Over the course of a single week, US fighter jets shot down high-altitude objects using five heat-seeking missiles for intrusions into American airspace after an object was deemed to be a Chinese surveillance balloon.
What we know so far about the US shooting down multiple UFOs
A huge Chinese balloon first entered US airspace over Alaska before traversing the entirety of the continental US, then was shot down by US fighter jets once safely over the Atlantic, where it could be recovered.
China claimed the craft was a weather balloon, but US authorities believe it was a surveillance airship, as it had navigation capabilities. However, China refuted the allegations, countering that the US was flying its own spy balloons over China. That claim was rejected by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said, “We do not send spy balloons over China, period.”
What’s known so far about the first Chinese spy balloon
On January 28, the Chinese balloon entered US airspace near Alaska. It then transitioned over Canada and then across the continental US.
On February 2, the US Defense Department said it was tracking the balloon over the Lower 48. A day earlier, the balloon had been loitering over Montana. Following the DOD announcement, the balloon began proceeding quickly toward the East Coast, a US official said, CBS reported.
On February 4, a US fighter jet used a missile to shoot the balloon down over the Atlantic, off the coast of South Carolina.
On February 5, US Navy sailors recovered the high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on February 5.
One senior US military official said underwater pictures of the debris field showed the wreckage was remarkably intact after its fall from 60,000 feet. The debris field was described as seven miles wide and in relatively shallow water, about 47 feet deep. Both the Navy and FBI dive teams have been involved in the search. The FBI has been evaluating the evidence at its lab in Quantico, Virginia. Officials say no explosive materials have been found on the evidence examined thus far.
On February 9, Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton told senators during a hearing that the height of the balloon was comparable to the statue of liberty, about “200 feet tall with a jetliner size payload.” The communications panel under the balloon had been compared to the size of two buses.
According to a senior State Department official, the balloon had a collection pod of equipment that included devices for collecting communication signals and other sensitive information, including solar panels located on a metal trust suspended below the balloon.
Officials say the equipment was “clearly for intelligence surveillance,” and it included “multiple antennas… Likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.”
What about the 3 other UFOs shot down?
From February 10-12, US officials spotted three more objects over American and Canadian airspace.
On February 10, a high-altitude object was shot down over the coast of Alaska.
On February 11, a UFO was shot down, and Canadian airspace.
On February 12, a US military jet shot down another object over the Great Lakes region. The first missile missed, crashing “harmlessly” into Lake Huron, according to US officials. The pilot fired a second heat-seeking AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that took down the object. The missiles carry a price tag of approximately $400,000 each.
No UFOs, likely benign balloons
The US has still not recovered the three other objects shot down by the military over the weekend, officials said, ABC reported.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the objects fell in “pretty remote locations,” adding, “it could take us a while to reach the debris … We’ll get them eventually.”
Officials say they use the word “objects” as it’s the best explanation for them right now. The “leading explanation” for the “objects” is that they were commercial, benign balloons, according to the White House.
“There are no UFOs,” said White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall during a virtual briefing with a group of governors on Monday, Fox reported. “This is not an invasion of the aliens.”
The reason US jets use expensive missiles instead of cheap bullets
Many are criticizing US officials for using $400,000 missiles to take down balloons, some of which may be benign rather than relatively cheap bullets.
“The military’s ability to respond to balloons and similar craft is constrained by physics and the capabilities of current weapons,” the Washington Post reported.
A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and fighter pilot told the post bullets won’t take down balloons at those high altitudes, saying you can’t pop a giant balloon with gunfire at 40,000 feet, Yahoo reported.
“You can fill a balloon full of bullet holes, and it’s going to stay at altitude,” Lieutenant Colonel said.
The air pressure at that altitude doesn’t allow helium to escape freely through small holes. Even if fighter jets flying by at hundreds of miles per hour can riddle the near-stationary balloon with bullets – they stay afloat.
Canadian pilots found out the hard way in 1998 after firing more than a thousand rounds at a balloon off the coast of Newfoundland and were later roasted by the British press over the failure.
