Last week, the world watched as an F-22 Raptor stealth fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia fired a missile into the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
The drive reported Ken Harrell, retired Dorchester County (near Charleston, SC) Emergency Services Director and resourceful aviation radio monitor, captured 20+ minutes of fascinating cross-talk between NORAD, USAF F-22 and F-15 pilots and nearby P8 and KC-135 crews up to, during and after the shoot-down of the infamous Chinese balloon off Myrtle Beach.
The recording gives us a unique look into how the mission was executed and the extent of its many moving parts in the air. The F-22 was moving at Mach 1.3 when it fired an AIM-9X at the balloon from roughly five miles away.