A third airborne object has been shot down over North America. After a week of watching a Chinese spy balloon make its way across Alaska, Canada, the breadth of the continental US and a second “object” shot down over Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command [NORAD] has detected and shot down yet another object – this time over Canada. One must ask, ok, what’s going on here? What seems to be the case is the Chinese launched a bevy of balloons or other objects in hopes they would turn up something.
Little is known about the “high-altitude airborne object” tracked over northern Canada. The cloak of secrecy remains. Neither the US or Canada have revealed whether it was or wasn’t a balloon. “While we cannot discuss specifics related to these activities at this time, please note that NORAD conducts sustained, dispersed operations in defense of North America through one or all three NORAD regions,” spokesperson Maj. Olivier Gallant said Saturday in an email statement picked up by the Vancouver Sun. Subsequently, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted, “I ordered the takedown of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. NORAD shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object.” Nicholas Slayton, writing for Task & Purpose, explained:
“Today’s [Feb. 11] events mark the third air-to-air kill by an American F-22 in eight days. Yesterday, a fighter shot down an object in northern Alaska. United States Northern Command said in a release today that recovery operations are ongoing near Deadhorse, Alaska. Northern Command as well as the Alaska National Guard are working with local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigations on recovering pieces of the object that are on sea ice.”
Unlike the first engagement with the Chinese balloon’s transit of America’s heartland and military installations, the Canadian government quickly gave the NORAD commander the go-ahead to down the object. F-22s, presumably from Elmendorf, AF Alaska, were tasked with the intercept and shootdown. From what we know, the object came down in Canada over the northwestern province of the Yukon, adjacent to Alaska. On land the recovery will be less difficult. The area is north of the Arctic Circle.
Latest Object Could Have Been a Drone?
The object might have been a Chinese unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone and since NORAD did not identify the “object” specifically as a balloon, speculation that it was a UAV is reasonable. Some have opined UAVs cannot reach the altitudes at which the objects have been encountered. “One of the defense spokesmen said remotely piloted aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, whatever you want to call them can’t fly at that altitude,” said retired US Air Force Lieutenant General David Deptula to Fox’s Neil Cavuto. “That’s not correct. They can. If you look at our Global Hawk, it flies up at 60,000 feet. MQ-9s [armed Reaper Drones] can fly up at 40,000 feet. But here’s the problem. Reports are that it did not resemble an airplane.” So, no accurate detail on what the object is or looks like has been revealed.
During a Pentagon briefing on the second object, Brigadier General Ryder described it as the size of a car. Without much more fidelity in understanding what the “objects” are or were, it’s difficult for the public to make sense of these intrusions upon US and Canadian airspace. Reporting on the Pentagon briefing on the second object shootdown, Liberty Nation observed, “During the briefing, none of the reporters asked about the fighter jet’s video of this shootdown or the previous one. Generally, when the US is going to kill something there is always a video.” Historically, videos of air-to-air engagements have been made available to the public.
In 1986, to demonstrate to a skeptical congress and media that the F-111 bombing raid on Tripoli had indeed been successful, the Pentagon released the video evidence. Again, on the morning of Jan. 4, 1989, two F-14 Tomcat fighters from the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, flying a “freedom of navigation” mission in the Gulf of Sidra of Libya, were jumped by two Libyan MIG-23s. The Tomcats made short work of the MIGs. The video was released for the public to see and hear the aerial dog fight, the evidence of a successful US mission.
The destruction of the Beijing balloon on Feb. 4, the second shootdown on Feb. 10, and the most recent destruction of another airborne object are all captured on the F-22’s weapon system video. It would seem a good idea for the Department of Defense to declassify the digital video and release it – if for no other reason than to make very graphic to the People’s Republic of China the consequences of violating US sovereign airspace and spying on US installations. It may be Department of Defense policy not to release such video evidence of combat missions. However, the American taxpayer should have the right to see their tax dollars in action. It would also eliminate a lot of speculation about what happened.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
