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The War Zone

Why Wreckage Of The Three Shot Down Objects Is So Hard To Find

The circumstances of the Chinese spy balloon’s downing were very different than the other three, and recovering them will be much tougher.

It's been three days since the U.S. shot down a balloon-like object over North America. That would have seemed like a totally bizarre statement to make just a couple of weeks ago, but it's not after recent events. U.S. Air Force F-22s and F-16s have brought shot down four objects in just over one week.

While these are truly unprecedented events, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to War Zone readers as two years ago we laid out the case for how adversaries, using relatively low-tech aerial capabilities, have been spying on the U.S. and that those acts have been conflated with 'UFO' sightings. But now that the dust is beginning to settle after a weekend of shoot-downs, one of the biggest questions we keep getting is why haven't any of the three objects that were taken down in recent days been recovered like the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down off South Carolina has. The truth is doing so is far more challenging than it may seem.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/why-finding-wreckage-from-the-shot-down-objects-is-so-hard

Spy Balloons. U.F.O.s. What Else Is Up There?

A number of airborne objects have been identified and shot down over the past two weeks, including a Chinese spy balloon and three U.F.O.s in North America, and about half a dozen Russian balloons in Ukraine. These encounters have raised questions about just what else might be in the sky.
At any given time, thousands of balloons are floating overhead, along with other objects ranging from the mysterious to the mundane. Here’s a look at some of them.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/02/16/science/ufo-balloon-high-altitude-objects.html?smtyp=cur

Most UFOs – like the Chinese spy balloon – can be explained away. But what about the other 2%?

As a UFO investigator, it’s my job to be sceptical and rigorous. Yet an air of mystery remains – and I hope it always will Heather Dixon is head of national investigations for the British UFO Research Association

Sometimes they appear in the form of an orb of light, high in the sky, that seems to pass through solid objects such as trees and buildings. Sometimes it’s a strange mist that descends out of nowhere. In an increasing number of cases, an object that can’t be seen with the naked eye shows up clearly in a photographic image.
These are examples of UFOs – literally, unidentified flying objects – that are spotted in UK skies every day. In the wake of the US shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon, plus three other objects it has yet to identify, experts say there are going to be a lot more of these kinds of sightings. As a UFO researcher, I treat these things with scepticism and scientific rigour, but part of me hopes they will never be fully explained.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/16/ufo-chinese-spy-balloon-mystery

euronews Updated: 16/02/2023 - 11:36
Are UFOs hovering over the United States? We asked the experts to find out

It's the stratospheric saga that's gripping the world. Almost two weeks ago, the US accused China of sending a spy balloon high above its territory - grabbing the attention of sci-fi geeks and Pentagon officials alike.
Beijing officials admitted the object did belong to them but claimed it was a meteorological research aircraft that had blown off course, and said that US balloons have entered Chinese airspace more than a dozen times in the past year.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/02/16/are-ufos-hovering-over-the-united-states-we-asked-the-experts-to-find-out

avi loeb

Balloons or Extraterrestrial Devices?

Archimedes’ principle states that a body immersed in a fluid is subjected to an upwards force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. For this reason, a balloon filled with gas of a low atomic-mass, such as hydrogen or helium, can rise up to an altitude where the ambient mass density of air equals its mean mass density. An application of this principle shows that a 3-meter balloon, the size of a small car, can rise up to an altitude of 12 kilometers, whereas a 12-meter balloon can rise up to 40 kilometers.

The US government shot down balloons of these sizes within these limiting altitudes. Physics works, even if it was derived by Archimedes about 2,270 years ago. As the physicist, Richard Feynman, noted: “Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.”

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/balloons-or-extraterrestrial-devices-4bd16c70f3b7

MUFON Statement on Recent Unidentified Flying Objects

In the past 11 days, there have been four UFO sightings that have heightened public awareness of national security: the surveillance balloon over South Carolina's coast on February 4th, the car-sized object over the Alaskan coast on February 10th, the cylindrical object in Yukon, Canada on February 11th, and the octagonal structure over Lake Huron on February 12th. Given the increase in significant sightings with public exposure, MUFON is available to comment and speak on the topic. MUFON is compiling a report on similar sightings over the last 3 years, and what MUFON Field Investigators have determined, from the MUFON database

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mufon-statement-on-recent-unidentified-flying-objects-ufos-301747802.html

Fox Business

White House to create new task force on UFOs

Theoretical physicist Avi Loeb weighs in on the White House, saying there is 'no indication' of aliens after three unidentified flying objects were shot down on 'Kennedy.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLFlpjMe2dA

The Atlantic FEBRUARY 15, 2023

A New Age of UFO Mania
Escalating from grainy videos of so-called aliens to fighter jets blowing things out of the sky will only fuel America’s obsession.

People love a good mystery, and UFOs are certainly that. But intense interest has downsides. It bolsters the erroneous idea that UFOs must be alien spaceships, and it provides cover for government organizations reluctant to share details about national-security threats. This week, the UFO news has even enabled a new strain of conspiracy thinking: Far-right figures have suggested that the airborne intrusions are a deliberate distraction from a train derailment in Ohio that caused a chemical fire.

https://archive.fo/YW3ef

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/02/unidentified-flying-objects-chinese-spy-balloon-american-alien-ufo-obsession/673068/

The White House
President Biden Delivers Remarks on the United States’ Response to Recent Aerial Objects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEibBLZXweA

John Kirby (Admiral)
https://odysee.com/Aerial-objects:c

The War Zone
‘Sharper Rules’ Coming To Tackle Airspace Incursions: Biden

President Joe Biden says his administration is seeking new policies and procedures for how to handle unidentified objects intruding into U.S. airspace in the future. These remarks come after U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and F-16C Viper fighter jets shot down three still-unidentified objects in U.S. and Canadian airspace between February 10 and February 12.
That followed the shootdown of what U.S. officials said was a Chinese government spy balloon in U.S. airspace off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. Earlier reports had indicated that Biden's speech today – after which he remained in the briefing room for a few moments, but ultimately answered no questions – came in response to growing criticism over the administration's transparency, or lack thereof, about these incidents. The President had said previously that he did not believe the initial Chinese spy balloon incident represented a major security breach.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/sharper-rules-coming-to-tackle-airspace-incursions-biden

Aviation Week

Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF

A small, globe-trotting balloon declared “missing in action” by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10. 
The club—the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB)—is not pointing fingers yet.

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/hobby-clubs-missing-balloon-feared-shot-down-usaf

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zerohedge
Chinese Spy Balloon Collected No Intelligence, Milley Now Says

In February, a Chinese balloon floated over the US, prompting politicians on both sides of the aisle to claim Beijing was threatening Americans. The event led American officials to cancel high-level meetings with their Chinese diplomats. Seven months later, Gen. Mark Milley said the balloon never collected intelligence.
Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told “CBS News Sunday Morning” the US intelligence community does not believe the craft collected intelligence but still maintained it was a “spy balloon.” America’s top general said, “The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon.” Milley continued, “I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with a high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn’t transmit any intelligence back to China.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinese-spy-balloon-collected-no-intelligence-milley-now-says

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cbsnews
The bizarre secret behind China's spy balloon

It was surely the most bizarre crisis of the Biden administration: America's top-of-the-line jet fighters being sent up to shoot down, of all things, a balloon – a Chinese spy balloon that was floating across the United States, which had the nation and its politicians in a tizzy.
Now, seven months later, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells "CBS News Sunday Morning" the balloon wasn't spying. "The intelligence community, their assessment – and it's a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon," he said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-bizarre-secret-behind-chinas-spy-balloon/