Selfie with stealth: French pilot takes shot while U.S. F-22 Raptor forms up on his left wing

March 17, 2014 Military Aviation, Selfies
David Cenciotti

A French Mirage 2000 pilot in a cool selfie as a U.S. F-22 stealth fighter forms up on his wing during a joint exercise.

The image (a frame of GoPro video) was probably taken during the deployment at Al Dhafra airbase, in the UAE, of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors.

According to the French pilots, aerial combat with the Raptor is extremely important, regardless of the outcome of the dogfight: training with the F-22 gives French Mirage 2000 the possibility to learn to fight against a superior fighter: “Sometimes a battle begins even before meeting the adversary, when it is necessary to convince themselves that the opponent is not so terrible, and despite the gap of performance, the technological chasm, one is able to get the game.”

Image credit: Groupe de Chasse 1/2 Cigognes

About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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4 Comments

  1. False flag coming..China ..US. poss biological..two navy seals died While transport of cargo
    Target unknown could be related to Ukraine or on US soil. MOTIVE unknown. Poss further enforcement of agenda .. . , updated (4:11pm est. ).. there is an ends to the means.. large operations underway 1000 miles west off of the coast of Australia. PASSENGERS status unknown. GRU “suspicious”.. data uplink underway. Poss testing of PASSENGERS or use in further procedure .

  2. How did the Raptor show up in the picture? I thought they were invisible. ;-)

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