President Biden has done it. “Hurricane Joe,” as his fellow B-21 pilots called him back in the ‘Nam of his imagination, ordered the shot that downed an unidentified object off the northeast coast of Alaska today — the object was about the size of a car, reportedly.
This new natant foe, then, is different, at least in structure, from the balloon shot down over the South Carolina coast, which had the payload of a regional jet and had spent the past week moseying between military bases. White House spokesman John Kirby* briefed the media on today’s action at a press conference, saying that pilots confirmed the object to be unmanned before firing upon it and that the reason for bringing it down was to protect air traffic. Note: This object was at 40,000 feet compared to the 60,000 of last week’s balloon, putting it much closer to commercial air traffic altitudes.
Why would there be an airborne object in that region?
Tom Rogan, a defense reporter for the Washington Examiner, has some ideas:
The area where the object was downed does have strategic value. This includes the large Prudhoe Bay oil field, the operators of which may use drones and balloons in their operations. But U.S. and Russian submarines operate in the nearby waters, with the former conducting icebreaking drills, ballistic missile exercises and combat training. Russian military aircraft also regularly fly near Alaskan airspace.
Advanced fiber optic cables also come ashore at Prudhoe Bay. That bears note in relation to escalating Russian efforts to monitor these cables for prospective interference or destruction. But whatever this object was, there are feasible intelligence collection targets it could have been pursuing.
It’s also important to note that NORAD is on high alert for intrusions following the balloon incident. This is partly due to the fact that the balloon and others like it were not detected early enough, or some at all. Air Force leaders know they have to show that they can provide a more meaningful assurance of national air defense.
This is a busy stretch of desolate coastline, in other words, and more information should be demanded of the Biden administration.
We should fall before Joe and thank the munificent lord of the realm for protecting us from an object that wasn’t as big, as dangerous, or as equipped for snooping as the one permitted to putt-putt its way over our military bases? I must refuse, Mr. Nebuchadnezzar.
Biden deserves no credit beyond a “Huzzah. You have achieved the bare minimum.” Democrats who are crowing about this as some Dark Brandon moment are as delusional as ever. Respectfully, we should expect that our military can keep airborne junks from our skies. That at least five spy balloons have passed over our heads during the last two administrations should be thrice the controversy it is.
The federal government’s job is to protect the sovereignty of the states and their citizens. Give me two grand, and I can send Cletus from Rosholt airborne with some five hundred helium balloons, a lawn chair, two Steel Reserve tallboys, and a Red Ryder and do a better job protecting our airspace than the trillions the DOD has soaked up in the past six years.
Good grief.
On a less serious note, U.S. intel suggests that Xi Jinping has labored for years on balloon technology, with some footage available here.
(*John Kirby anecdote: Before he was a civilian spokesman, Kirby was an admiral — a public-relations admiral. John Kirby’s son was in my brother division during boot camp. Apparently, his son — a rebel — had not notified anyone of who his father was, and it was only when the guest list was finalized a few days before graduation that the base commander, an O-6 captain, was notified that then–Rear Admiral Kirby would be in attendance (a rather big deal). When our RDCs (drill instructors) returned from a one-way conversation with the senior enlisted, some calisthenics ensued. I’d meet Admiral John Kirby at a nuclear A-school graduation some months later, as his son and I were in the same class. Admiral Kirby gave each of the 20 of us a custom challenge coin — a sort of fleur-de-lis design with his name and one star on the back denoting his rank. He was as gentlemanly as one would hope an admiral to be. He looks tired these days, unfortunately.)