US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

thehill.com

Turner says he’d prefer Biden administration be ‘trigger happy’ on suspected spy balloons

House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) on Sunday said he’d prefer the Biden administration be “trigger happy” with suspected spy balloons than to be “permissive” when objects enter U.S. a…
thehill.com thehill.com

Turner says he’d prefer Biden administration be ‘trigger happy’ on suspected spy balloons​


...

A week after President Biden ordered the U.S. military to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of the Carolinas, the U.S. downed a second “high-altitude object” over Alaska.

“Obviously I would prefer them to be trigger happy than to be permissive,” Turner said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We’re going to have to see whether or not this is just the administration in trying to change headlines. But what I think this shows which is probably more important to our policy discussion is that we really have to declare that we’re going to defend our airspace and then we need to invest,” Turner said.
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This said in a time when Biden is set to announce their DoD budget. Their GOP wants it cut, but the Biden administration apparently wants to announce the largest budget in US history. I won't be surprised that them being "trigger happy" is to turn sentiment. The Chinese balloon came at the right time, and all other UFOs could be simple opportunities to push public opinion.

Just some speculation.
 
news.sky.com

US jet shoots down fourth flying object after Pentagon says it flew near sensitive military sites and was risk to civilian aircraft

The take down is the fourth in just over a week and the third in as many days after objects were shot down in Alaska and Canada. The Pentagon believes the latest UFO is the blip that showed up on radar over Montana on Saturday.
news.sky.com news.sky.com


The US military has shot down another unidentified object - this time over Lake Horan in Michigan.

The take down is the fourth in just over a week and the third in as many days after objects were shot down in Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday respectively.
 
www.politico.com

U.S. downs unidentified object over Lake Huron, third destroyed since Chinese spy balloon

Defense officials on Sunday night declined to identify what the three objects shot down over the weekend might be.
www.politico.com www.politico.com

The U.S. military shot down an unidentified object flying above Michigan on Sunday, making it the fourth airborne object downed by American forces in just over a week.

Defense officials on Sunday night declined to identify what the three objects shot down over the weekend might be, raising questions over the threat the objects could have represented to civilians across North America, what the purpose of the objects was, and why there has been a rash of detections and responses with fighter planes and guided missiles.

Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, said he was certain that the initial episode, the downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon off the U.S. East Coast on Feb. 4, “was clearly a balloon. These are objects. I’m not able to categorize how they stay aloft.” The general also declined to rule out any possibility, including whether the objects were extraterrestrial in origin.

After the general’s remarks, a Defense official who requested anonymity to speak about a developing situation said that there is “no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.”
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Fulcrum29 said:
Odd situation, NORAD seems to have a handle on the UFOs, tracking them, but it also seems that some people don't register their balloons,

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624536053729333248

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624540751186235393

This same man does heliotrope's with payloads. People who do research can ask them to build it.

I also don't see any balloons on Flightradar belonging to Aerostar. Maybe they don't have any up at this time.
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At around $130 per weather balloon and another $80 for the helium to fill it. Seems like a great way to get the US to waste millions in fuel/missiles and keep their air defenses busy. Wonder how many gender-reveal balloons get away from their owners? :ROFL:
 
Wut said:
At around $130 per weather balloon and another $80 for the helium to fill it. Seems like a great way to get the US to waste millions in fuel/missiles and keep their air defenses busy. Wonder how many gender-reveal balloons get away from their owners? :ROFL:
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That's why I suggest USA to send their own for China, two can play this game. I'm sure there are plenty of US territories that are suitable to launch from. Balloon wars LOL!
 
rvZA said:
There should be consequences. It is because there are no consequences why things like this happening across the globe. In all these Socialist / Communist countries you will find they collapse the prosecuting authorities and judicial services first. Just look at America and South Africa.
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The South African collapse in 1948 when a bunch of clutch plates started running the country.
 
Blu82 said:
And unlike the F-22 We might get some high resolution images.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1624914990494027776
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Technically, as reported, all other balloons were downed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder which is incorporated with a 5th gen Focal Plane Array (FPA) that is integrated into the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS). Though it doesn't have an ATP, yet, it does have a Distributed Aperture Infrared System (DAIRS) which is compromised of the before mentioned FPA. They will have that data.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Technically, as reported, all other balloons were downed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder which is incorporated with a 5th gen Focal Plane Array (FPA) that is integrated into the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS). Though it doesn't have an ATP, yet, it does have a Distributed Aperture Infrared System (DAIRS) which is compromised of the before mentioned FPA. They will have that data.
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A clean F-22 carries no electro optical system for target interrogation while the F-35 had a DAIRD type system and the F-18, F-16 and F-15 carries LATIRN systems. The F-16 engagement should now come with high resolution images from the LATIRN pod which the F-22 can't do unless it had F-15s in tow during the shoot down.
 
Blu82 said:
A clean F-22 carries no electro optical system for target interrogation while the F-35 had a DAIRD type system and the F-18, F-16 and F-15 carries LATIRN systems. The F-16 engagement should now come with high resolution images from the LATIRN pod which the F-22 can't do unless it had F-15s in tow during the shoot down.
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It was reported that F-15s was scrambled, but I didn't look into any tracker reports. Yes, the F-22 would need to rely on external sources without compromising its stealth capabilities. The biggest obstacle was to provide F-22 pilots with a JHMCS and to integrate that with the F-22s radar. The Scorpio HMD has been trialled, or at least documented by the public, since 2014, and an upgrade path was pushed in 2019, so at least some F-22s should have a more advanced system to use the AIM-9X. Though not high resolution. First look imaging should be available.
 
www.cnbc.com

U.S. shoots down a fourth high-altitude object as lawmakers demand more information

Members of Congress say they have not been briefed about four high-altitude objects downed in the airspace above the U.S. and Canada.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said members of Congress were given a top-secret briefing about the Chinese spy balloon, but that lawmakers have not been directly briefed about the second or third incidents. He said he suspects that since the objects were downed in remote areas, there is not a lot of information to share yet.

“I have real concerns about why the administration has not been more forthcoming with everything that it knows,” Himes told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

Himes said there is “a lot of garbage” in the air, and that it is not hard for countries, companies or even individuals with resources to get objects into the sky.

“My speculative guess as to why we’re seeing these things happen in quick succession is that now we’re really attuned to looking for them,” he said.
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Going back to an Australian article published in December 2020,

www.smh.com.au

Pentagon has received ‘several hundreds’ of new UFO reports

A new Pentagon office was established in July after more than a year of attention on UFOs that military pilots have observed but have sometimes been reluctant to report.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au

Pentagon has received ‘several hundreds’ of new UFO reports​

Washington: A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects has received “several hundreds” of new reports, but no evidence so far of alien life, the agency’s leadership says.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was set up in July and is responsible for not only tracking unidentified objects in the sky, but also underwater or in space — or potentially an object that has the ability to move from one domain to the next.

The office was established following more than a year of attention on unidentified flying objects that military pilots have observed but have sometimes been reluctant to report due to fear of stigma.

In June 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that between 2004 and 2021, there were 144 such encounters, 80 of which were captured on multiple sensors.
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Having a look on Twitter yesterday, it could be noted that there are unregistered and unlicensed vehicles being launched into the sky without permission. Either people don't want to register or they don't want to be burdened with an administrative process, but I guess this is mainly on individuals.

These heliotropes can be any cylindrical, octagonal, or any shape. Guides on building solar-powered heliotropes are available on the internet. There seems to be an issue with people launching class-A heliotropes without due process.

Then there are other requirements when launching vehicles (stations) into the air which are required to be tracked. The US doesn't know who is spying or not ;) and it is encouraged to have these stations registered on sites like this, https://aprs.fi/
 
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