Trudeau says that the US jet shot down an object in northern Canada

The Pentagon All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office: Status and Prospects for Reporting Unidentified High-Energy Objects

In the Pentagon’s first update since the establishment of its office to investigate unidentified flying objects, officials offered few answers but said there was nothing to suggest an otherworldly explanation for the hundreds of reports they had received.

Ronald said they had not seen anything that would lead them to believe it was an alien origin object.

Established in July, the office – officially known as the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office – has received “several hundreds” of reports of unidentified objects to examine, including some that go back years, said Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of the effort. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence looked at an initial group of 142 cases.

She said that the spy balloon from the PRC was different in that they knew what it was. The recent objects don’t pose a military threat but they are close to some sensitive sites and are high up in the air, which could pose a danger to civilian aviation.

Still, when asked if any of the reports were indicative of something that may pose a threat to national security, to a military facility or to US personnel, Kirkpatrick answered, “Yes.”

“In the absence of being able to resolve what something is, we assume that it may be hostile, so, we have to take that seriously,” said Moultrie, expanding on the considerations.

Stigma surrounding reporting was one of the biggest problems the Pentagon faced as it began to look more seriously at the issues of UAPs. The stigma associated with reporting incidents has been reduced.

A High-Altitude Object Shot Down over Alaska with the U.S. Navy and the National Security Council: NORAD, AFTERPROD, and F-22

The House Intelligence Committee was told by Scott Bray, the deputy Director of Navy Intelligence, that their database has increased to 400 reports since the June 2021, report. The reports keep coming in.

“There’s not a single answer for all of this, right?” Kirkpatrick asked rhetorically Friday. “There’s going to be lots of different answers and part of my job is to sort out all of those hundreds of cases on which ones go to which things.”

John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said that the U.S. military shot down a “high-altitude object” over Alaska.

The object was shot down with a AIM-9X missile from a US F-22 – the same missile and aircraft that shot down an unidentified object on Friday, and the Chinese surveillance balloon on February 4.

John Kirby told the press on Friday that the Department of Defense was watching a high-altitude object in the last 24 hours.

F35 fighter jets were sent up to examine the object after it was spotted on Thursday. John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said on Friday that there was a “reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight” because the object was flying at 40,000 feet.

As the object flew, there were two attempts to get closer to it. Fighter aircraft engaged in the first and second engagements on Thursday night and Friday morning. Kirby told reporters that both engagements yielded limited information.

Kirby said the order was to shoot it down and the pilots thought it was not manned.

NORAD said that they are going to recover the object in order to learn more. The location of the shootdown, the unit says, was chosen both to limit risks to people and to boost the chance of recovering debris.

The operation was coordinated by US Northern Command with help from the Alaska Air National Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Observed Biden Object last night: Towards a 21st Century Cold War in the US-China Relationship

“We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now. We don’t know who owns it – whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we just don’t know,” Kirby said.

The object was noticed last night by the US government. Kirby said Biden was first briefed Thursday night as the Pentagon had enough information.

It was less predictable because it did not appear to be self-maneuvering, so at the mercy of prevailing winds. He said that the president just wasn’t willing to take that risk.

The FAA restricted flight in the area around Deadhorse, Alaska, after the military took action against the object.

The Biden administration has faced questions over its handling of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that floated across the nation last week before being shot down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday.

The president stood by how his administration handled the balloon, but he was accused of allowing it to fly over much of the country before shooting it down.

The administration described Beijing’s espionage program after the shoot down of the Chinese balloon and reports of other balloon crossing over US territory, but are the recent incidents linked to that? If the Chinese were to make another assault on the US airspace, it would mark a serious turn in the US-China relationship that may be the beginning of a 21st century Cold War.

A small, very small object shot down over Alaska by a spy balloon: a little bit of apples and oranges for Canadian forces to recover and analyze the wreckage

“Given its size, which was much smaller, and the capabilities on the fighter aircraft themselves, the speed at which they were flying, it was difficult for the pilots to glean a whole lot of information,” he said.

There is no indication what the object is or if it is related to the spy balloon shot down over Alaska last week.

The object was smaller than a small car, and it wasn’t like the high-altitude balloon from the previous weekend.

The US official said that the object was very small and not very advanced like the Chinese balloon shot.

While officials have given no indication so far that the object shot down over Alaska is at all related to the Chinese spy balloon, details have been scarce.

Recovery teams are searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor after mapping the debris field.

When asked Friday if lessons learned about China’s balloon assisted in detecting the object shot down over Alaska, Ryder said it was “a little bit of apples and oranges.”

Recovery effort: “Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. The effort includes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Special Operations Forces, with the FBI acting as a liaison.

Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand tweeted Saturday that she had discussed the incident with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “and reaffirmed that we’ll always defend our sovereignty together.”

The Air Defense Identification Zone Balloon and its Reentrance into the North American Airfields During a Super-Bowl Shootdown

The balloon was spotted after entering the US Air Defense Identification Zone over Alaska on January 28 before flying over Canada, according to a Department of Defense official. It reentered US airspace three days later.

Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice, as allowed by the weather in the far north, said the US Northern Command.

The White House said that the shoot down was approved by the US President and the Canadian Prime Minister.

Pilots gave different accounts of what they observed after coming near the object, a source briefed on the intelligence told CNN; some pilots said it “interfered with their sensors,” but other pilots said they didn’t experience that.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, Melissa Dalton told reporters on Sunday they were taken down out of an “abundance of caution.”

A range of companies and countries can use high-altitude objects for legitimate research, as well as other purposes.

Even at the height of last century’s Cold War, when US jets often headed off Soviet aircraft testing North American and European defenses, pilots weren’t typically sent off to shoot down unidentified objects over the US and Canada. It’s not normal for Americans to settle down for the Super Bowl with their president firing off orders to blast unknown objects out of the North American sky.

Canada’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre, also made mention of a “balloon” when describing instructions given to the team that worked to take down the object.

For instance, here’s Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. The object’s capabilities, purpose or origin were not mentioned during last Friday’s shootdown, however Gen. Pat Ryder did say there was no further details about it.

A High-Altitude Aircraft Object Shot Down by an F-16 over Lake Huron: An Update on the Discovery and Analysis of the CNN/CNN Observation

The US has used a consistent technical method to track balloons around the globe for the first time, and the results of the research have allowed them to do it.

Speculation and criticism could be premature if officials can fully understand the sequence of events. NORAD has recently adjusted the filters it uses to sift through data, which focus on spotting objects above a certain altitude, as reported by CNN on Sunday. The source stated that the early warning filters had been put in place to prevent picking up birds and weather balloons.

It can be attributed at least in part to increased scrutiny, including enhanced radar techniques, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa G. Dalton said on Sunday.

A high-altitude object was shot down by an F-16 over Lake Huron on Sunday, which lies between Michigan and Ontario. The Pentagon said the object was not assessed to be a military threat but was a flight hazard. But it did connect the craft to a radar signal picked up earlier over Montana, the home to US intercontinental missile silos and other sensitive sites.

CNN reported earlier that Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said she received a call from the Department of Defense saying the US military “has an extremely close eye” on an object above Lake Huron.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill want answers. The news of more objects being shot down came as a shock to politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“What I think this shows, which is probably more important to our policy discussion here, is that we really have to declare that we’re going to defend our airspace. And then we need to invest,” the Ohio Republican said. This shows some of the issues we have. We need to fill those quickly because we now know that there is a threat.

Jim Himes, Turner’s counterpart on the Intelligence panel, told NBC that he had concerns about why the administration was not being more forthcoming with information.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, said Congress needs to investigate why it took so long for the US to catch on to the Chinese government’s use of spy balloons.

“I do think (Democratic Sen. Jon) Tester is looking into why it took so long for us, our military, our intelligence, to know about these balloons. That’s something I support. Congress needs to look at that. That’s the question we have to answer,” he said. The intelligence of the military is doing a great job. I’m confident in what they’re doing. But why did no one in the Trump administration know about this?

There is a political storm looming after US fighter jets shot down a trio of unknown objects over the North American continent.

The intrigue is also unfolding against a tense global situation, with already difficult relations with rising superpower China becoming ever more hostile and with the US leading the West in an effective proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

There has been a lot of craziness in the last two weeks or so, 10 days, according to Jon Tester, a Democratic Senator from Montana.

In fact, NORAD commander Gen. Glen VanHerck said recent objects shot down were likely the first “kinetic action” that NORAD or the US Northern Command had taken against an airborne object over US airspace.

Why the Chinese Balloon? Unknown Objects Leaders Response in the Biden Administration, or What Happened During a State of the Union?

It’s possible that in a unique, fast-moving situation, the government may not know much more than it is saying. There are additional details that are adding to the confusion. On issues including the Chinese balloon and the discovery of classified vice presidential documents at Biden’s home and office, the administration has sometimes struggled to control a media narrative to its own political detriment.

If they are not related to China, are the latest strange objects flying over North America linked to some other hostile power or group, corporate or private entity? Is they connected to one another or are they just coincidental at a time of heightened awareness and tension?

Finally, what is the political impact of this string of incidents. Biden was criticized by Republicans for citing the possibility of injury to civilians or damage to buildings on the ground for waiting so long to shoot down the Chinese balloon earlier this month. He forcibly warned China in his subsequent State of the Union address that he would defend US sovereignty. Since then, his aides have styled his response to subsequent incidents as those of a decisive commander in chief. If Americans perceived the president wasn’t doing everything to defend the homeland, that would cause political problems for him.

The political blame game is heating up. Turner, the GOP chair of the House intelligence committee, was on CNN and said that Republican claims that Biden is failing to protect the southern border were related to the US air space incursions. And he also adopted a novel critique of Biden given claims that the president didn’t act quickly enough before.

Turner told CNN’s Jake Tapper that they were a bit excited, but they were certainly better off than when a Chinese spy balloon was flying over some of our sensitive sites.

The fallacy of the Biden administration’s argument is that the height of the Chinese balloon did not cause them to have any concern because they know that whatever goes up can come down.

Biden, who didn’t address the new intrusions at a black tie event with state governors, has yet to speak to Americans in person about the weekend incidents.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/13/politics/unknown-objects-leaders-response/index.html

What Do We Know About Spyballs and Unauthorized Objects That Are Coming From China and What Have They Done Over The Last Three Days?

“They are getting lots of positives that they did not get before. Most of that is going to be airplanes, whatever it may be,” said Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

We cannot determine if this is part of something organized for spy work or if it’s just a bigger operation picking up stuff around in the sky because it doesn’t pose a threat.

There was more confusion on Sunday. Schumer said on “This Week” that the two objects that were shot down over Alaska and the Yukon were smaller than the original Chinese man, after he was briefed by Biden’s national security adviser.

The Republican Representative from Montana may have made a link between the Chinese balloon and the latest objects on the “CNN Newsroom” over the weekend, if there is any confirmation at all.

“It doesn’t give me much safe feelings knowing that these devices are smaller,” he said. “I am very concerned with the cumulative data that is being collected. … I need some answers, and the American people need answers.”

The shootdown came in rapid succession over the weekend, after the US raised an alarm over a balloon it said was from China.

Kirby stated that all three objects shot down over the US and Canada were determined not to pose a threat to people on the ground. They were found to have a lack of communication signals, as well as a lack of obvious propulsion capability, and uncrewed.

The U.S. has been on the alert to look for spy balloons and unauthorized objects since a Chinese balloon caused a national sensation and political outrage. That incident, Dalton said, also helped the U.S. learn more about what to look for in detecting similar objects. VanHerck said that the process includes adjustinggates.

We have adjusted some of the gates to make them better absorbers of small objects, says VanHerck. “You can also filter out by altitude. And so, with some adjustments, we’ve been able to get a better a categorization of radar tracks now. That is why I think you are seeing these all the time.

“I haven’t ruled out anything,” he said. “We continue to assess threats unknown that approach North America and attempt to identify them.”

What are the “unidentified objects” that we know about 4-shootdowns? A high-speed missile, a balloon and a jet airliner

“We call them objects because of what they are,” she said. And while the initial incident involved a balloon, he added, “These are objects. I am not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they’re — they’re able to stay aloft.”

After being shot down over the ocean near South Carolina, the balloon was located near the continental U.S. It was between 60,000 and 65,000 feet high.

Size and shape: “It presented as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernable payload,” a senior Biden administration official said.

“We didn’t find it to be a military threat, but it was a potential safety flight hazard due to its ability to surveil,” said the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Size and shape: Early indications showed “this object is potentially similar” to the one shot down off the South Carolina coast, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said, adding that it was “smaller in size and cylindrical.”

Both size and shape are important. The balloon was estimated to be up to 200 feet tall. Of the payload, VanHerck said, “I would categorize that as a jet airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet,” with a weight of more than 2,000 pounds.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156498101/ufos-unidentified-objects-what-we-know-4-shootdowns

The Sun News has a story about the U.S. naval landing craft air cushion site of the beaches of Santa Fe and Palm Beach, Florida

The beach was the site of a U.S. naval landing craft air cushion that was parked there to deliver food and supplies to the crew, according to the local paper. The Sun News has a story.