The US military spent at least $1.5 million to shoot down three unidentified objects that the Biden administration now says may have been recreational balloons, according to a report. 

Jet fighters used four $400,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles to down the objects over Alaska, the Yukon Territory in Canada and Lake Huron earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

But the price tag doesn’t take into account the cost for the Navy, Coast Guard, Alaska National Guard and Canadian forces to scour the remote regions for debris – which could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost, defense officials told the newspaper. 

The search was called off last Friday with US officials saying they might never be able to identify the objects. 

But President Biden said no evidence points to them belonging to China or being used by other countries for surveillance. 

“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects are most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreational or research institutions, studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” the president said. 

It took two attempts to bring down the object floating over Lake Huron on Feb. 12, because the first Sidewinder missile missed its mark and another had to be fired. 

The three objects were shot down after a Chinese spy balloon was detected in US airspace on Jan. 28 off Alaska. 

It was downed Feb. 4 off the coast of South Carolina by US fighter jets but not before it sailed over sensitive military installations in the midwest. 

The debris from the balloon has been recovered from the Atlantic and is being examined at an FBI laboratory in Virginia.