![]() Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. In a statement issued on Friday, a China Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed that the balloon belongs to China, but claimed that is is being used for “research” and “meteorological purposes.” I think that’s the biggest difference here.” “I think the thing that is different is the altitude, and of course, the willingness to put it over the continental United States for an extended period of time. “I’m not going to go into the exact nature of the technology, I don’t think that the payload on this is - I wouldn’t characterize it as revolutionary,” the senior Defense official told DefenseScoop. military and government sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena, officials confirmed that 163 reports were eventually characterized as balloon or balloon-like entities. That would be one distinguishing factor,” the official said. However, “it is appearing to hang out for a longer period of time this time around, more persistent than in previous instances. It has happened “a handful of other times over the past few years,” including before the Biden administration took office, according to the official. ![]() This is not the first time that a Chinese balloon of this type has flown over the continental United States. So, we think we have all the authorities we need to do anything that we need to do to protect the American people, and we’ll continue to do that,” the official said. And most importantly, we also have sufficient authority given to us to take action under Title 10 against unmanned aerial systems, of which this balloon would be a part. “As it relates to do we have a policy - the answer is yes, we do. So if the risk profile that I described earlier, if that changes, we will have options to deal with this balloon,” the senior Defense official said.ĭefenseScoop asked the official if the Pentagon had a policy for engaging these types of systems. “We have made clear we will do whatever is necessary to protect our people and our homeland. We had been looking at whether there was an option yesterday over some sparsely populated areas in Montana, but we just couldn’t buy down the risk enough to feel comfortable recommending shooting it down,” they said. We did assess that it was large enough to cause damage from the debris field if we downed it over an area. ![]() “I’m not going to go into the exact dimensions. The official declined to disclose the size of the balloon. VanHerck not to take kinetic action due to the risk to the safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field,” the official told reporters. Milley and the commander of Northcom Gen. There was a strong recommendation by the Chairman of Joint Chiefs Gen. Secretary Austin convened senior DOD leadership yesterday even as he was on the road in the Philippines. “In this instance, President Biden was briefed and asked for military options. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command - on Wednesday to get their assessment, according to a senior Defense official. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of military brass - including the head of U.S. The existence of the balloon was first reported by NBC News. ![]()
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