We have another mystery balloon flying over the western United States, and, as usual, the Pentagon is tracking it. They say it presents no threat, but, in the same breath, they say they don’t know where it came from or its purpose.
In a statement Monday afternoon, a Pentagon spokesperson said the balloon was floating at 36,000 feet with “no indication that it was maneuvering or being controlled by a foreign or adversarial actor. The balloon did not transit directly over defense critical infrastructure or other U.S. Government sensitive sites, nor did it pose a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
A spokesman for Indo-Pacific Command said, “U.S. Indo-Pacific Command responded to an unidentified radar signature Friday in the vicinity of the island of Hawaii. Pacific Air Forces launched three F-22s to assess the situation and visually identified a spherical object. We monitored the transit of the object and assessed that it posed no threat.”
They’ve said that before when they let a Chinese spy balloon fly clear across the US, spying on our military installations. They shot it down when it went out to sea and was no longer a threat. To make matters worse, the Chinese used an American service provider.
The device was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, officials had said.
More information, added after publication:
NORAD confirms intercepting balloon. Fighters caught up with it over Utah between 43-45k feet. Deemed not a threat to air traffic.
Source describes the payload as ~2 foot cube under a Mylar balloon. Continues to move east fast thanks to a strong jet stream. NORAD statement: https://t.co/WKZExWRyKs pic.twitter.com/wgBsPONdEC— Kris Van Cleave (@krisvancleave) February 23, 2024
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