An F-22 Raptor takes off from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., Feb. 4, 2023, on its way to shoot down a high-altitude surveillance balloon off South Carolina. (Mikaela Smith/U.S. Air Force)
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Air Force recently scrambled three F-22 fighter jets near the island of Hawaii to assess what turned out to be a high-altitude balloon, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Monday.
“U.S. Indo-Pacific Command responded to an unidentified radar signature Friday in the vicinity of the island of Hawaii,” the Honolulu-based combatant command said in the statement. “Pacific Air Forces launched three F-22s to assess the situation and visually identified a spherical object.”
The Raptors monitored the balloon and concluded “it posed no threat,” the statement said.
The sighting follows the highly publicized flight of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon across the American mainland this winter. An F-22 shot that balloon down on Feb. 4 a few miles off the coast of South Carolina.
On Friday, the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration detected a balloon at about 36,000 feet, the Defense Department said in a separate statement Monday.
“Ownership of the balloon is unknown, but there is no indication that it was maneuvering or being controlled by a foreign or adversarial actor,” the statement said.
It did not float directly over “critical” defense infrastructure or other sensitive government sites, according to the statement.
It was flying at an altitude used in civil aviation, but it posed no threat to aircraft over Hawaii, the statement said.
“Based on these observations, [Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin] concurred with the recommendation of his military commanders that no action need be taken against the balloon,” the statement said.
The balloon is no longer in Hawaii’s airspace or over territorial waters, the statement said.
Citing an unnamed Defense Department source, Fox News reported Monday that the balloon was moving toward Mexico.
The balloon earlier this year entered U.S. airspace in Alaska on Jan. 28 and moved into Canada two days later.
It reentered the U.S. over northern Idaho on Jan. 31 and was first spotted by the public over Montana.
Austin said President Joe Biden had authorized it to be shot down “as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”
