconds.
The story gained traction after FlightGlobal initially reported on the incident, and other outlets amplified the claim. Coverage at the time described the F-22 as having been “fragged” by a T-38 in mock combat, borrowing a term from gaming culture to underscore the embarrassment factor. The Raptor, a fighter that cost tens of billions of dollars in development, had apparently been bested by a jet originally designed to teach student pilots basic flight skills. The viral spread of the video turned what was almost certainly a routine training event into a public relations headache for advocates of high-end stealth aircraft and their budget lines.
What the Video Does and Does Not Prove
For all the excitement the footage generated, the actual evidence remains limited. The identification of the attacking aircraft as a T-38 Talon was never confirmed in the video itself, according to early analysis of the clip. The camera angle, resolution, and lack of official commentary left open the possibility that the jet could have been another type of adversary aircraft. No pilot names, unit designations, or exercise identifiers were visible in the footage, and the Air Force did not publicly comment on the specific incident, either to validate the narrative or to correct it.
That ambiguity matters because it separates the verified fact (that a video exists showing a smaller aircraft achieving a simulated kill position on an F-22) from the broader narrative that a T-38 definitively “shot down” a Raptor. Defense analysts at the time noted that training exercises are designed to create exactly these kinds of scenarios, sometimes even stacking the rules or starting conditions against the more capable aircraft. Raptor pilots routinely face simulated threats at close range precisely because real adversaries would attempt the same tactics if they could survive long enough to get there. A simulated kill in a training drill does not indicate a design flaw; it indicates the drill is working as intended. The distinction between a controlled training outcome and a real combat vulnerability is one that much of the viral coverage glossed over in favor of a simpler, more sensational story.
Why T-38s Fly Against Raptors
The Air Force has a straightforward reason for pitting aging T-38 Talons against F-22s: cost-effective realism. The 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley employed T-38s specifically as adversary aircraft to simulate enemy fighters in training engagements, according to Air Combat Command reporting. The T-38, with its small radar cross-section, high speed, and tight turning radius, can mimic certain characteristics of lightweight threat aircraft that F-22 pilots might encounter in contested airspace. Flying a T-38 costs a fraction of what it takes to put an F-15 or F-16 in the air for the same role, making it an efficient stand-in for repetitive adversary sorties that focus on pilot decision-making and visual maneuvering rather than raw platform capability.
The program reflects a broader philosophy within Air Combat Command: stealth and sensor advantage matter enormously at long range, but once a fight collapses into a close-in turning engagement, the rules change. A small, nimble aircraft flown by an experienced aggressor pilot can exploit angles and energy states that even the F-22’s thrust-vectoring engines cannot always counter, especially if the scenario starts at a disadvantage for the Raptor. The T-38 adversary program exists because the Air Force recognizes this gap and wants Raptor pilots to train against it regularly rather than be surprised by it in combat. The 2009 video, whatever its exact details, illustrated exactly the kind of scenario these drills are built to rehearse: a high-end stealth fighter forced into a knife fight with a smaller jet that is hard to see and easy to overshoot.
Stealth’s Limits in Close Combat
The F-22 Raptor was designed primarily as a beyond-visual-range killer. Its stealth profile, advanced radar, and sensor fusion give it an enormous advantage when engaging targets at distances where the enemy cannot see or track it effectively. In that regime, the Raptor can detect, target, and “shoot” long before an opponent realizes it is under threat. But stealth provides diminishing returns once two aircraft are within visual range of each other. At that point, the fight becomes about airspeed, altitude, turn rate, pilot skill, and weapons employment, factors where a lighter aircraft can hold its own or even gain an edge under the right conditions. The 2009 video captured a moment where those close-range dynamics apparently played out in the smaller jet’s favor, at least long enough for a notional missile shot.
This is not a secret within the fighter community. Air Force training doctrine has long acknowledged that no single aircraft dominates every phase of aerial combat. The Raptor excels at controlling the fight before the merge, which is the moment when two opposing aircraft pass each other at close range. After the merge, the engagement becomes a knife fight, and the F-22’s stealth coating and low-observable shaping offer no protection. Experienced aggressor pilots know how to force a merge and then exploit their aircraft’s strengths in the turning fight that follows. The T-38 adversary program at Langley was built around exactly this principle, using the Talon’s small size and quick handling to create situations where even a Raptor pilot can find themselves temporarily on the defensive.
What the Drill Reveals About Fighter Training
The most common misreading of the 2009 incident treats it as evidence that the F-22 is fundamentally flawed. A more accurate interpretation is that it shows the training program is honest. Drills that never produce losses for the home team are drills that are not probing the limits of pilots or machines. In realistic air combat training, instructors deliberately script scenarios where the more advanced aircraft starts at a disadvantage (low on energy, outnumbered, or constrained by rules that simulate fuel or weapons limits) to force pilots to practice fighting their way out of bad situations. A screenshot of a Raptor in someone else’s gunsight may look damning on the internet, but inside the squadron it is raw material for debriefs, lessons learned, and tactical refinement.
The Air Force’s decision to dedicate T-38s as regular adversaries for F-22 units underscores that philosophy. Instead of treating the Raptor as untouchable, training designers assume that enemies will study its strengths and search for ways to neutralize them, whether through numbers, tactics, or technology. By flying frequent sorties against small, agile jets, Raptor pilots gain experience in spotting hard-to-see opponents, managing energy in tight turning fights, and recovering from momentary mistakes before they become fatal. The 2009 video, stripped of hype, is best understood as a snapshot of that process: a fleeting image of a Raptor on the losing end of a single engagement, showing how a small adversary jet can briefly get into a firing position even against a stealth icon, in a long, deliberate campaign to ensure that, when the stakes are real, those lessons have already been paid for in simulated kills rather than in combat losses.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
