F-22 Raptor demonstration at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. Photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Marcus M. Bullock, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense.
A Chinese surveillance balloon that had been making its way across the United States was shot down by the U.S. military on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 4.
According to Reuters, an F-22 fighter jet based out of Langley Air Force base in Virginia brought it down six miles off South Carolina’s coast using a supersonic missile. U.S. military vessels are on the hunt for debris at the time of writing.
The balloon’s presence over the United States was confirmed by U.S. officials on Thursday, Feb. 2, five days after it entered U.S. airspace in Alaska. The balloon was tracked as it traveled east over Alaska, into Canada, and back into the United States where it crossed over several states before it was downed.
President Joe Biden said that he “ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down … as soon as possible” on Wednesday. However, military officials warned that the balloon might pose a threat to people and property if it went into freefall over land, so the decision was made to wait for the balloon to be over water before taking military action.
The balloon and its destruction have brought U.S. – China relations to a new low. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a trip to China that Reuters described as “an overdue opportunity to stabilize an increasingly fractious relationship between the two countries."
A friendly relationship with China now seems to be further away as diplomacy on both sides grows increasingly sour.
.png)
.jpg)
