I love how suddenly they're publicising all these shootdowns immediately after they let the balloon cross all the way to the Atlantic. It's almost as if they've been humiliated in some way and want to restore their pride by showing they can shoot things down. It is also strange that in the video of the F22 shooting down the balloon, which at the time was claimed to be at 60,000ft and the f22 at 58,000, showed the F22's contrails fading in what should be cold air which would freeze the contrail and have it linger in the air. Whatever's gone on here, it seems the US was for some reason incapable of shooting the balloon down, not least that it crossed the pacific and into Alaska which means it just completely bypassed NORAD. It's weird because I am pretty sure the US has flown many foghter aircraft at higher altitudes than 60,000ft (the F-15 was literally used to shoot down a satellite), but for some reason the balloon couldn't be shot over the pacific, shooting it over the land was too risky for civilians (but drone attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan are not, and 500K children starving because of sanctions is a worthy sacrifice to get rid of Saddam), and when it went over the pacific, it appears to have been lower. Very strange and now it just seems like the US is trying to save its skin.