The White House says that China has been engaged on a balloon surveillance initiative in recent times “that it has used to violate the sovereignty of the US and over 40 countries across five continents,” in line with an announcement by National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. On Sunday, the Chinese authorities claimed that the US illegally flew over 10 balloons in its airspace previously 12 months. The Biden administration denied the allegation. “Any claim that the US government operates surveillance balloons over the PRC is false,” Watson stated within the assertion.

“With the balloon at the beginning of February, the US caught China with its hands in the proverbial cookie jar and made the decision to make it public,” says Jake Williams, a former National Security Administration hacker and an analyst on the Institute for Applied Network Security. “There is likely a ton of statecraft happening in the background, either as a result of the decision to publicly acknowledge the first balloon or that led to the decision itself. Generally, yes, things change once a surveillance target knows they’re being surveilled.”

The Biden administration has been been criticized by some Republican lawmakers and others for being sluggish to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon and hesitant to disclose particular particulars concerning the three different UFOs taken out in latest days. (US officers stated capturing down the balloon over land would pose an unacceptable threat as a consequence of falling particles.) RAND’s Tannehill says, although, that from an investigative perspective, it is tough to course of so many instances concurrently. 

“The White House is caught between rapid response and getting the facts right,” Tannehill says. “Until the path analysis is done, we’re guessing at who launched them. Getting the facts wrong publicly would be highly damaging to US credibility.” She provides that the UFO disabled on Saturday that additionally flew over Canadian airspace “brings another NATO country into the discussion, and it becomes a NATO problem, not just US or NORAD,” the North American Aerospace Defense Command. 

Of the article shot down on Sunday over Lake Huron, the US Defense Department said in an announcement, “We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.”

Oh, and in the event you’re nonetheless holding out for this flurry of aerial exercise to be associated to aliens, the White House is right here to burst your bubble: “I know there have been questions and concerns about this,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press conference yesterday, “but there is no, again no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.” General Glen VanHerck, commander of the Air Force’s Northern Command, added throughout a information convention on Sunday, although, “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.”