Military Will Likely Move on Chinese Surveillance Balloon Within Hours: Report

The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday issued a temporary flight restriction off the coast of South Carolina banning airplanes from flying through the restricted area. The action was interpreted to mean that…

IJR SyndicatedFeb 4, 20232 min read

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was likely waiting until the balloon was over the Atlantic Ocean to take action.

Throughout Saturday, reports of balloon sightings came from North Carolina and South Carolina.

Over in York County, South Carolina, officials warned residents not to try to shoot the balloon.

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A former pilot said the balloon is not as easy a target as it appears, according to Business Insider.

Most weapons systems “weren’t designed to shoot down things operating at the kinds of high altitude balloons can operate at,” said Brynn Tannehill, a former naval aviator and senior technical analyst at the RAND Corporation think tank.

An F-22 has a normal range of up to 50,000 feet, which would put it about 10,000 feet below the balloon, she said.

And missile systems “aren’t designed to attack balloons because balloons don’t look like the kind of valid targets that they were designed to attack,” she explained.

“It’s very difficult with what we have because what we have was not meant to shoot down balloons.”

On Friday, U.S. officials said a second balloon was flying over Latin America. According to CNN, reports have come in during the week of a balloon flying over Costa Rica and Colombia.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.