Biden Allegedly Authorised $200 Million Fighter Jet To Shoot Down $12 Science Project Ballon
Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter Thursday to criticise President Joe Biden for ordering an F-22 fighter jet to shoot down what may have been a hobby club’s science project off the coast of Alaska earlier last week.
Cruz, R-Texas, joked that Biden’s decision to authorise the $200 million fighter jet to use a $400,000 missile to shoot down what may have been a $12 balloon serves as a “powerful deterrence” to high school students interested in creating their own at-home science balloons.
The comment came after the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s (NIBBB), an Illinois-based hobbyist club, said their pico balloon that was floating off the west coast of Alaska went missing the same day a Lockheed Martin jet shot down an unidentified object matching its description.
“To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America….” Cruz wrote on Twitter.
“President Biden needs to tell the American people whether this is true,” Cruz added in a separate tweet.
The club’s globe-trotting balloon, which was last reported to be hovering at 38,910 ft. on Feb. 10, may have been one of three unidentified aerial objects the U.S. Air Force shot out of the sky via the president’s authorisation between Feb. 10-12.
The group said that its trajectory put it directly over the central Yukon Territory on Feb. 11, where an object was shot out of the sky.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said the objects shot down Feb. 10-12 may not have been from China or another foreign country but “could just be balloons.”
