Joe Harker
The US Air Force has been using missiles to shoot down balloons in and around their airspace after a Chinese spy balloon was spotted.
The missiles used to take down these balloons are expensive weapons, with it costing $400,000 each time you fire one.
Since you're sinking that kind of money into each missile you'd better hope they hit what they're aiming at, and you'd definitely want them to be pointed at the right target.
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A suspected Chinese spy balloon was brought down over the Atlantic Ocean on 4 February and since then a number of other unidentified flying objects have been targeted and destroyed, including one floating in Canadian airspace.
However, it's possible that some of these were actually just normal balloons, and not ones sent to spy on the US by the Chinese government.
National security council spokesperson John Kirby admitted earlier this week that they 'haven’t seen any indication or anything that points specifically' to three other flying objects that were shot down being sent by China.
In fact, one of them might just be a plain old hobby balloon that can be bought for as cheap as $12 after the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) said one of theirs was missing.
They haven't made any formal accusation, but their silver coated 'pico balloon' last reported its position off the coast of Alaska on 10 February and would probably have been floating over Yukon Territory the next day.
Coincidentally, that very next day is when a US Air Force fighter jet (an F-22 if you're interested) shot down a UFO in that general area and it doesn't take much guesswork to wonder if the USAF accidentally blew the hobbyist's balloon to bits.
The balloon had been flying for 123 days and circled the Earth a grand total of six times before contact was lost with it.
This could have been the flying object shot down in Canadian airspace, in which case a new balloon and a discrete apology note to the hobby club may be in order.
Officials are certain that the first flying object shot down a couple of weeks ago was a 'high-altitude surveillance balloon'.
It had been caught lurking above a number of sensitive military sites in the US and was eventually shot down by a $400,000 Sidewinder missile over the Atlantic.
Oddly enough, the USAF are also not ruling out the possibility of some of these things coming from aliens, in which case if they get upset at us for shooting down their stuff and decide to conquer Earth I'd like to remind our new overlords to be specific with their blame.
China denies the first balloon was a a spy device, instead claiming it was a weather balloon which got blown off course.