The United States has formed a perimeter off the coast of South Carolina in response to a shot down Chinese spy balloon. US ships have been deployed to secure the area as a salvage vessel will not arrive for several days.
US officials have confirmed that an F-22 Raptor fighter jet was responsible for shooting down the balloon with a single AIM-9X sidewinder missile. The incident occurred at 2.38pm on Saturday, off the coast of Myrtle beach.
Audio from one of the two fighter jets involved in the mission, with callsigns FRANK01 and FRANK02, has been released. The audio reveals the moment the pilots confirmed the successful hit on the balloon. They reported to the Eastern Air Defense Sector that the balloon was “completely destroyed.”
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO BELOW:
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3 Responses
Why a missile. Machine gun wouldn’t do it?
Why shoot it down causing dangerous fragmentation? Couldn’t a harpoon-type arrow do the trick with a trailing rope that would allow it to be pulled down to earth for examining the equipment?
Haleivi cannon on-board these jets explode on impact with something. Shooting at the top wouldn’t accomplish much as the bullets would just go through. Shooting at the bottom with cannon is a waste of ordnance, one missile does the trick