“US President Joe Biden was forced to make the balloon controversy a big deal, as it has already been stirred up by his Republican rivals as a big issue,” said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international affairs at Beijing’s Renmin University.
“The Biden administration aimed to achieve two political aims – warning China against more intrusions into US territory, as well as showing the Republicans and the American public his determination and ability to safeguard the US’ national security and territory sovereignty with a hardline China policy.”
Shi said the balloon controversy had handed “powerful ammunition” to China hawks in Congress ahead of a hearing of the House armed services committee on Tuesday.
The F-22 is also one of the most expensive aircraft to operate, with an average cost per flying hour of around US$68,000, according to Pentagon estimates.
But defence analysts said the aircraft was the best option for technical reasons.
“The F-22 has the highest ceiling of any US Air Force [combat-ready] fighter aircraft. The F-22 fired the missile at 58,000 feet [17,700 metres]. The balloon was at 60,000 feet [18,300 metres],” said Stephen Burgess, a professor in the department of international security studies at the US Air War College.
A Pentagon statement indicated the shooting happened in high altitude near the stratosphere, where air-to-air missiles may be less effective.
“The balloon was spotted after it went out of control, but it was still flying at a high altitude and, technically, the F-22 is the best option to take it down,” said Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank in Beijing.
A report published by Forbes on Friday also pointed out that the unmanned balloon, which is about the size of three school buses, could not be punctured using normal rockets.
A man in Beijing reacts after reading a newspaper headline reporting on China’s protest against the US shooting down of the balloon. Photo: AP
The job was finished by the relatively low-cost AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range missile, which still costs close to US$400,000.
Chinese state media responded with reports that the People’s Liberation Army also has a history of using its rocket force and air force to bring down US balloons, including a suspected spy balloon that entered Chinese territory in May 1974 after the Soviet Union was unable to shoot it down.
China’s defence ministry said in the wake of the latest incident that Beijing “reserves the right to take necessary measures to deal with similar situations”.
But Zhou and Shi said they believed China’s response would be a rhetorical one rather than a tit-for-tat revenge.
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China’s top diplomat urges US to ‘avoid misjudgment’ as Blinken trip postponed over balloon issue
Collin Koh, a research fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said: “Biden was indeed under fire for sitting on this for days, especially by the Republicans, before ordering the shootdown. So it’s considered a political and security necessity.”
But he said the PLA might specifically target US close-in reconnaissance missions and unmanned craft as revenge.
“We can’t discount [that] the PLA continues to respond vigorously against US close-in military reconnaissance missions, which would often be regarded as potentially unsafe and unprofessional,” he said.
“Against manned platforms we might expect China to exercise restraint, but against unmanned ones it becomes more uncertain – especially if Beijing believes that it’s possible to contain the fallout since it involves no crew.”
f Beijing believes that it’s possible to contain fallout since it involves no crew.”
