Editor’s Note: FighterSweep Fans, this has been a long time coming. Raptor pilots have long lamented the lack of the U.S. Air Force’s most capable short-range air-to-air missile, the AIM-9X Sidewinder. On 1 March, the 90th Fighter Squadron “Dicemen” became the first Raptor squadron in the CAF (Combat Air Forces) to receive the AIM-9X. So the world’s most feared combat aircraft just became even more lethal!

On Mar. 1, 2016 the 90th Fighter Squadron (FS) belonging to the 3rd Wing stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska officially became the first combat-operational Raptor unit to equip an F-22 with the AIM-9X Sidewinder.

According to Chief Master Sgt. Chuck Jenkins, 3rd Wing Weapons Manager, the AIM-9X will increase the already outstanding Raptor’s combat capabilities. “This has been in the inventory for the Air Force and Navy for some years; it’s nothing new to the military, but to put it on the Ferrari of aircraft – the F-22, the most advanced aircraft we have – it gives the pilots more maneuverability, larger range, and it’s a much faster missile” he said.

A claim confirmed by Lt. Col David Skalicky, commander of the 90th FS, who highlighted that, like the F-22 is a generation beyond the fighters that came before it, the AIM-9X is a generation beyond the previous variants of the Sidewinder missile: “Every aspect about this missile, it’s a huge capability increase in all facets, we can employ it in more scenarios, at greater range, and reach edges of the envelope we would have had a more difficult time reaching with the AIM-9M.”

The late arrival of the AIM-9X (already integrated in most of US combat planes since 2003) to the F-22 very well may signal a new era in Air Force airpower, since as told by Skalicky “this missile makes the most lethal combat aircraft the world has ever seen even more capable. It’s a giant enhancement to the already formidable F-22 arsenal.”

The original article in its entirety can be viewed right here.

(Featured photo courtesy of YouTube)