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Thread: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

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    Canada Avalon Member Johnnycomelately's Avatar
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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Here’s a write up from The Merge (I’m not a subscriber, but I get their email news sheet).

    Fox 2, Splash 1 Spy Balloon!
    We hadn’t planned on covering a balloon this week—yet here we are.

    The Beginning

    ICYMI: A high-altitude balloon launched from China made its way across the Pacific, over Alaska (Jan 28th), through Canada (Jan 30th), and into the continental US (Jan 31st).

    The threat seemed a bit inflated, so on Wednesday (Feb 1st), the Air Force launched 2 test-fleet F-22s (callsigns Rambo and Raptor) to fly from Nellis AFB, Nevada, to Montana to “intercept” it.

    However, the US decided not to shoot it down due to the risk of falling debris.

    The Middle

    The US pressed China on the balloon, forcing China to claim ownership…but declared it an errant weather balloon.

    By Thursday (Feb 2nd), the US clapped back that it was indeed a surveillance balloon with a rudimentary payload (no other details were offered, but here is a great HD photo to see the payload).

    Behind the scenes, NORTHCOM and NASA were modeling the wind projections and debris pattern to inform a White House decision on whether to shoot it down over land or water.

    That meant a waiting game until it drifted over the Atlantic, which gave the Air Force a few days to coordinate the shootdown.

    F-22s would be the shooter due to the Raptor's unique ability to fly high into the bozosphere, beyond what mortal fighter jets are capable of.

    The End

    Early Saturday morning (Feb 4th), the balloon was spotted over the Carolinas, and aviation sleuths noticed the FAA had issued a massive Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) off the coast of South Carolina that blocked all civilian traffic.

    We’ll let the dust settle for the final list of military assets put into motion to shoot down a simple balloon, but we’re tracking: F-15Cs, F-22s, numerous tankers, an E-3 AWACS, 1 Navy P-8 Poseidon, 1 Coast Guard C-130, 4 Navy ships, and a partridge in a pear tree.

    Anyhoo, once the order was given, F-22s lit the burners, climbed above 50,000 feet, and lined up for the shot.

    Due to the altitude, the Raptor had to use a missile. Why: the stealthy F-22 is restricted from shooting its gun above 50,000 feet due to the design limits of the gun door (when the trigger is pulled, the door pops open, exposing the gun barrel to shoot).

    The balloon was somewhere around 60-65,000 feet, and the lead Raptor took the shot at 58,000 feet.

    Fox 2! The pilot fired an AIM-9X, which uses an imaging IR (IIR) Focal Plane Array (FPA) seeker, the same tech used in sensitive thermal cameras. Here’s a sweet video showing the AIM-9X shacking the balloon payload and subsequently popping the balloon.

    The balloon’s payload is now sitting in 47 feet of water; the Navy and Coast Guard are working on retrieving the payload.

    The Flail

    The payload on the balloon is probably trivial for intelligence gathering, but that’s not the big takeaway here.

    The mere act of sending a balloon from China over the US is a fantastic way to mess with your adversary—the exact kind of grey-zone shadiness we’d cook up.

    China got to probe public reactions and government responses with almost zero risk.

    In the process, it consumed the attention of US media and citizens all week, forced the US military into dozens of meetings from the Pentagon to the flight line, consumed 1,000+ man-hours, and spent millions of dollars in military operating costs…to deal with a single balloon.

    Well played, China. Well played.



    Fun Fact: The F-22s flew with the callsign Frank. Why: the F-22s were from the 27th Fighter Squadron and have air combat lineage going back over 100 years to a guy named Frank Luke—the first airman awarded the Medal of Honor and famous for shooting down balloons during World War I. The 27th Fighter Squadron “Fightin’ Eagles” proudly carry that heritage today—their mascot is a cherished stuffed toy eagle named Frank. We'd bet money that Frank was in the cockpit for the shot.


    Parting thought: The F-22's 58,000 AIM-9X shot against the ~60,000-foot target may be the highest altitude air-to-air kill in history. For the record, balloons have been considered valid kills since World War I.“

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Fun fact: The background behind the names of the Guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) and guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) station near the crash site when factoring current events into the equation.
    Knock Knock

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Project Genetrix, also known as WS-119L, was a United States Air Force program designed to launch General Mills manufactured surveillance balloons[1][2] over China, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to take aerial photographs and collect intelligence. The Genetrix balloons reached altitudes of 50,000–100,000 feet (15–30 km), well above any contemporary fighter plane.

    History
    In 1955 a number of AN/DMQ-1 gondolas were launched from Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado as a test of the system. One was recovered years later in New Brunswick.[3]

    Between 10 January and 6 February 1956, a total of 516 high-altitude vehicles were launched from the five different launch sites Gardermoen, Norway; Evanton, Scotland; Oberpfaffenhofen and Giebelstadt, West Germany; and Incirlik, Turkey;[4][5] 54 were recovered and only 31 provided usable photographs. Numerous balloons were shot down or blown off course, and the flights led to many diplomatic protests from the target countries.[6][7] MiG fighter pilots learned that at sunrise the balloons had dipped into shooting range because the balloons floated to a lower altitude. The lifting gas cooled at night and became denser, reducing lift, so the balloons descended to lower altitudes where the air was denser.[8]

    Authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 27, 1955, Project 119L was the first espionage use of the balloons that had been tested in previous projects, such as "Moby Dick High". Project 119L was a follow up to Project Skyhook, Project Mogul and Project Grandson. The balloons were used to monitor the Soviet Union for such things as nuclear tests, and returned photography of more than 1.1 million square miles (more than 2.8 million square km) of the Sino-Soviet bloc.[7] Top-secret high-altitude balloon programs such as Moby Dick, Moby Dick High and 119L may account for many of the UFO sightings starting around the mid-20th century. The U-2 spy plane was later developed to replace the Genetrix balloons.[citation needed]

    The Soviets recovered many of these balloons and their temperature-resistant and radiation-hardened film[8][9][10] would later be used in the Luna 3 probe to capture the first images of the far side of the Moon.

    See also
    Project HOMERUN
    456th Troop Carrier Wing
    References
    Citations

    Goodsell, Suzy. The “daddy” of the balloon industry, General Mills blog website, August 4, 2011.
    Final Report: Project 85012, Report No. 1227, General Mills, Inc, Mechanical Division, Engineering Research & Development Department, September 4, 1953.
    Fowler, Shane (25 July 2017). "Mystery solved: 'Thing in the woods' revealed as CIA spy camera, 55 years later". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
    "Project Genetrix". ufxufo.org. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
    Steve Blank (28 January 2010). "Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley". steveblank.com. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
    Pedlow, Gregory W.; Welzenbach, Donald E. (1992). The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: The U-2 and OXCART Programs, 1954-1974 (PDF). Washington DC: History Staff, Central Intelligence Agency. pp. 84–88. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-17.
    "HEXAGON (KH-9) Mapping Camera Program and Evolution" (PDF). NRO. December 1982.[permanent dead link]
    "Faxes From the Far Side". www.damninteresting.com. Retrieved 2015-10-23.
    Siddiqi, Asif A. (2018). Beyond Earth : a chronicle of deep space exploration, 1958-2016 (PDF) (Second ed.). Washington, DC: NASA. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-1-62683-042-4. OCLC 1019855116.
    Using film from U.S. spy balloons to take pictures of the Moon

    from
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Genetrix

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley
    Posted on January 28, 2010 by steve blank
    In the 1950’s the U.S. Military and the CIA enlisted balloons (some as tall as a 40-story building) as weapons systems targeting the Soviet Union. Throughout the decade they launched a series of Top Secret/codeword balloon projects and thousands of balloons, to gather intelligence about the Soviet Union. The individual stories of these programs are interesting but an unexpected consequence of their secrecy was that they created a mythology that outlasted the missions.

    https://steveblank.com/2010/01/28/balloon-wars

    Why Balloons?
    In the 1950’s balloons had attributes that airplanes couldn’t match. In the days before satellites they could stay aloft for a long time (days or even weeks,) they could reach altitudes where airplanes couldn’t fly (100,000 feet,) and they could go places that were too dangerous for manned aircraft (flying over the Soviet Union.)

    The Search for Soviet Nuclear Weapons
    Project MOGUL was an Air Force balloon program to detect Soviet nuclear tests by listening to sound waves traveling through the upper atmosphere. During World War II, scientists had discovered the existence of an ocean layer that conducted underwater sound for thousands of miles. They thought that a similar sound channel might exist in the upper atmosphere. If they could put microphones in the upper atmosphere, the U.S. thought they might be able to hear Soviet nuclear tests and even detect ballistic missiles launches heading toward their targets. Designed to test this theory, Project Mogul balloons carried microphones up to the sound channel to “listen” and radio transmitters to send the sound to the ground. At first, project MOGUL flights involved trains of small weather balloons up to 600 feet in length. Later MOGUL flights used the large polyethylene balloons developed for the Navy’s SKYHOOK.

    Flying Sandwich Bags – SKYHOOK
    SKYHOOK balloons, funded by the Office of Naval Research, were designed to stay at a fixed altitude (~100,000 feet) and carry a payload of thousands of pounds. They were huge, 400 feet high, made possible because the then new material called polyethylene. These “flying sandwich bags” were built by a company that had experience using this material in packaging – General Mills (the same company that makes Cheerios.)

    Sniffing for a Reactor – Nuclear Air Sampling – ASHCAN
    In 1957 the Air Force started Project ASHCAN (using SKYHOOK class balloons at 100,0000 feet) to take high altitude air samples and search for nuclear particles and trace gases in fallout from tests in the Soviet Union. For the first time, U.S. intelligence could estimate the amount of plutonium being produced by Soviet weapons production reactors. These balloons were secretly launched from Brazil and the Panama Canal Zone, and from air force bases in the U.S. Over time, U.S. intelligence also used reconnaissance planes like the U-2, RB-57’s, and C-130 aircraft to collect air samples.


    Genetrix Launched from the U.S.S. Valley Forge

    Ballooning Over the Soviet Union – GENETRIX
    While the nuclear detection balloons did their spying while flying above the U.S. or allied countries, the next series of balloons flew over the Soviet Union.

    In the 1950’s, while U.S. reconnaissance aircraft flew around the periphery of the Soviet Union, U.S. military planners still had virtually no information about what was going on in vast areas of the Soviet territory. While there were a few overflights of the Soviet interior in the early 1950’s these missions were extremely risky and couldn’t provide enough information to assess Soviet military strength. Spy satellites and the
    U-2 spy planes were still far in the future so the U.S. military became big fans of reconnaissance balloons as a solution to this problem.

    In 1950 the Air Force thought that high-altitude balloons might be used to perform photo and ELINT spyflights over the Soviet Union. They placed aerial reconnaissance cameras on the balloons and ran a series of test programs (code names of GOPHER, MOBY DICK, GRANDSON and GRAYBACK) launching 640 balloons from New Mexico, Montana, the West Coast, Missouri and Georgia. With the tests completed, the program name changed to GENETRIX and was given the designation of Weapons System 119L.

    In late 1955 President Eisenhower gave the ok to launch the GENETRIX balloons over the Soviet Union. Hundreds of these balloons took off from secret sites in Norway, Scotland, West Germany, and Turkey carrying a gondola with two reconnaissance cameras.

    The United States launched 516 of the GENETRIX balloons but only 44 or so made it out of the Soviet Union. The rest landed on Soviet farms dumping 600-pound cameras in hayfields. We did get coverage of about 8 percent of the Soviet Union, but politically it created a lot of tension as cameras were popping up on Khrushchev’s desk. “Oh, another balloon Mr. Premier.” The Soviets put on a public exhibition of the equipment.

    Bigger and Better- MELTING POT
    Never one to give up, the military suggested a bigger and better balloon program. Since the GENETRIX balloons flying at 55,000 feet were relatively easy for Soviet fighters to intercept, the new balloons would be built around the Navy SKYHOOK design and fly at 100,000 feet for up to a month. These balloons would carry a new reconnaissance camera, built by the Boston University Physical Research Lab. Three of these balloons were launched in July 1958 from an aircraft carrier off the east coast of Japan (in those months the jet stream at the altitude went west to east.) All three accidentally dropped their gondolas over Communist territory. President Eisenhower cancelled all the balloon overflights.

    Unexpected Consequences – UFO’s in the 1950’s
    All these balloon flights had an unexpected consequence on a jittery and paranoid nation in the Cold War. Before sunrise and after sunset, while the Earth below was dark, high altitude balloons were still lit by sunlight, and their plastic skin glowed and appeared to change color with the change in sun angle. Some of the Project Mogul balloon flights were launched from Alamogordo Air Base in New Mexico in 1947, and a few crashed nearby – one near a town called Roswell. The start of the Mogul balloon flights coincided with the first reports of UFO’s. To someone on the ground, these balloons may have looked like UFOs.

    Because each of these separate balloon programs were highly compartmentalized programs it’s doubtful that there was any one individual who realized that the sum of the programs were putting thousands of high altitude balloons in the air in the 1950’s. The MOGUL, MOBY DICK, ASHCAN and GENETRIX programs were the CIA/military’s most closely guarded secret projects. Balloon sightings were dismissed with cover story: they were just weather balloons. Even as one part of the military tried to investigate these sightings, the other kept them away from the true purpose of the balloon missions.The reason for the denials – 1) the Soviets could have masked their nuclear tests and filtered their reactor emissions if they knew what we were sampling and 2) GENETRIX balloon flights over the Soviet Union were a violation of international law.

    The thousands of classified balloon flights (along with the first flight of the high altitude CIA U-2 reconnaissance plane in 1955) are a possible explanation of of UFO sightings in the 1950’s and the claim of military cover-ups.

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Some reasons for the white balloon psyop (every media outlet knew immediately it was Chinese?) put forward on a political blog that I found entertaining and thought-provoking:

    At least three big news stories appear to be smoke screened by it.


    Or quite possibly, a combination of all of them!
    Last edited by happyuk; 6th February 2023 at 12:35.

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    This story got followup. Kingfish? Probs, according to Jive Turkey.

    US Navy Recovers Spy Balloon

    Sub Brief
    142K subscribers

    24,192 views Feb 8, 2023
    “US Navy prepositioned assets to track the balloon payload as it fell. The 1500m search box is being scoured by UUVs and Explosive Ordnance Disposal divers. Pieces have been recovered as the search continues. Mk18 UUV is likely assisting in detection and mapping. USNS Pathfinder is on site with the US Coast Guard.

    What will cause the U.S. Military to NOT reveal what they found?” (emphasis mine).

    Last edited by Johnnycomelately; 9th February 2023 at 09:10. Reason: Syntax

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    All jokes aside (and there are many of them! ), here's an excellent 18-minute conversation with Garland Nixon.

    "Chinese Spy Balloon" a DISTRACTION from Biden's Ukraine War failures


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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64605447

    High-altitude object shot down over Alaska, US says
    Published
    31 minutes ago

    Share

    Media caption,
    Watch: US official confirms downing of object over Alaska

    By Sam Cabral
    BBC News, Washington
    A "high-altitude object" was shot down over Alaska earlier on Friday, the White House has said.

    Spokesman John Kirby said the unmanned object was "the size of a small car" and was over a sparsely populated area at the time.

    President Joe Biden took the decision to shoot down the object, which was of unknown origin, Mr Kirby said.

    It comes after the US shot down a Chinese balloon over its territorial waters last Saturday.

    Speaking at the White House on Friday, Mr Kirby explained that the object over Alaska was travelling at 40,000ft (12,000m) and posed a "reasonable threat" to civilian aircraft.

    He said the object had fallen into US waters that are currently frozen, adding that its debris field was "much, much smaller" than the balloon shot down last week off the coast of South Carolina.

    Intelligence officials became aware of the object on Thursday evening, according to Mr Kirby. "We do not know who owns it, whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned," he said.

    He said a fighter jet had approached the object and assessed there was nobody onboard, and this information was available to Mr Biden when he made his decision.

    Map of Blackhorse, Alaska, near where the object was shot down
    Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder confirmed that an F-22 jet shot down the object - which was moving at an unknown speed - with a sidewinder missile at 13:45 EST (18:45 GMT).

    Officials have not yet determined whether the object was involved in surveillance, and Mr Kirby corrected a reporter who referred to it as a balloon.

    He did not specify the exact location where the object was shot down, but the Federal Aviation Administration said it had closed airspace in the area of Deadhorse, in northern Alaska.

    No other objects of a threatening nature have been identified above the US at this time, according to the White House.

    F-22 jet flying over the Sierra Nevada mountains in an archive photo
    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
    Image caption,
    The Pentagon said an F-22, seen here in an archive photograph, shot down the object on Friday afternoon local time

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"



    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/sta...HXIZZvZTzUaq2w

    I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. - Robert Anton Wilson

    The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized. - Seth (The Nature of Personal Reality - Session 656, Page 293)

    (avatar image: Brocken spectre, a wonderful phenomenon of nature I have experienced and a symbol for my aspirations.)

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Let's go Brandon!









    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...llance-midwest

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    • Pentagon Details F-22 Operation To Shoot Down New High Altitude Airborne Object:
    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    • Unidentified Flying Object Shot Down Over Alaska:
    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    There's been some kind of threepeat?

    Turdeau is getting in on the act now saying that something's been shot down over Canada.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64614098


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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Is there a thread on the Canada or Alaska shoot downs? There was also an 'object' picked up on Radar over Montana, but scrambled aircraft were unable to find it.
    Last edited by Tesseract; 12th February 2023 at 03:13. Reason: typo

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  31. Link to Post #56
    South Africa Avalon Member arwen's Avatar
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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Quote Posted by Tesseract (here)
    Is there a thread on the Canada or Alaska shoot downs? There was also an 'object' picked up on Radar over Montana, but scrambled aircraft were unable to find it.
    Not that I could find. It may be that the title of the thread needs to be changed by an admin to be more encompassing.

    Meanwhile, airspace over Montana was temporarily closed (now re-opened):





    FAA says airspace in Montana reopened after 'Department of Defense activities'

    NORAD issued a statement saying incident was a 'radar anonmaly'

    Quote The Federal Aviation Administration announced Saturday that it issued a temporary flight restriction over a portion of Montana shortly after an unidentified object was shot down over Canada and later said the restriction was lifted.

    "The FAA closed some airspace in Montana to support Department of Defense activities," the FAA told Fox News Digital in a statement on Saturday evening.

    The airspace closed down was in the area around Havre, Montana not far from the U.S. border with Canada.

    The FAA said the directive was "effective immediately until further notice."

    Shortly after that announcement, the FAA said the airspace has been reopened but did not provide further details.

    Montana Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale posted on Twitter that an "object" was spotted over Montana that could potentially interfere with commercial air travel. Rosendale posted after the restriction was lifted that he "will remain in contact with defense officials and share more information as it becomes available" because "Montanans deserve answers."

    Shortly after Rosendale's tweet, NORAD issued a statement saying that it "detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate."

    "Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation," the statement said.

    The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

    News of the radar anomaly comes shortly after an unknown object was shot down by a U.S. military fighter jet over Canada in a joint NORAD operation between Canada and the United States.

    The object was the third object to be shot down by a U.S. owned F-22 Raptor in the last week.

    On Friday, an unidentified object of an unknown origin was shot down in northern Alaska in an incident that came roughly a week after a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
    Last edited by arwen; 12th February 2023 at 04:00.

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  33. Link to Post #57
    Avalon Member Tesseract's Avatar
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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    Ok this is what I have read so far:

    USA ALASKA:
    The Alaska object, travelling east at 40 000 feet, and the size of a small car and was not ‘self-manoeuvring’, was shot down about 10 miles off the North Alaska coastline at 1:45 pm EST, crashing onto sea ice. It was shot down with an AIM 9x fired from an F-22. Multiple forces are involved in recovery operation. CNN says that F-35 jets examined the object on Thursday night (US time) as well as Friday morning. They also report pilots gave differing accounts. The differing accounts, from unnamed source, are that some pilots reported that their sensing instruments were interred with by the object, whereas other pilots didn’t report this. Early reports described the object as silver and cylindrical.

    Recovery effort involves Alaska air national guard, HC-130 Hercules, HH-60 Paev Hawk and CH-47 Chinook. A significant amount of debris has been located already according to Brig Gen Patrick Ryder, Pentagon spokesman. The FBI is also reported by CNN to be involved in the recovery effort.


    CANADA YUKON
    The Canadian object was shot down at 15:41 local time by order of Trudeau under the title of a NORAD operation. Both US and Canadian aircraft had been scrambled. It was “flying” at 40 000 ft (12 000m). It was shot down using an AIM 9x missile fired from a US F-22. The shoot down happened about 100 miles from the US border. (BBC News, sharing information from Canadian Defence Minister, and CNN). CNN writes that it was in the central-Yukon (I assume with regards to latitude). CNN reports that a Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 joined the formation assessing the object.

    It's been claimed the Canadian Defence minister inferred that aircraft had difficulties locking on to the target. The source of this claim may be in the approximately 28 minute press briefing that the minister gave. I haven’t checked this.

    USA MONTANA
    Later,
    In the USA, a “Radar anomaly” was detected over Montana. The air space was closed over the Havre area (since re-opened), and two F-15s were scrambled from Portland. A refuelling aircraft from Spokane was also scrambled. There is purported audio of the F-15 scrambling via the ANG Portland control tower on twitter with call signs “Rock 41” and “Rock 42”, and flight radar 24 track of the re-fueller, which reports the aircraft as a KC-135 Stratotanker.

    According to NORAD, the aircraft were unable to locate any objects correlating to the “radar hits”.

    Meanwhile the governor of Montana had been briefed of an ‘object’ flying over Montana. He has spoken to the media briefly. Representative Matt Rosendale also reported on twitter that airspace was closed due to “an object” and that the DoD will ground the object in the morning. This appears to be the source of some claims that the object would be shot down in the morning.


    The John Basham twitter account (alleged meteorologist and ex military) claims via undisclosed sources that : Montana radar signals were intermittent and have since stopped. He claims the object was detected on Satellite, not just Radar. He also claims that the reason all these aircraft are suddenly being detected is that NORAD turned off noise filters on their multi-sensor airspace monitoring system. He also claims that Norad reported that the Canada aircraft was not detected until after it has entered “American airspace.” None of this is confirmed.

    There are multiple people claiming the objects that were shot down ‘shattered’ however I can’t find a government source for these claims.

    The NORAD twitter account has posted various updates.

    So, the ‘weird’ stuff includes: interference with aircraft sensors, avoiding missile lock (allegedly) and disappearing from radar. I don’t know what to believe at this point, but these are some strange claims. I don’t even really know why we are being told so much so early – this is all very suspicious. Anyway, they would have plenty of photos, video and wreckage by now, so hopefully we learn more, that is, if they are being truthful..

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64614098

    US and Canada military shoot down new unidentified object
    Published
    3 hours ago

    Share
    F-22 jet flying over the Sierra Nevada mountains in an archive photo
    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
    Image caption,
    Canada said a US military aircraft F-22, seen here in an archive photograph, shot down the object
    By Thomas Mackintosh
    BBC News
    Another unidentified object has been shot down over North American airspace, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed.

    He said the latest object "violated Canadian airspace" and was shot down over Yukon in north-west Canada.

    Both Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled to track down the object which Mr Trudeau says was taken out by a US F-22 fighter jet.

    It is the third object to be shot down over North America in the last week.

    The American military destroyed a Chinese balloon last weekend, and on Friday an unspecified object the size of a small car was shot down off Alaska.

    Mr Trudeau confirmed on Saturday he gave the order and had spoken with US President Joe Biden.

    "Canadian forces will now recover and analyse the wreckage of the object," he wrote on Twitter.

    The latest unspecified object was flying over central Yukon at about 40,000 ft (12,000m) and intercepted at about 15:41 local time on Saturday, defence minister Anita Anand told reporters.

    She described it as "small" and "cylindrical", but that recovery efforts are still being carried out to discover more details.

    Map of Yukon in Canada next to Alaska, USA
    Ms Anand said it was taken out "about 100 miles" from the US border, adding it posed a "reasonable threat to civil aviation".

    She said it "appears to be smaller than the one shot down off the coast of South Carolina" last Saturday - meaning the giant Chinese suspected spy balloon that measured 200ft (60m) tall.

    Posting earlier on Twitter, Prime Minister Trudeau thanked the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) which carries out air defence for the US and Canada and led the mission.

    The White House said the object had been tracked and monitored "over the last 24 hours".

    "Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorised it to be taken down," it said.

    "The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin."

    Canada's Minister of National Defence Anita Anand and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau take part in a news conference
    IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
    Image caption,
    Canada's Minister of National Defence Anita Anand said the object posed a threat to civil aviation
    Giving more details on the mission to take down the object, the US Department of Defense confirmed two F-22 jets took off from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska and the object was shot down with an AIM 9X missile.

    Pentagon Press Secretary Brig Gen Pat Ryder added that the FBI will be "working closely" with Canadian police.

    Separately on Saturday, the US military also scrambled fighter jets over Montana as some airspace was closed - but it turned out to be a "radar anomaly" and nothing unusual was found.

    The latest object's appearance over North America comes just a week after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was also destroyed by the US.

    On Friday another unspecified object was tracked and shot down over Alaska at the orders of US President Biden.

    In a short statement, the military said US troops, including from the Alaska National Guard, were still conducting search and recovery activities on sea ice for Friday's object.

    It said it had no further details about the object's capabilities, purpose or origin but confirmed the FBI is helping with the recovery near the Alaskan town of Deadhorse.

    "Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety," it added - and that the rescue operation will continue as weather permits.

    What can US learn from Chinese balloon debris?
    Balloon saga deflates efforts to mend US-China relations
    Last weekend, defence officials told US media that debris from the Chinese balloon landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

    China has denied the balloon - which first entered US airspace on 28 January - was used for spying purposes, saying it was a weather device gone astray.

    The US, however, said the balloon is part of a fleet of surveillance balloons that have flown over five continents.


    Media caption,
    Video appears to show China balloon shot down

    The balloon incident has strained US-China relations, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelling a planned trip to Beijing.

    Chinese officials on Friday accused the US of "political manipulation and hype".

    In an interview on Thursday, President Biden defended his handling of the Chinese balloon, maintaining that it was not "a major breach".

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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"


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    Default Re: US Shoots Down Multiple "Chinese Surveillance Balloons"

    we live interesting times..people saying project blue beam stuff happening.

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