Canadian defence declassifies UFO photo after F‑22 shootdown
The Canadian Department of National Defence has declassified a photo taken during an incident involving an unidentified flying object in February 2023. The object was shot down by an American F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
The unidentified flying object (UFO) violated American airspace over Alaska and headed toward Canada. NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), responsible for monitoring the airspace over Canada and the United States, was in charge of tracking it.
The object, which was moving at approximately 13 kilometres, was tracked for several days, during which the decision was made to dispatch fighter jets. On February 11, over the Yukon bordering Alaska, an F-22 Raptor fired an AIM-9X air-to-air missile, which shot down the still unidentified intruder.
Space24 notes that the Raptor pilot did not know until the end what exactly the cylindrical object floating in the air was. According to brief information provided by the Canadians, it was a "small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it."
According to Fox News, this was one of three flying objects that were destroyed following the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon by Americans, which took place on February 4, 2023. In a statement by President Biden, it was noted that none of these were related to the Chinese balloon.
AIM-9X Sidewinder – short-range air-to-air missile
The AIM-9X Sidewinder, used to shoot down the balloon, is a short-range air-to-air missile produced by RTX. It is a developmental version of the AIM-9 missile, developed in the United States in the early 1950s.
Initially, these types of missiles, guided by heat sources, had limited capabilities. For the Sidewinder warhead to find its target, it was necessary to fire it from the attacked aircraft's rear hemisphere when its engines' nozzles were visible.
The latest missile variant – AIM-9X – although also guided by heat sources, does not have such limitations. It can be launched without pre-targeting, even at an angle of 180 degrees to the target.
The missile weighs 85 kilograms, is slightly over 3 metres long, and carries a warhead weighing 10 kilograms. The latest Sidewinder variant's range is up to 35 kilometres. This missile is armed not only with F-22 Raptor aircraft but also, among other things, with F-16s operated by the Polish Air Force and F-35s purchased by Poland.
