How to Use air-to-air in a Sentence

air-to-air

adjective
  • These air-to-air heat pumps are the most common type.
    — Sara Kiley Watson, Popular Science, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Alternatively, the drones could be armed with their own air-to-air missiles.
    — Sébastien Roblin, CNN, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Israel notched the first-ever air-to-air kill by a F-35 fighter jet.
    — Michael M. Rosen, The Washington Examiner, 13 Mar. 2026
  • One of the fighter jets shot down the Turkish drone with an air-to-air missile, the officials said.
    — Courtney Kube, NBC News, 5 Oct. 2023
  • So far, the incidents have not involved actual air-to-air combat.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 4 May 2023
  • This tracks a specific threat in the air and is used to target an aircraft before launching an air-to-air missile.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 7 Dec. 2025
  • But, by far, her most potent weapons are her stockpile of anti-ship, air-to-air, cruise missiles, and torpedoes.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 22 Mar. 2026
  • That is a massive distance for an air-to-air missile, allowing jets to protect an entire fleet from far over the horizon.
    — Bonny Chu, FOXNews.com, 31 Aug. 2026
  • And for the first time, a Predator fired a Stinger air-to-air missile in action, at an Iraqi fighter.
    — David Schneider, IEEE Spectrum, 22 Jan. 2011
  • This also forces any incoming Russian air-to-air missiles into a rear-aspect chase.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 25 May 2026
  • Some of these air-to-air missiles (AIM-120) cost $1 million each.
    — Rebecca Schneid, Time, 12 May 2026
  • Combat jets can also heft a wide variety of ordnance, including air-to-air, air-to-ground, and anti-ship missiles as well as bombs.
    — Michael Peck, Popular Mechanics, 6 Apr. 2023
  • Its goal is to extend the range and effectiveness of both air-to-air missiles and the current class of fighter jets while new aircraft are introduced.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 1 Jan. 2024
  • Future co-production projects may also include medium-range air-to-air missiles, officials said.
    — Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post, 27 July 2024
  • But Russia is unlikely to interfere, since direct, air-to-air combat would not work to its advantage.
    — Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Foreign Affairs, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Lockheed Martin says the missile offers greater range and effectiveness than existing air-to-air weapons.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 17 Sep. 2026
  • Its main weapons bay is associated primarily with long-range air-to-air missiles, while smaller side bays carry short-range missiles.
    — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 26 July 2026
  • Reversible air-to-air heat pumps, which are gaining popularity, are an even more efficient option and can both heat homes in winter and cool them in summer.
    — Beth Gardiner, The Atlantic, 26 June 2026
  • So our near-term focus will be on ensuring a uniformly strong connection throughout the route, for both air-to-ground and air-to-air communications.
    — Kamesh Namuduri, IEEE Spectrum, 8 July 2023
  • These aircraft are designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, as well as intelligence gathering and electronic warfare missions.
    — Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 June 2025
  • This transforms a basic unguided rocket into a precision weapon capable of both air-to-surface and air-to-air engagements.
    — Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Either or both demonstrators could become multi-role fighters with serious long-range air-to-air capability.
    — David Axe, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2024
  • This is critical because air-to-air missiles lose effectiveness dramatically if the target turns away.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 25 May 2026
  • China is also building many hundreds of advanced antiship and long-range surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, and tens of advanced destroyers and cruisers per year.
    — Justin Bronk, Foreign Affairs, 15 Dec. 2025
  • It was also known to have a powerful Smerch-A3, and carry up to four radar-homing R-40 air-to-air missiles.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 23 Feb. 2023
  • World-first beyond-visual-range air-to-air kill by a drone Baykar says that the majority of drone projects in the world focus on air-to-land strike missions, and air-to-air kills are quite rare.
    — Abhishek Bhardwaj, Interesting Engineering, 1 Dec. 2025
  • According to prosecutors, the Cuban military did not issue warnings before firing air-to-air missiles at the planes.
    — Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 20 May 2026
  • They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though they have never been used with a president on board.
    — Jonathan J. Cooper, Fortune, 2 May 2026
  • Radar-lock at close range This theoretically means that the Chinese fighter could have launched air-to-air missiles towards it, but clearly didn’t.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 14 Feb. 2026
  • At the same time, a red carpet was laid out, flanked by F-22 Raptors—renowned for stealth and air-to-air combat—already based at Elmendorf.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 15 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'air-to-air.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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