Bloomberg: Each missile that shoots down a balloon costs the US $439,000

One AIM-9X Sidewinder missile used by the US military to shoot down unidentified flying objects over the country, including a Chinese balloon, costs $439,000, Bloomberg reports.

This air-to-air guided missile with an infrared homing head is manufactured by General Electric. In addition to the United States, the corporation supplies Sidewinder to 31 countries, including South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. The missile is widely used in a number of modern combat aircraft, including the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-22 Raptor.

According to the director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado, Ian Boyd, the United States uses the Sidewinder to destroy unidentified flying objects, since this missile minimizes the risk to the fighter pilot, allowing him to remain at a great distance from the target.

As retired US Air Force Colonel Michael Pietrucha noted, unlike, for example, the AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range missile, the Sidewinder is less likely to completely destroy a flying object that the military only wants to shoot down and then study. According to him, the presence of a warhead, which aims at the heat emitted by the target, provides a more accurate hit on the object at any time of the day.

The United States does not disclose the number of Sidewinders in its arsenal, but it is known that in 2021 the country’s air force received 10 thousand of such missiles. In 2023, the Department of Defense plans to purchase 225 AIM-9Xs for a total cost of $111.9 million.

In early February, the US military shot down a balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, a couple of tens of kilometers from the coast of South Carolina, which the Pentagon considered a Chinese reconnaissance balloon. After the appearance of the first ball, three more objects were shot down – two in the USA (over Alaska and Lake Huron) and one in Canada.