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Best way to shoot down a spy balloon or a drone – a fighter jet?
Slow-moving objects at high altitudes aren’t the aerial threats most air defence systems are geared to take down
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There is no question the US was well within its rights to down the balloon regardless of the purposes behind the spycraft.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Mike Yeo
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The shooting down of Chinese balloons traversing the continental United States in February has further strained tense US-China relations and raised questions about how best to deal with such challenges.
The first balloon had entered US airspace above the Aleutian Islands in late January, before moving across Alaska and Canada, and re-entering the US, even passing near several US military facilities, before it was shot down off the east coast of South Carolina.
