F-22 Raptor chases down an A-4 Skyhawk

Look. at. that.
You can see the left side weapon bay open at around 26 seconds, and then the doors closing.

What are we suppose to be looking at?

I don't know the whole training situation or the DLOs, but I would hazardly guess this was a tracking exercise with the A-4 flying low to use it's already small visual signature to make it a hard visual target to acquire. The F-22 jock already got a visual (or aided by his display) and then simulated a high off-bore shot with his AIM-9X by opening and closing his left bay. The F-22 jock probably continued to press in with a nose track to either assure the kill or assess it then broke off.

That's my assessment. I could be totally wrong. But I can't help but to have this image of little Joey trying to run away from the 800lb gorilla.

4 x F-15s and 4 x F-22s conducting CAP clearing the way for a strike package. The F-22 dropped down from 40,000ft to engage the two low flying A-4k adversary's.


https://theaviationist.com/2017/12/05/w ... -a-valley/