A trio of Navy warships (Guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79), guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58), and amphibious warship USS Carter Hall (LSD-50)), service divers, and the FBI are on the hunt for the wreckage of a high-altitude Chinese spy balloon that was shot down on Saturday by an Air Force F-22 Raptor with a single AIM-9X Sidewinder, which was fired from 58,000 feet in the air, to shoot down the balloon that was operating at 62,000 feet off the coast of South Carolina, Defense Department officials told reporters Saturday.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”
The remains of the surveillance balloon, about the size of three school buses, is spread over a seven-mile debris field in shallow water in the Atlantic, a senior military official told reporters.
