A mysterious object initially described as a possible UFO and shot down by a $500,000 missile under former president Joe Biden’s administration has since been identified as a Boy Scout balloon. 

In February 2023, F-16s scrambled to confront an octagonal object hovering 20,000 feet above Lake Huron before blasting it from the sky with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, according to video released last month by the Department of War.

The 45-second clip captured a black, orb-like object in US airspace, with a dangling string visible in the fighter jet’s crosshairs moments before it was blown apart. 

The shootdown, carried out by a Minnesota Air National Guard F-16 Viper, was ordered by former President Biden ‘out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders.’

But Sean Kirkpatrick, former head of the federal All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), revealed that the object actually belonged to a Boy Scout troop. 

‘The balloon had circumnavigated the globe eight times before we shot it down with a half-million-dollar missile,’ he said at a conference in April.

Kirkpatrick added that the orb in question was part of an ongoing, unspecified research project. 

‘You can imagine the response on the Hill when I briefed that,’ he said.

An object initially described as a possible UFO and shot down by a $500,000 missile under the Biden administration in 2023 was revealed to have been a Boy Scout balloon 

In February 2023, F-16s scrambled to confront an octagonal object hovering 20,000ft above Lake Huron before blasting it from the sky

During an April press conference, Sean Kirkpatrick, former head of the federal All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), said the orb was part of an ongoing, unspecified research project

The shootdown was ordered by former President Joe Biden ‘out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders’

The Boy Scout orb was destroyed amid the Chinese spy balloon incident, as criticism grew over the government’s delay in acting while public concern spiked and citizens became ‘freaked out,’ according to an congresswoman who spoke to CNN.

In the span of just two weeks, US fighter jets shot down three other high-altitude objects over North American airspace, beginning with one off the South Carolina coast on February 4, 2023. 

FBI analysis of the recovered wreckage found that the balloon was part of a Beijing surveillance network with antennas used to collect and locate communications over US missile bases. 

‘It’s not a major breach. Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that’s going on by every country around the world is overwhelming,’ Biden said at the time. 

In the following days, one object was shot down off the coast of Alaska and was later identified as a hobbyist balloon belonging to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, as reported by The Guardian.

The group reported one of its hobby balloons ‘missing in action’ on February 11, 2023 – the same day a US F-22 shot down an unidentified airborne object using a $439,000 missile. 

Meanwhile, the hobby balloon itself was estimated to be worth only about $12. 

Then came the object downed over the Great Lakes at around 2.42pm on February 12, 2023, which again cost the US government nearly $1 million in missiles to destroy. 

Tim Phillips, a former interim director of AARO, told The New York Post: ‘After the Chinese spy balloon embarrassment, DOD was shooting at every (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) they detected’

The 45-second clip captured a black, orb-like object with a dangling string visible in the fighter jet’s crosshairs moments before it was blown apart

It was revealed that a US Air Force F-16 missed its first attempt before firing a second AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that struck the target 

Tim Phillips, a former interim director of AARO, told The New York Post: ‘After the Chinese spy balloon embarrassment, DOD was shooting at every (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) they detected.’

Kirkpatrick described another incident during April’s conference in which a US fighter pilot reported encountering a UFO with ‘stealth-like capabilities’ and was authorized to fire a missile. 

But what was ultimately destroyed was a star-shaped Mylar balloon from Walmart that read ‘Happy Birthday.’ 

Many of the military’s alleged UFO videos, including some released by the Trump administration, actually show ordinary manmade objects that were misidentified by Reaper drone operators. 

‘They’ve been on mission and they’ve got to get back to base to rearm and refuel. And you’ve got a bored operator looking around. And they pick something up and aren’t sure what it is,’ Phillips told the outlet.

‘We’re actually seeing, good reporting coming out of the fleet, coming out of the operation wings and squadrons, where they’re willing to report this stuff,’ he added.

‘And this is part of that outreach where we get our scientists to talk to the Reaper operators and actually go side by side and try to do some education.’

Shortly after the Lake Huron shootdown, it was revealed that a US Air Force F-16 missed its first attempt before firing a second AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that struck the target, according to Fox News. Each missile costs around $400,000. 

In the span of just two weeks, US fighter jets shot down three other high-altitude objects over North American airspace, beginning with one off the South Carolina coast on February 4, 2023

FBI analysis of the recovered wreckage in South Carolina waters found that the balloon was part of a Beijing surveillance network 

Kirkpatrick described another incident during April’s conference in which a US fighter pilot reported encountering a UFO with ‘stealth-like capabilities,’ only for it to be a $12 balloon from Walmart

The mission over the Great Lakes came as the White House continued to laugh off suggestions that aliens are involved in the UFO sightings

Despite a Pentagon memo describing the flying object as a ‘small, metallic balloon’, audio of conversation from inside the jets showed that the pilots went back and forth over how to define the UFO. 

‘I wouldn’t really call it a balloon… I don’t know what… I can see it outside with my eyes,’ one of the pilots can be heard saying. 

Military officials later described the object as an ‘octagonal structure’, which was shot out of the sky because it was ‘a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities.’ 

But audio recordings, released by The Drive, shed light on the puzzling nature of the military operation as it erupted over US airspace. 

After coming-face-to-face with the object, one of the pilots noted: ‘I wouldn’t really call it a balloon. I can see it outside with my eyes.’ 

‘Looks like something… there’s some kind of object that’s distended… it’s hard to tell, it’s pretty small,’ he added. 

The mission over the Great Lakes came as the White House continued to laugh off suggestions that aliens are involved in the UFO sightings, amid increased pressure for officials to explain recent developments. 

The barrage of downed high-altitude objects also prompted the White House to announce the creation of a new UFO task force to study the security threat posed by unidentified objects entering US airspace.