By Srijit Das
A simulation video showing fighter jets chasing and shooting down a spy balloon is being passed off on social media platforms as real footage of US fighter planes destroying an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon.
The video is viral in the context of an incident where a US F-22 Raptor fighter launched one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to shoot down a suspected Chinese high-altitude spy balloon in South Carolina on February 4, 2023. China has denied that the balloon was used for surveillance and claimed it was a weather monitoring device that flew astray.
BOOM found that the video is a simulated one and does not show any real visual. It is created using DCS or Digital Combat Simulator gameplay.
The US government has claimed that the balloon was carrying Chinese surveillance equipment and capable of spying on communications. As per reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently investigating the recovered parts of the balloon. China, however, said that it was a civilian weather balloon drifted off course.
The video is captioned as, "US air force shooting down Chinese Spy Ballon. It first checked if the balloon has any biological or hazardous material. Elliptical missile was used to ensure no backfire."
Click here to view the post.
Click here to view the post.
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Fact Check
BOOM checked the viral video thoroughly, broke it into keyframes and observed some noticeable differences when compared to the verified pictures and videos of the balloon shootdown.
We found a tweet from Reuters Pictures carrying an image of the Chinese spy balloon after being shot down and a report from February 4, 2023, with details about the incident.
When compared, we spotted a significant difference between the viral video with the photograph. In the video, black smoke and fire can be seen after the missile hits the spy balloon.
The Reuters photograph, on the other hand, does not show any trace of fire or black smoke compared to the viral video. The visual differences can be seen below.
We also went through news reports carrying visuals of the incident. American news outlet USA Today also uploaded visuals of the shootdown.
Taking a cue, we looked for simulation videos on YouTube preforming a keyword search for "US Chinese spy balloon simulation" and found a longer version of the same video uploaded on a gaming video channel named Growling Sidewinder on February 5, 2023.
The caption with the video states, "Real Audio | F-22 Raptor Vs Chinese Spy Balloon | Digital Combat Simulator | DCS |".
The video was uploaded with a disclaimer "Please Note that I use sound effects to enhance my videos for dramatic effect and hopefully give the viewer more immersion and also I use reshade for some better colors. (you can download reshade yourself and use it to make your DCS look like mine)."
The same sequence can be watched from 44 seconds to 3 minutes 04 seconds time stamps.
What is Digital Combat Simulator?
Digital Combat Simulator or DCS is a battlefield game that includes close-to-real simulation of various military equipment along with fighter jets. As per DCS' website, "DCS World is fundamentally a deep, authentic and realistic simulation designed also to offer a more relaxed gameplay to suit the user and his particular level of experience and training."
BOOM has earlier fact checked videos from DCS games which have been passed off as real incident. Read here.
On the other hand, we searched for reports about the audio used in the viral video and came across an Associated Press article that reported about a group of aviation enthusiasts who recorded the conversation between the pilots while scanning radio frequencies.
The report carried an audio segment of the conversations recorded which is similar to the audio present in the viral video.
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