F-22 fighter jets fired Sidewinder missiles to shoot down Chinese balloons, and their mission call sign was "Balloon Destroyer", the ace of the U.S. World War I Air Force.

(Associated Press)

[Instant News/Comprehensive Report] The suspected Chinese spy balloon entered the U.S. airspace last week and slowly crossed the U.S. mainland until the afternoon of the 4th local time. (AIM-9 Sidewinder), shot down balloons off the east coast of the United States. The mission call signs of these two F-22 fighters are "FRANK01" and "FRANK02", which is also meaningful, paying tribute to the US Air Force ace "Balloon Destroyer" in World War I.

According to comprehensive foreign media reports, on the afternoon of the 4th, the U.S. military sent F-22 fighter jets to use the latest Sidewinder air-to-air missile AIM-9X to shoot down suspected Chinese spy balloons over the coast of South Carolina. For "FRANK01" and "FRANK02", the US Northern Command (US Northern Command) confirmed that this call sign was to pay homage to the American ace pilot Frank Jr. in World War I.

Regards Frank Luke, Jr.

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Little Frank.

Luke was an American ace pilot (Ace, who shot down 5 aircraft pilots) in World War I, the first pilot to receive the Medal of Honor, and a "one-day ace" (Ace who shot down 5 or more aircraft in one day) One of the pilots), he shot down 14 German observation balloons and 4 planes in World War I. He was known as the "Arizona Balloon Buster" (Arizona Balloon Buster). He was shot down by the German army and died in September 1918.

The U.S. Air Force Base "Luke Air Force Base", located 24 kilometers west of Phoenix, Arizona, is named after him.