The Pentagon blew more than $1.5 million dollars shooting down harmless ‘UFO’s, one of which was likely a balloon launched by a hobby group that cost as little as $12 dollars to make.
The series of shootdowns occurred after a Chinese high altitude balloon entered US airspace in late January, with Beijing insisting it was used to collect meteorological data and had drifted off course due to strong winds.
This prompted a show of force by the US military, leading to a mini-UFO flap that transfixed the nation for days.
Four AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles were used to shoot down the ‘UFOs’ over Alaska, Lake Huron, and the Yukon region in Canada, each costing around $400,000.
Another missile fired at an object over one of Michigan’s Great Lakes missed its target altogether.
A report by the Wall Street Journal concluded that the $1.5 million cost was likely significantly higher due to all the other factors involved in tracking the objects.
“The flights used to spot the balloons and eventually shoot them down are not part of the cost estimates, because the US military considers the flights part of its pilots’ training and has already budgeted those flight hours,” the report stated.
During a press conference last week, Joe Biden admitted that the military had used sophisticated air-to-air missiles fired from incredibly expensive fighter jets to take out what were “most likely” weather balloons.
As we previously highlighted, the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, a group of hobbyists were missing a silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” that was last spotted in almost the exact same place at the same altitude as the ‘UFO’ shot down in the Yukon Territory.
It was likely taken out by a $400,000 dollar missile, despite the hobby balloon costing as little as $12 dollars.
What a fantastic use of taxpayer money.
Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), which makes the balloons for hobbyists noted, “I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down.”
As we previously reported, some commentators thought that the UFO flap was just a convenient distraction to bury the story about US involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines Summit News reports
Oops.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) is missing their balloon. The amateur balloon club members say the last contact they had with their Pico Balloon was in Alaska a week ago. Then nothing.
The Pico balloon just happened to be flying in the same area in Alaska where US fighter jets fired several missiles and obliterated a balloon last weekend.
The club is missing one of their Pico balloons.
Illinois amateur balloon club is missing one of their pico balloons in Alaska.
CNN reported:
An Illinois-based club of amateur balloonists says one of its small balloons is “missing in action” after last reporting its location over Alaska on Saturday, the same day the US military shot down an unidentified object in the same region.
While the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) has not blamed the US government for taking out one of its 32-inch-wide “Pico Balloons,” the group of hobbyists notes in a post on its blog that its last transmission near a small island off the west coast of Alaska occurred after the balloon had been airborne for more than four months and circled the globe seven times.
“Pico Balloon K9YO last reported on February 11th at 00:48 zulu near Hagemeister Island after 123 days and 18 hours of flight,” the NIBBB blog post, dated February 14, states.