An unidentified flying object was sighted near the US-Canada border on Sunday. The US military is supposed to get it out of the air – but misses the first time. An expensive mistake, since each rocket costs $400,000.
When a mysterious flying object was shot down over the United States, not everything went smoothly on Sunday: As US officials admitted, the pilot of an F-16 fighter jet missed the target with the first rocket. “We are aware that the first missile launched on Sunday missed the target,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.
The missile fell “straight” into Lake Huron on the US-Canada border. US Chief of Staff Mike Milley said in Brussels that the missile “fell harmlessly into the water of Lake Huron”. The misfire was not cheap: A missile of the type used Sidewinder costs at least 400,000 dollars, the equivalent of around 375,000 euros. The second missile fired then hit its target.
At the end of last week, US fighter jets shot down three flying objects over the US state of Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron over three days. The US military’s operations followed the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US east coast on February 4.
Little is known about the three other flying objects, and the remains have not yet been recovered. Kirby said Tuesday there was nothing to suggest the objects were part of China’s “spy balloon program” or that they were “definitely” used for foreign espionage. Ultimately, they could be balloons “that were simply connected to commercial or research facilities and were therefore harmless”.
