On Sunday, the US Air Force sent out an F-16 fighter jet to take down an unidentified object in North American airspace over Lake Huron. As confirmed by US officials recently, the initial attempt to hit the object with a Sidewinder missile failed. This was a humiliating result, particularly since the object in question probably lacked any means of self-propulsion.
Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles cost over $400,000 a pop, Fox News notes. Milley said the initial errant missile “landed harmlessly” in the lake and that the military tracked it all the way down.
“First shot missed,” US Army General Mark Milley told reporters during a press conference today, as quoted by Yahoo News. “The second shot hit.”
Officials reported that a UFO, shaped like an octagon and with strings dangling from it, was shot down after flying at an altitude of about 20,000 feet above Lake Huron. This was the third high-altitude object to be taken down within three days, but little information is available regarding the origin or nature of the objects.
While the White House assured the public that there was no evidence to suggest the objects were of extra-terrestrial origin, General Glen VanHerck, who is responsible for overseeing North American airspace in the Air Force, stated on Sunday that he had not eliminated any possibilities when asked if the military had ruled out the possibility of them being extra-terrestrial.
Although the military took necessary precautions, it incurred high costs for failing to hit its intended target. As per a report by Bloomberg, the Department of Defense has earmarked $111.9 million from its 2023 budget to acquire 255 AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles, which value each missile at approximately $439,000.
This implies that the military spent almost a million dollars on missiles to destroy a slowly moving, presumably unmanned target. Additionally, it is noteworthy that the cost of an F-16 is between $14.6 and $18.8 million, not including expenses associated with maintenance and fuel.
