Again a U.S. F-22 fighter plane shot down a third unmanned aircraft in a week on Saturday, this time over northern Canada, according to a U.S. official.
F-22 Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off Carolinas With Missile. Tyler Schlitt Photography / LiveStormChasers.comThird attempt: Updated on Sunday Feb 12 IST 9:20 PM
After radar spotted an unknown object on Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration and NORAD, restricted airspace in central Montana on Saturday and scrambled fighter jets. NORAD made this announcement late on Saturday. Airspace was reopened after pilots failed to identify an object that correlated with the radar signals. According to a statement, NORAD will keep an eye on the area.
The incidents pointed out the rising concerns surrounding airspace violations since the Chinese spy balloon and prior two other mysterious objects were found last week.
Second attempt: Updated on Friday Feb 10
White House says a second ‘high altitude object’ shot down over Alaska
In less than a week after shooting down a Chinese spy balloon over the East Coast, the United States fired down an unidentified object over icy waters near Alaska on President Joe Biden’s command on Friday.
White House spokesperson John Kirby described a “high altitude object” moving in Alaskan airspace that was about the size of a small car. He said Whether the object was a balloon, from where it came, or whether it was performing surveillance, the Pentagon was not yet ready to determine.
Biden addressed reporters: “It was a success,” about the military operation to down the object.
First attempt
The Biden administration instructed the Pentagon for shooting down a suspected Chinese spying balloon near the US Atlantic coast on Saturday. Although China immediately expressed its “strong dissatisfaction” with the action and threatened to take “appropriate reactions,”
The suspected huge balloon spent many days flying over North America before it was shot down by a missile fired from an F-22 off the coast of South Carolina, according to Pentagon officials. The missile caused the airplane to crash into relatively shallow water that was only 47 feet (14 meters) deep.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said it was a “deliberate and lawful action” operation that came in response to China’s “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.”
However China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted with a statement released early on Sunday saying the downing of the “civilian” aircraft was “clearly overreacting and seriously violating international practice.”
Biden told reporters in Maryland. “They successfully took it down. And I want to compliment our aviators who did it,”
State Department said: Chinese spy balloon sought secret US communications signals
The State Department confirmed on Thursday that the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down on Saturday was carrying equipment to monitor private communications, providing the first concrete evidence of the airship’s espionage purpose.
According to a State Department spokeswoman, the Pentagon used high-altitude U-2 spy planes to assess the equipment dangling from the 200-foot balloon and discovered that it could be used for “signals intelligence collecting operations.”
Watch the viral video in social media/NDTV
How big was the balloon?
Some eyewitnesses said to media “it was about the size of three school buses” it was a very large sized balloon, much bigger than normally use to gather data for meteorological purposes.
Where it was going?
The balloon was seen over Montana on Thursday, further it went towards Southeast over Kansas on Friday.
How high it was flying?
According to Pentagon it was flying about 60,000 feet. However, it is above commercial aircraft’s protected air space and in the lower stratosphere. The United States still considers this area of the atmosphere above its boundaries as sovereign air space even though it is above commercial air space. This is a far below outer space, which starts at 328,000 feet (or 100 km) and is not a part of any one nation.
As per Chinese Foreign Ministry why it was flying?
According to a statement from a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Friday, flying the balloon over the United States was an accident: “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” the statement said.
Could it be spy balloon?
Most likely not. Chinese officials would have been aware that sending a clearly observable balloon into the US heartland would be controversial, and they are unlikely to have done so on purpose.
What Author conclusion about this incident?
We have witnessed a rise in the militarization of space in recent years. Thus, it should not come as a major surprise that similar abilities are also being evolved in the stratosphere, which is located above the troposphere and stretches several tens of kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
