The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) didn’t mean to attack Canada. It didn’t expect to require the US military to expend a $400,000 missile at its tiny little balloon with a tracking package on it. But apparently, that’s exactly what happened, according to NPR.
With Republicans harping on about national defense and Chinese overflights and Hunter Biden’s laptop–when is it not about Hunter’s laptop?–President Biden, in cooperation with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau–shot down an unknown balloon over Canada last week. Conservatives groaned about how ineffective Biden was at deterring foreign aggression because balloons!
It turns out that “foreign aggression” originated about 40 miles north of Chicago, where the NIBBB launched K9YO-15, a balloon equipped with a Pico transmitter allowing the club to track its whereabouts. The club lost track of the balloon, likely because of a transmitter malfunction, and it believes it’s possible its balloon (total cost: <$100) may have been destroyed by the $400,000 Sidewinder–though it’s not sure. (The Pentagon announced yesterday it called off the search for the wreckage of the object it shot down.)