The shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy satellite by US fighter jets has heightened tensions between China and the US.
After days of observation, US fighter jets crashed the “surveillance balloon” with a rocket off the Atlantic coast of the state of South Carolina on the instructions of US President Joe Biden. Users posted videos of the balloon being launched on social networks.
Beijing protested against the “overreaction” on Sunday, rejected the allegations of espionage and spoke of a “civilian” research balloon going astray.
When the white balloon finally hovered 18 to 20 kilometers above the Atlantic coast on Saturday, fighter jets took off and launched it with an AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air guided missile from an altitude of 58,000 feet (about 17.7 km). crashed.
Joe Biden praised the “successful” mission. Biden told reporters on Saturday that he had given the order to launch the balloon over the United States several days ago. As early as Wednesday, when he was informed about the balloon, he ordered the flying object to be shot down “as quickly as possible”.
A risk for the people on the ground should be ruled out. Therefore, it was decided to shoot down the flying object first over the sea, but within US sovereign territory.
Launching the balloon over land would have been too dangerous due to the size and height of the balloon and its load, Secretary of Defense Austin said.
Meanwhile, Colombia has now also informed about an unknown object that has entered its airspace and has “similar properties to a balloon”. On the morning of February 3, the national air defense system discovered an object at an altitude of around 17,000 meters over the northern sector of the country, the Colombian air force said on Saturday (local time).
It presented “no threat to national security”. The Air Force is now working with other countries to determine the origin of the object.
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said in Washington on Friday that another possible spy balloon was hovering over Latin America. Initially, there was no information about the second balloon from Beijing.
Balloons are considered important observation platforms. Their use is not unusual. Unlike satellites, they can stay in one place and don’t have to make a new orbit around the earth to take more pictures, experts say.
You could observe from a closer distance, are difficult to detect for radar. They could also intercept communications. The navigation options are significantly improved today, so that they no longer depend solely on the wind. (Tsp with dpa)
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