US military didn’t know if missile that took out Chinese ‘spy balloon’ would work, commander says

A US Air Force F-22 fighter aircraft fired a single air-to-air missile at an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon over the weekend, sending the system crashing into the Atlantic Ocean in a moment of heightened tension between Washington and Beijing.

But before the pilot took the shot on Saturday, the US military was not sure that the missile would actually work for this specific operation, a top US commander said on Monday.

The F-22, which was operating at an altitude of 58,000 feet (17,700 metres), used an AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile to take down the balloon, which was hovering between 60,000 and 65,000 feet, a senior US defence official told reporters after the mission.

General Glen VanHerck, commander of Norad and US Northern Command, told reporters on Monday that he was unsure if the Air Force ever tested an AIM-9 against a balloon target at such a high altitude.

“I’m not aware of any engagements against the high-altitude balloon such as this. We did not have the weapons data,” he said.