THE US Air Force reportedly “missed” in its first attempt to shoot down a UFO yesterday and had to deploy a second $400,000 Sidewinder missile.
It’s unclear where the first missile landed, reported Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson, and what exactly was shot down over Lake Huron is still unknown.
"U.S. Air Force F-16 that shot down an unknown object over Lake Huron yesterday missed on its first attempt, U.S. officials say," Tomlinson wrote.
"It’s not clear where the first missile landed. A second Sidewinder air-to-air missile was needed."
The reported missed attempt drew flack and jokes on social media as Twitter users speculated where the first missile went.
“Well that’s a spendy missed shot at a balloon,” wrote one person with laughing emojis.
“So there’s an unexploded sidewinder missile just chillin [sic] in someone’s backyard in Michigan?” said another person.
Others were shocked about the reported costly mistake.
“So $800,000 to kill what we believe to be some kid’s science project?” a third person said.
Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin said the incident wasn’t a national security concern.
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“NORAD, which has the mission of protecting the United States, is paying extremely close attention to anything that's flying in our skies,” she said on Monday.
“They've really lowered the threshold of what they're looking at and this pinged on their radars about 24 hours ago.”
The U.S. Sun asked the Department of Defense for confirmation that a second missile was used to down the object.
A spokesperson said: “In light of the People's Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more closely scrutinizing our air space at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we've detected over the past week.”
The spokesperson added that the unidentified object was spotted flying across several states and the agency began tracking it as they tried to find the best way to intercept it.
“We monitored the track of interest as it passed over Lake Michigan. We assessed that it was no threat, physical threat, military threat, (inaudible) infrastructure. That's my assessment. It continues to be today.”
The Air Force didn't immediately respond to The U.S. Sun's request for comment.
In a news conference on Sunday, officials confirmed an AIM-9X missile was used. However, information about how many shots were fired was not immediately clear.
Glen VanHerck, a general in the Air Force who serves as the commander of both the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said: “First of all, maintaining a radar track on an object this small is very hard. So taking a radar shot such as AIM-120 would be a lower probability of success.
“We assessed taking a gunshot yesterday in that event, as well as today. And the pilots in each situation felt that that was really unachievable because of the size, especially yesterday in the altitude, and also because of a – the challenge to acquire it visually because it's so small.”
He added that there was also “potentially a safety of flight issue” due to getting close to the object before actually seeing it.
“Therefore, in each situation, the AIM-9X, a heat-seeking missile or infrared missile that sees contrast, has been the weapon of choice against the objects we've been seeing.”
“In each case, we have taken extreme caution to ensure that we limit potential collateral damage. So today, we worked closely with the FAA to clear out the airspace. I gave directions specifically to the pilots to use their visual acuity to check for mariners on the ground, airplanes in the air, to clear with their radars as well.
"And when they were comfortable that we could minimize collateral damage, they selected the best weapon. Today, that was the AIM-9X, and they took the shot.”
The increased attention on American skies comes after the U.S. shot down a Chinese "spy balloon" on February 5.
On Monday, the Navy recovered a “significant” portion of the spy balloon, according to a defense official.
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Crews are working to get parts of the balloon off the ocean floor near South Carolina.
It’s unclear how big the balloon was but officials said it was “significant” in size and that crews were able to get “the electronics they were looking for.”
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