US tracked suspected Chinese spy balloon for 5 days before shooting it down over the Atlantic
An Air Force jet shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast Saturday afternoon, after it drifted for five days across Idaho, Montana and the continental U.S. before reaching the Atlantic.
An F-22 Raptor jet fired a single missile that sent the balloon into the ocean at about 2:39 p.m. Efforts to recover its surveillance equipment were underway.
The Pentagon had been tracking the balloon, which appeared over Billings, Montana, Wednesday after passing near an American missile launch site.
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China's Foreign Ministry said Friday that the balloon is a civilian weather balloon that was blown off course by westerly winds and entered the U.S. by accident.
U.S. defense officials said late Thursday that they had "very high confidence" the large white balloon belonged to China and that its purpose was surveillance. "The current flight path does carry it over a number of sensitive sites," an official said in a Defense Department briefing.
One of the sites was Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, where the Air Force maintains 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos. Officials, however, said it's unlikely the high-altitude balloon could gather more information than a spy satellite could.
Where did the balloon come from?
Few details were available, but the balloon entered U.S. continental airspace in Idaho after flying over Alaska's Aleutian Islands and Canada. It was spotted over Montana on Wednesday by a commercial flight.
Officials would not give size specifics but did say the balloon was as big as three buses and large enough to be seen by pilots in flight.
Where did the balloon go?
It was not known whether the balloon was being guided. Over five days, it drifted across the continental U.S. on a southwesterly course to the Carolinas.
The balloon was shot down six nautical miles off the coast at an altitude of just over 12 miles and landed in water 47 feet deep, Paste BN reported. No injuries or boat damages was reported.
The FAA grounded flights in and out of Wilmington, N.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Charleston, S.C., for about an hour while the balloon was taken down.
The balloon's altitude, estimated Friday at 11 miles, was high enough to avoid endangering commercial air flights, defense officials said. Commercial traffic is usually below 8 miles.
What was the US military response?
The Air Force scrambled F-22 fighter jets from Virginia and F-15 jets from Massachusetts to shoot down the balloon after it crossed the South Carolina coastline, officials said.
Earlier, two F-22 Raptor fighter jets were sent from Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas on Wednesday to intercept the balloon. The U.S. considered shooting it down but decided against it because senior military officers said falling debris would be too high a risk.
Air traffic was halted at Billings Logan International Airport from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday as the military conferred with the White House.
How are balloons used in surveillance?
Though nations commonly use satellites to spy on one another, balloons have some advantages in surveillance:
- Cost: Balloons are cheaper to build and launch.
- Time: Satellites have brief windows to photograph areas of interest before they orbit out of range. Balloons can spend more time over specified areas.
- Range: Balloons can scan and photograph larger tracts of territory than satellites can.
A balloon can be "steered" by changing its altitude and letting it use the varying wind patterns found at different heights.
The U.S. military has tested high-altitude balloons for surveillance.
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SOURCE Paste BN Network reporting and research; Associated Press; Department of Defense