First missile shot at 'balloon' over Lake Huron missed, 'landed harmlessly,' General Milley says

The first missile fired at a spy "balloon" flying over Lake Huron missed, according to General Mark Milley and joint chiefs of staff who spoke at a press conference recently.

As reported by Yahoo! News, the joint chiefs of staff stated that the first attempt at shooting down the aerial object failed, landing in the water below.

"First shot missed on the fourth balloon," Gen. Milley began.

"We're talking about the balloon that was downed over Lake Huron. The first balloon, the Chinese spy balloon that went over the Atlantic on the South Carolina coast, that shot hit," Milley stated as he listed all the U.S. military actions against the objects.

"The second one over Alaska ... that one hit. The third one that landed in the Yukon, that one hit. On the fourth one over Lake Huron, first shot missed second shot hit," he explained.

Pentagon officials and senators met in a classified meeting in Washington, with some senators coming away from the meeting seeing less of a need to shoot down future aerial crafts.

The Associated Press reported that Republican Senator Thom Tillis (NC) said that the interceptions of flying objects will likely have a "calming influence" and will make future takedowns of the objects less likely.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) allegedly told reporters that he doesn't think the objects were a threat.

“They’re trying to figure out — you know there’s a bunch of junk up there. So you got to figure out what’s the threat, what’s not. You see something, you shouldn’t always have to shoot it down," Graham said.

General Milley said the strikes did not put any civilians at risk, and officials evaluated the range of potential debris beforehand.

"We go to great lengths to make sure the airspace is clear, and the backdrop is clear out to the max effective range of the missile. In this case the missile landed harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron ... and we made sure the airspace was clear of any commercial, or civilian, or recreational traffic. We do the same thing for the maritime space," the general detailed.

“That's the guidance from the president. Shoot it down, but make sure we minimize collateral damage and we preserve the safety of the American people," he added.

Earlier in the week, the Chinese government said it was monitoring an "unidentified flying object" over its airspace as well, near one of its largest naval bases.

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