Growth. And the Chinese language spy balloon, of the scale of three buses, that had strayed into the US airspace was shot down with a single missile, confirmed a video. The Pentagon mentioned on Friday that it had surveillance capabilities.

China angrily voiced its “robust dissatisfaction” on the transfer and mentioned it might make “needed responses.”

“We efficiently took it down, and I need to praise our aviators who did it,” President Joe Biden mentioned.

A Reuters photographer who witnessed the shootdown mentioned a stream got here from a jet and hit the balloon, however there was no explosion. It then started to fall, the photographer mentioned.

An F-22 fighter jet took the shot at 2:39 p.m. (1939 GMT), utilizing a single AIM-9X supersonic, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile, a senior US army official mentioned.

Unimaginable HD footage of the Chinese language surveillance balloon being shot down. pic.twitter.com/K1GxdcJuH1

— Graham Allen (@GrahamAllen_1) February 4, 2023

NDTV can’t independently confirm the authenticity of the video.

The balloon first entered US airspace on January 28 earlier than shifting into Canadian airspace on Monday. It then re-entered US airspace on January 31, a US protection official mentioned.

Washington has known as it a “clear violation” of US sovereignty and notified Beijing in regards to the shootdown on Saturday, a US official mentioned.

China had expressed remorse that an “airship” used for civilian meteorological and different scientific functions had strayed into US airspace.

However the Pentagon assesses that the balloon was simply the newest in a string of Chinese language spy balloon exercise spanning the globe. On Friday, it mentioned one other Chinese language balloon was at present flying over Latin America.