One Missile From US-Owned F-22 Combat Jetsambus Balong Allegedly A Chinese-Owned Eye

Illustration- F-22 (Photo: Luke Jernejcic/Unspalsh)

JAKARTA - A US military fighter plane shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon while floating off the coast of South Carolina, Saturday, February 4. The shooting ended a dramatic story highlighting the deteriorating relationship between China and the US. "We managed to get down and I want to praise our pilots for doing it," said President Joe Biden. Biden continued, orders to shoot down a spy balloon were made last Wednesday. However, the Pentagon is waiting for the balloon position above open waters to protect civilians from debris that fell to Earth from an altitude of thousands of feet above commercial air traffic. Several warplanes and refueling were involved in the mission. But only the F-22 fighter jet from thewidow Air Force Base in Virginia took pictures at 14:39 (1939 GMT), using one AIM-9X supersonic aircraft. The balloon was shot down about six nautical miles off the US coast, over relatively shallow waters. The shootings came shortly after the US government ordered a halt to flights into and out of three South Carolina airports (Wilmington, The balloon first entered US airspace on January 28 before moving to Canadian airspace on Monday January 30. Then re-entered US airspace on January 31. "Once it crossed the US mainland, it did not return to open waters, making firing difficult," a US defense official said. US officials did not publicly disclose the presence of the balloon above the United States until Thursday. Washington called it a "clear violation" of US sovereignty and notified Beijing of the shooting on Saturday. "Our assessment - and we will learn more as we take debris - is that it is unlikely to provide significant added value beyond other intelligence (China) capabilities, such as satellites in low-Earth orbit," said a senior US defense official. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first announced the shooting, saying the balloons were used by China "in an attempt to monitor strategic sites on the mainland of the United States." A Reuters photographer who witnessed the shooting said the flow came from the jet and hit a balloon, but there was no explosion. Then it started to fall, the photographer said. The US military did not immediately recover cargo from Chinese reconnaissance balloons, officials said