On lead U.S. officials stated this past Monday that what is now suspected to be a Chinese spy balloon ended up flying close to highly sensitive U.S. military bases located in the Middle East this past Fall, but stayed just far enough away to not spark a response from the military to shoot it down.
The origins of the balloon seem to be in or close to China, explained one senior U.S. official to The New York Times, before traveling into the prevailing winds, which means that it had its own propulsion system.
The military was able to track the journey the balloon took from Asia to the Middle East.
The report highlighted that Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the lead American air commander in the Middle East, seemed to make reference to the incident during a meeting with reporters this week but would not offer up details about it because it was classified.
“It never got to the point where it was a high enough concern,” he stated. “We just monitored it.”
This news comes after the U.S. military has elected to shoot down quite a few objects over the past two weeks, including a Chinese spy balloon back on the first Saturday of this month, an unidentified object over Alaska on Friday, an unidentified object over Canada on Saturday, and an unidentified object over Lake Huron on Sunday.
Following the events at the start of the week which took place over Lake Huron, the commander who oversees North American airspace, U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck did not actually rule out aliens when questioned about the events.
When questioned about if the U.S. Military had chosen to rule out origins of a more extraterrestrial lean for the unidentified objects, VanHerck answered: “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything.”
“At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it,” VanHerck went on.
A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet engaged and took down the unidentified “octagonal” object as it floated over Lake Huron by making use of a Sidewinder Missile.
Later on, an anonymous U.S. defense official went on to state to Reuters, “No indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent take downs.”
VanHerck, however, stated that the U.S. Officials seemed very confident that the objects had not in fact been balloons.
“I’m not going to categorize them as balloons. We’re calling them objects for a reason,” stated VanHerck. “I’m not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they’re — they’re able to stay aloft.”
