If it was flying at 80000ft as initially reported, how did they shot it down? No fighter planes can fly that high. Did they wait until it lowered to the operating altitude?
The US has anti-satellite missiles, for example the RIM-161 [1]. That said, I would guess an AIM-120 [2] air-to-air missile wouldn't have any trouble given it can go Mach 4, I'm guessing a few miles up isn't the hardest thing.
sfeng|3 years ago
1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIM-161_Standard_Missile_3
2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM