The US military didn't know if the missile that took out a Chinese spy balloon would work when an F-22 took the shot, commander says

Wed, 02/08/2023 - 11:25

US Marines with Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA(AW)) 533 load an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile onto an F/A-18D Hornet aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, Sept. 28, 2022. — US Marines load an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile onto an F/A-18D Hornet at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan in September.
US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Gabriel Durand

An F-22 downed a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday with a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
But the Pentagon wasn't sure if the missile would work when the pilot fired it, a top commander said.
The debris from the balloon plummeted over 60,000 feet into waters off the coast of South Carolina.

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