US F-16 fired half-million-dollar missile at ‘UFO’ that turned out to be Boy Scouts balloon
The US military has released new footage showing the moment an Air National Guard F-16 shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron in February 2023, an incident now reported to have involved a small civilian research balloon rather than a hostile aircraft or exotic aerial threat.
The 45-second infrared clip, released as part of a wider batch of US government UAP files, shows a dark object with a dangling structure in the F-16’s sights before it is destroyed by a missile over the Great Lakes.
According to the New York Post, former All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office director Sean Kirkpatrick later said the object was a Boy Scouts research balloon that had circumnavigated the globe several times before being shot down.
The incident came just days after a US Air Force F-22 destroyed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina, during a period of heightened political and military sensitivity over unidentified objects in North American airspace.
US F-16 shot down a Boy Scout research balloon in 2023
According to the New York Post, the US Air Force dispatched an F-16 on February 12, 2023, to intercept the object over Lake Huron in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon incident.
The clip shows a black object in the Fighting Falcon’s crosshairs before the aircraft’s missile destroys it.
In the United States, the military shot down a Boy Scouts’ weather balloon with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 7, 2026
The incident took place in February 2023. It happened shortly after the Chinese spy balloon episode, which was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
According to… pic.twitter.com/aJ9aeZSrbr
The New York Post reported: “The US Air Force dispatched an F-16 on Feb. 12, 2023, to confront the apparent ‘invading’ orb over Lake Huron, blowing it to smithereens with what was likely an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile.”
According to OSINT analyst Colby Badhwar, writing in January 2025, an AIM-9 missile costs around $400,000.
The Post reported Kirkpatrick, a former head of the federal All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, as saying the balloon belonged to a Boy Scouts troop and had circumnavigated the globe eight times before being shot down.
He added: “You can imagine the response on the Hill when I briefed that.”
Kirkpatrick said the balloon was part of an ongoing, unspecified research project.
Chinese spy balloon incident triggered US airspace alert
The Lake Huron shootdown came just over a week after a US Air Force F-22 Raptor shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon using an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
That balloon was flying at an altitude of around 64,000 feet before it was destroyed off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, 2023.
The Biden administration was criticised at the time for not taking action for several days while the balloon travelled across the continental United States.
The Pentagon released a close-up photo of a Chinese spy balloon. The object was captured on camera by a US pilot the day before the downing. pic.twitter.com/wBOVeU6a6N
— MAKS 26 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) February 23, 2023
The Pentagon subsequently released high-resolution images of the balloon taken from a U-2S Dragon Lady spy plane. The balloon’s payload consisted of a centre section flanked by two arrays of solar panels.
It also had a large white dish or platter-type antenna in the centre and was likely capable of gathering various types of signal intelligence.
At the time, The War Zone reported a similar balloon had passed over Japan in 2020 and that other Chinese spy balloons had previously operated over the United States during both the Biden and the first Trump administrations. The difference was that the 2023 became highly publicised.
Other friendly balloons shot down by the US Air Force
The February 2023 Chinese balloon incident prompted an intense period of scrutiny over unidentified objects in North American airspace.
The Trump administration has since released a series of UFO, or unidentified flying object, videos. Many of these military UAP clips appear to show conventional manmade objects that were misidentified by military sensors or operators.
Governments can sometimes swing from caution to overcorrection when faced with a perceived threat. In February 2023, the US military shot down several objects in quick succession after the Chinese balloon incident triggered political and security concerns in Washington.
Chinese spy balloon has been hit. pic.twitter.com/kThydIa550
— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) February 4, 2023
The Lake Huron object reported to have been a Boy Scouts research balloon was not the only apparently civilian object targeted during that period. Another small balloon was shot down over Alaska on February 11, 2023.
The Guardian previously reported that an F-22 had fired a $439,000 missile at a $12 research balloon belonging to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade.
The New York Post also reported Kirkpatrick as saying there was another occasion when a US fighter pilot reported encountering a UFO with “stealth-like capabilities”.
The pilot was reportedly authorised to open fire and destroy the object, which turned out to be a star-shaped Mylar balloon from Walmart that read “Happy Birthday”.
Featured Image: US Military
