Panic or mass surveillance operation? After the balloon described by the United States as a "spy" and attributed to China spotted in American skies in early February, American and Canadian authorities shot down three more flying objects in a single weekend between the 10th and 12th FEBRUARY. The Americans also revealed that several spy balloons had flown over the country in recent years, but also other regions of the world, particularly in Asia.
It's hard to know exactly which objects it is: while the authorities were rather verbose about the first balloon, which strained relations with China, information about the other three objects is trickling out. The debris must still be recovered by the armies of the two countries in order to be analyzed. This increase in unidentified flying objects detected and shot down may also be due to more sensitive surveillance since the balloon incident. We take stock.
The object, which looks like a large hot air balloon, was spotted in the US sky earlier this month, in the stratosphere (more than 10 kilometers above commercial traffic). He was officially summoned on February 2, and tracked for two days until the U.S. military shot him down over the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina on February 4. President Joe Biden refused to do so earlier, for fear of damage to civilians on the ground.
This balloon, 60 meters high and equipped with large solar panels, carried a basket weighing more than a ton, according to the Pentagon. The American authorities evoke "many antennas, a set probably capable of collecting and geolocating communications", and attribute the paternity of the spy balloon to China. If the Chinese now recognize that the balloon comes from home, they claim that it had no military purpose and was only a tool for civilian scientific measurements. The debris is being collected by the US military.
“The size of a small car,” a second suspicious flying object was shot down Friday, February 10, over Alaskan airspace. A White House spokesperson claims not to know "who owns" the object, and not to understand "for the time being its use". It flew at an altitude of 12,000 meters, a little lower than the balloon assigned to China.
Before shooting it down, indicates CNN, American pilots were able to approach it. At first sight, they would not have spotted any surveillance device. The debris of the object fell on frozen waters in Alaska, near the Canadian border, according to the White House.
This Saturday, February 11, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refers to an "unidentified object", shot down by American pilots, as part of a joint operation under the aegis of Norad, the American Aerospace Defense Command. North. He was then in the Yukon, about 160 kilometers from the border with the United States.
Like the one spotted the day before in nearby Alaska, it was flying at around 12,000 meters above sea level. The object was, according to Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand, a "cylindrical device, much smaller than the balloon earlier this month". "Canadian forces will now repatriate and analyze the debris from the object," said Justin Trudeau.
A fourth object was shot down over Lake Huron this Sunday, February 12, at the United States-Canada border. According to the American media, it would be the same object detected the day before by radars in Montana and which had led to a brief closure of the airspace.
This new object, described by the authorities as "octagonal" and "without an apparent nacelle", flew at a lower altitude than the others, at 6,000 meters. It posed no military threat, according to the Pentagon. An operation is in preparation to try to recover the debris.
