The US government has modified the filters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) radar to detect and track high altitude, low speed objects. This new capability has led to the shooting down of three unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) in the week following the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
The initial incident occurred on February 4, when a US F-22 fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese PRC surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. The balloon was travelling above commercial air traffic and was roughly 200 feet tall, weighing over a couple thousand pounds.
The following day, a cylindrical object smaller than the Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down by a US F-22 in Northern Canada. It was flying at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet.
On February 10, an unidentified object was shot down by a US F-22 at an altitude of 40,000 feet, ten miles off the coast of Alaska over the Arctic Ocean near the Canadian border. Fighter pilots who shot down the object have revealed that it "interfered with their sensors" and had "no identifiable propulsion system."
The final incident occurred on February 12 over Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where an unidentified object flying at 20,000 feet was shot down by a US F-16 fighter jet. The object was described as having an octagonal shape.
US intelligence officials have released limited information about the designs and intended purposes of the three objects, and reports offer conflicting details about their capabilities and origins. The White House has stated that it is unclear who owns the objects, which have posed a threat to civilian flight.
Christopher Melon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, has expressed doubt about the extraterrestrial origin of the objects. He suggests that most are probably balloons, but the object that interfered with US fighters over Alaska is highly unusual and may prove to be a Russian or Chinese electronic warfare or spy platform. Melon also notes that some UAPs demonstrate capabilities that seem inexplicable without reference to a more advanced nation or civilization.
Head of Senate Intelligence, Senator Marco Rubio on the other hand said that he could not rule out an extraterrestrial origin of the objects after a classified briefing to Congress, but went on to express concern that the objects could be Chinese or Russian inventions that the US cannot monitor, posing a significant threat to national security.
The shooting down of these objects demonstrates the need for further research and investigation into the nature of UAPs and their potential origins, as many in the UAP community have been crying out for. Lue Elizondo, former director of AATIP, said "This is one of the primary reasons I resigned from the Pentagon in 2017; no one was paying attention. Thanks to new legislation, we are now better prepared to monitor our skies. Keep in mind, the more we look up, the more we are going to see."
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