Does a viral video really show an American B-2 bomber "surprised at high altitude" by enemy Su-34 and Su-35 jets from Russia? No, that's not true: The video originated on a TikTok channel that publishes video game footage. Despite this several social media posts presented the footage as real.
The video appeared in a post on TikTok (archived here) where it was published on July 15, 2025 with a caption that read:
B2 surprised at high altitude with enemy Su35 and Su34 #b2 #enemy #su35 #su34
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sat Jul 19 08:17:48 2025 UTC)
@slow.gonzalez B2 surprised at high altitude with enemy Su35 and Su34 #b2 #enemy #su35 #su34 ♬ original sound - MaX-Tiktoker
The @slow.gonzales channel on TikTok (archived here) published dozens of similar clips of military airplanes and was linked to a YouTube channel named "mika mikic" (archived here) with similar videos. That channel had a description that explicitly said the clips were created using the military simulation game Arma:
|like playing simulation games. If you like me videos please subscribe and like. I love and use virtual parts of Arma games
Despite this, several social media posts presented the footage as real:
(Image source: collage of screenshots of posts by @Russi_military, @vladimirputiniu and @aljwhy00 on x.com created by Lead Stories)
