I don’t have a lot of commentary for this, because a power move of this proportion deserves to speak for itself. I will simply say that I have always been of the opinion that fighter pilots were the rock stars of the military, in that they are as flashy as they are skilled, and this most recent display of dominance reaffirms that in my mind. That’s an oversimplification, but I think it works. You can’t discount the flash factor. As badass as Navy SEALs are, for example, they’re stealth and low key, which they have to be. Plus, the movie Top Gun was way better than the movie Navy SEALs, just sayin’. Though, in fairness, the raid scene in Zero Dark Thirty was pure, XXX-Rated, Patriotica.

Anyway, here’s your power move of the day (though it actually occurred back in March).

In what only can be described as a scene out of Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun,” Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, Air Force chief of staff, describes how F-22 stealth jets scared off Iranian jets from a U.S. drone flying in international airspace. The Aviationist reports that in March a U.S. MQ-1 drone came close to being intercepted by an Iranian F-4 Phantom combat plane, but the Iranian aircraft stopped short after a warning by an American pilot. “He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home,’” Gen. Welsh said. According to The Aviationist, the Iranians came within 16 miles of the drone.

It would really blow to not be American.

[via The Washington Times]

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