The US military was ordered to “down” an object over the waters of Alaska
All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office – a Task Force for the Defense of National Intelligence, and the Challenge of Reporting Objects
The reports being studied are of unknown anomalies, and differ from the earlier iteration of unknown aerial phenomena in that they are not only observations in the air. Most of the time, reports are still from the air, but the effort is now looking at those reports from ground, sea, and space.
“We have not seen anything that would lead us … to believe that any of the objects we have seen are of alien origin, if you will,” said Ronald Moultrie, under secretary of defense for intelligence and security.
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. Those cases are on top of the initial 144 examined in the June 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Neither official would say how many of the cases had been analyzed and resolved. Many of the cases may end up being things like balloons, drones, and other devices that are not used for intelligence collection, according to the Pentagon’s chief of staff.
When asked if they were indicative of something that may be a threat to national security, Kirkpatrick said 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.
One of the big issues the Pentagon faced as it began to look more seriously at the issues of UAPs was the stigma around reporting. Kirkpatrick said the stigma associated with reporting sightings has been significantly reduced.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/16/politics/ufo-pentagon-update/index.html
The Shoot Down of a High-Altitude Object in Alaskan Airspace During the April 11, 2016 Black Hole Collision, announced by the White House
In May, Scott Bray told the members of the House Intelligence Committee that their database had gone up to 400 reports. The reports have kept coming in.
“There’s not a single answer for all of this, right?” Friday, Kirkpatrick asked rhetorically. “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.”
The president told CNN that the shoot down of a high altitude object in Alaskan skies was a success and that he gave the military permission to do so.
After a massive Chinese balloon and three small objects were tracked, NORAD shot down the airborne objects in the US airspace for the first time.
“The Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby announced to the press on Friday.
The White House spokesman said during the press briefing that the object was high in the air and posed a serious risk to the safety of civilians.
There were two efforts to get closer to the object and evaluate it as it flew. The first engagement by fighter aircraft happened late Thursday night. Kirby told reporters that the engagements yielded limited information.
“We were able to get some fighter aircrafts up and around it before the order to shoot it down, and the pilots assessment was this was not manned,” Kirby added.
“The object was flying at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet, had unlawfully entered Canadian airspace and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. The object was shot down approximately 100 miles from the Canada-United States border over Canadian territory in central Yukon,” she said.
The Alaska Command of US Northern Command had the assistance of the Alaska Air National Guard, Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
CP-140 and CF-18 Monitoring the Object that was Shot Down by the People’s Liberation Army in South Carolina on Friday, Oct. 30
We believe this is the best description that we have at the moment. We don’t know who owns it, even if it is state-owned or corporate-owned.
The object first came to the attention of the US government “last evening.” Biden was first briefed Thursday night “as soon as the Pentagon had enough information,” Kirby said.
Kirby said that the object did not appear to be self-maneuvering and therefore was at the mercy of prevailing winds.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a temporary flight restriction Friday in the area around Deadhorse, Alaska, as the military took action against the object.
The Chinese balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday after traveling across the US. The Biden administration officials said it posed little risk to the military.
The president has stood by the way that he and his administration handled the balloon, but he has faced criticism from Republicans for allowing it to fly over the country and then shooting it down.
Since news broke last week that a Chinese balloon was floating over the US, there have been more revelations about what is believed to be a multinational military operation by the People’s Liberation Army.
The object that was shot down over Canada was tracked since Friday evening, according to a statement from the Pentagon. Gen. Patrick Ryder.
The object appears to be smaller than the Chinese balloon that was shot down and the Canadian Defense Minister believes it’scylindrical.
“Monitoring continued today as the object crossed into Canadian airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to further assess the object,” Ryder’s statement said.
The U.S. Naval Air Defense Command, a Joint Headquarters of the United States and Canada after the 2001 September 11 attack, and the Recovery of the American Balloon
The White House said the shoot down was approved by the US President and the Canadian Prime Minister.
The FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be working closely while Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations.
A source briefed on intelligence told CNN that some pilots gave differing accounts of what happened after coming near the object but other pilots didn’t.
The US military is still working to recover debris from the balloon on the ocean floor. Ryder said Friday that they have “located a significant amount of debris so far that will prove helpful to our further understanding of this balloon and its surveillance capabilities.”
There’s a project between the U.S. and Canada that was motivated by the fear that the Soviet Union may sendbombers to North America. As calls for a shared organization evolved, they began collaborating on air defense and radar installations. The two countries formalized the first NORAD Agreement on May 12, 1958.
“They were put into place in the late 1980s, and that system of radar coverage was concluded in about 1992. “It is 1970s technology,” he said. “So no, NORAD does not have what it needs to adequately defend North America. They need to have sensors that can detect all domains. I mean space, land, air, cyber and maritime.
Look at the name for a sign of how things have changed. While the first unified command was called the North American Air Defense Command, its name was later changed to include the word “Aerospace,” acknowledging threats from satellites and other space vehicles.
It can be confusing — both are led by the same officer, Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck. The main difference is that the U.S. Northern Command is a military headquarters.
U.S. Northern Command was formed in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In October 2002 it was the first time in over a century that a single military commander had been charged with protecting the homeland.
While NORAD still maintains a presence there, its main headquarters are at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Officials announced that move in 2006, calling for an integrated command center with U.S. North Command.
When the NORAD’s radar systems were adjusted, they picked up more information when they saw objects like the Chinese balloon.
NORAD’s current and former leaders speak of the need to update the radar network and other equipment, and work is continuing with Canadian officials to make that happen.
“NORAD and USNORTHCOM rely on what we call the North Warning System, which is an array of short- and long-range radars in northern Canada, Alaska and elsewhere,” retired Vice Admiral Mike Dumont, a former deputy commander at NORAD, recently told NPR.
Last year, VanHerck highlighted three “domain awareness challenges,” from the difficulty of keeping up with competitors’ advances in submarines to monitoring missiles and cyber operations.
VanHerck said the good news was that they’re working to fix it. The budget has four over-the-horizon radars, he added, so I look forward to that.
A call from a child who saw Santa in a Sears newspaper ad urging children to call it personally — and how Harry Shoup did it
It wasn’t a four-star general on the line — but a young boy, who had seen a misprinted phone number in a Sears newspaper ad urging kids to call Santa personally. The call made Col. Harry Shoup angry but he realized he had to make a difference by encouraging a young person’s belief in Santa.
