A lot of questions about the situation this represents. Was it "one on one", or did the F-22 go up against a number of F-18s in the engagement? Was it a lucky shot or was the F-22 outflown (F-18 pulling over 7 G, so this is no walk in the park)? What of the experience levels of the pilots?

Either way, this is a good kill: bye bye Raptor!

That F18 pilot had to have been super hot surely. Maybe the F22 pilort was inexperienced as you suggest, after all will thrust vectoring and physics defying high and of attack capability, the F22 should eat Hornets for breakfast.

Y'know what I wanna see? The Air Forces world cup. Two heavenly weeks of Top Gun dogfight competition using each country's best hardware and pilots. The USAF could pitch with Raptors, the Brits with Eurofighters, the French with Rafale, the Swedes with Gripen and the Ruskies with Flankers and so on... Golly, that'd make for spectacular war games!

Looks like he's finished!

I believe we have had Su-27s and Mig-29s against F-22s: this occured late last year in the US. The Su-27s were Ukrainian and the MiG-29s were, I think, German/Polish. The results of these wargames are not publicly known.

But in reality, dogfights are like knife fights in phone booths: just about everyone gets cut. Skill and plane come into it, but every now and then there is an element on luck that comes into play...