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A newly released photo shows US sailors pulling a downed Chinese spy balloon from the sea.
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The balloon first appeared last week and was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet on Saturday.
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A second balloon, also owned by China, has been spotted over Latin America.
The U.S. Navy released a photo on Tuesday that shows sailors pulling a downed Chinese surveillance balloon out of the Atlantic Ocean.
A US Air Force F-22 fighter fired an air-to-air missile. shoot down A high-altitude balloon over the South Carolina coast on Saturday.formerly in China Admitted He owned a balloon that first appeared while flying over the Pacific Northwest last week, but denied it was a spy balloon, as the U.S. military said.
The F-22 was operating at an altitude of 58,000 feet when it launched the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile into the balloon. The balloon hovered between 60,000 and 65,000 feet of her, sending the system plummeting into an area of water miles from the shore. Defense officials said over the weekend.
The U.S. military has since collected debris from the balloons to glean more information about their capabilities.
Navy photos released by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) show sailors pulling a dismembered balloon (now jumbled with plastic and fabric) out of the Atlantic Ocean for investigation. It is reflected.
General Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD and the US Northern Command, told reporters on Monday that the field of rubble would be as large as “15 football fields by 15 football fields” and expected to be about 50 feet deep. He said he does. He added that the balloon was about 200 feet tall, had a payload the size of a “jetliner” and probably weighed thousands of pounds.
“Remember, due to ocean currents, there could be some debris washed ashore,” Van Herck said.
He added that it was unclear where the wreckage would be sent for final analysis..”
According to a senior U.S. defense official, the balloon first entered the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone on January 28, entered U.S. airspace over Alaska, two days later entered Canadian airspace, and entered U.S. airspace over the Pacific Northwest on January 31. re-entered the It traveled southeast across the continental United States before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
A second balloon also appeared Floating in Central and South America, and China continued to confirm ownership again on Monday. Defense officials said the balloons belonged to China’s fleet of balloons conducting surveillance operations.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently statement On February 1, days before the surgery, President Joe Biden approved the decision to lower the balloon as soon as possible without endangering the lives of those below the balloon’s path.
“After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders have determined that due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload, lowering the balloon over land poses an undue risk to a wide range of people.
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