US army shoots down Chinese language balloon over coastal waters

On Saturday afternoon, US jets intercepted the Chinese language surveillance balloon because it was leaving the continental US. Dwell footage of the occasion reveals contrails of plane approaching the balloon, adopted by a puff of smoke that will point out the explosion of some ordnance close to the balloon’s envelope—a reporter is heard saying “they only shot it” within the video embedded beneath. The envelope clearly loses structural integrity shortly afterwards because it plunges in the direction of the ocean. Reportedly, the occasions occurred close to Myrtle Seaside, South Carolina.

Here is video of it being shot down close to Myrtle Seaside through Katie Herrmann #ChineseSpyBalloon pic.twitter.com/KmT9rL2bR7

— Brad Panovich (@wxbrad) February 4, 2023

Shortly afterwards, the US Division of Protection (DOD) launched an announcement attributed to its Secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, that confirmed the interception was carried out by US fighter jets on the order of President Biden. The DOD identifies the {hardware} as a “excessive altitude surveillance balloon,” and says that the President licensed capturing it down as early as Wednesday. The army, nonetheless, decided that this might not be completed with out posing a danger to US residents, both as a result of particles from the balloon itself, or from the ordnance used to destroy it.

Consequently, the army waited till the balloon was far sufficient offshore to not pose a danger to land, however shut sufficient that it could fall inside US territorial waters, guaranteeing that the nation could be the primary to get better any {hardware} that survived the plunge into the ocean. Secretary Austin additionally thanked Canada for its help in monitoring and intercepting the balloon by means of the international locations’ cooperative North American protection group, NORAD.

It is unclear how a lot intelligence worth there might be in any {hardware} that survives the autumn to the ocean from that altitude. After all, it was additionally unclear whether or not there was any intelligence worth within the balloon’s flight throughout the US within the first place.