Question: is viper in top gun maverick?
Answer: Tom Skerritt won't be returning as Viper. It's likely Viper may have retired (due to Skerritt's 87 years old as of 2020) or he may have been dishonorably discharged for revealing classified information to Maverick in the first Top Gun (1986) (in the assumption that Maverick revealed the information to third parties).