The Shadow
Following the shooting down of a Chinese balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4th, the U.S. Air Force has shot down unidentified objects over Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron.
All three shootdowns were of unidentified aerial objects smaller than the 200’ tall Chinese balloon, at least one of the three having been reported to be the size of a car.
According to the AP report on the shootdown that occurred over the water of Lake Huron near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the first missile fired missed its target and fell into the water. The second missile took down the unidentified aerial object.
The remains of the wreckage of all three of the unidentified flying objects have not been recovered because inclement weather has hampered the military’s effort to retrieve the remains that are in difficult areas to conduct recoveries.
UFOs over Guam in the western Pacific have been spotted near US Navy and Air Force facilities, raising concerns in the US Congress.
Some members of the US Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have expressed their dismay that the Chinese surveillance balloon was permitted to be directed by the Chinese over U.S. military bases after it left Alaska and entered over Idaho before flying above missile installations in Montana.
Two photographers in Montana, Larry Meyer and Chase Doak, captured the image of the Chinese balloon and posted it on social media, an act that brought worldwide attention to the UFO.
The Chinese balloon was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet that took off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The Navy pilot used a heat-seeking Sidewinder missile to bring it down seven miles off the coast.
The U.S. Navy continues to recover parts of the wreckage nearly two weeks later, the recovery team’s retrieval effort having been impeded by rough seas and unfavorable weather.
The last unidentified aerial flying object of the four that the US military has shot down during Feb. was shot down over Lake Huron, and NORTH COM and NORAD Commander Gen. Glen Van Herek admitted to reporters that the small unidentified flying object was too difficult for the pilot of the F-16 fighter jet to bring down by cannon fire.
He told reporters that the pilot chose to use an Aim-9X Sidewinder, a heat-seeking missile, to bring down the small object.
Van Herek did not divulge that the first Sidewinder missile missed its target.
John Kirby, national security spokesperson for the White House, informed the media that the three shootdowns in three days of unidentified aerial objects posed a threat to airplanes because the objects’ were flying at lower altitudes than the flight path of the high altitude Chinese surveillance balloon.
In 1960, the Russians used a surface-to-air missile to shoot down the USA’s U-2 spy plane that was flying at a high altitude. Gary Francis Powers, the US pilot, parachuted out and was captured by the KGB near the city of Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Ural Mountains.
While satellites and drones have nearly ruled balloons obsolete, balloons have been used by the militaries of many nations for warfare purposes and spying for centuries.
China has hundreds of satellites in orbit around the Earth, and its high-altitude balloon program has become sophisticated in that a balloon can be directed and used to secure information and relay the data back to China as it flies above Earth.
China has launched 14 new satellites into orbit around the Earth in 2023, bringing its total satellites in orbit to 499 as of Feb. 3.
Only the US has more satellites orbiting the Earth than China. The question remains, “How many satellites are being used for the purpose of espionage?”
Since the 1947 crash of a high-altitude US Army Air Corps’ weather balloon near Roswell, New Mexico that was originally reported in a local newspaper to be a UFO crash, Americans have become aware of high-altitude balloons being used by the military.
Following the US shootdown of China’s high-altitude balloon, the Chinese government has claimed that its balloon that was shot down by the US on Feb. 4th was nothing more than a weather balloon blown off course.
Taiwan is now threatening to shoot down Chinese balloons that enter its air space, increasing political tension on the world stage as members of the US Congress call for more transparency from the Biden Administration concerning the shootdowns.
