On Saturday afternoon, US jets intercepted the Chinese surveillance balloon because it was leaving the continental US. Live footage of the occasion reveals contrails of plane approaching the balloon, adopted by a puff of smoke which will point out the explosion of some ordnance close to the balloon’s envelope—a reporter is heard saying “they simply shot it” within the video embedded under. The envelope clearly loses structural integrity shortly afterwards because it plunges in direction of the ocean. Reportedly, the occasions occurred close to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Here’s video of it being shot down close to Myrtle Beach through Katie Herrmann #ChineseSpyBalloon pic.twitter.com/KmT9rL2bR7
— Brad Panovich (@wxbrad) February 4, 2023
Shortly afterwards, the US Department of Defense (DOD) launched a press release 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 taking pictures it down as early as Wednesday. The navy, nevertheless, decided that this might not be performed with out posing a danger to US residents, both on account of particles from the balloon itself, or from the ordnance used to destroy it.
As a end result, the navy waited till the balloon was far sufficient offshore to now not pose a danger to land, however shut sufficient that it could fall inside US territorial waters, making certain that the nation could be the primary to get well 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 nations’ cooperative North American protection group, NORAD.
It’s unclear how a lot intelligence worth there shall be in any {hardware} that survives the autumn to the ocean from that altitude. Of course, it was additionally unclear whether or not there was any intelligence worth within the balloon’s flight throughout the US within the first place.