The live-fire event, which took place in Poland, Germany and Arizona on May 11-27, was led by the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force under 56th Artillery Command and included international allies.

Maj. Gen. John Rafferty, commanding general of 56th Artillery Command, called it a “premier training event” that tested the task force’s ability to operate across all domains, find targets “at depth” and strike those targets with kinetic and non-kinetic effects.

In U.S. military parlance, the term “kinetic effects” generally refers to munitions or other projectiles, while non-kinetic effects include things like electronic warfare, directed energy and cyber capabilities.

The Multi-Domain Task Force is “improving and refining the technology and the tactics, techniques and procedures. Our soldiers, our sergeants and our lieutenants are the ones who have their hands on this equipment, who are determining the best way to employ it, to get the effects and find the targets that we’re asking them to. And we are putting that feedback right back into the system to improve the capability and optimize not just the equipment that we have, but the way that in which we’re employing it,” Rafferty told reporters Friday during a teleconference.

The results of the exercise are also setting the conditions for the evolution of Rafferty’s command into a multi-domain command in Europe that’s going to take place over the next few months, he noted.

Unmanned systems of various types were key components of the latest iteration of Arcane Thunder, part of an effort to demonstrate the ability to “fight with live data” across a large-scale combat theater.

The Army teamed up with the Navy in the employment of unmanned surface vessels to test out the multi-domain ops concept — which fits in with the Pentagon’s vision for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) to better connect the sensors, shooters and information networks of the U.S. military services and allies and partners.

“It’s really trying to perfect the ability to transition from the littoral domain to the land domain, and … how does the MDTF, as part of the joint force, gather data from our joint partners and also share data with our joint partners,” Col. Patrick Moffett, commander of the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force, told reporters about the use of unmanned surface vessels during Arcane Thunder. “Working with the USVs, we worked the joint kill chain where the Navy vessels would identify a target, that target would get passed to the second MDTF all-domain operations center, and then we would pass that target to really, for this exercise, to our Polish partners. So that was the tie-in.”

As a land-based force, the Army’s understanding of littorals is often limited, but those USVs gave the task force the ability to better understand what was going on in the sea domain, he noted.

The robo-boats were also used to haul Army equipment in a contested logistics scenario, where the military might need to push that type of gear forward to “isolated elements,” Moffett explained.

But USVs weren’t the only uncrewed systems involved in Arcane Thunder. Drones, high-altitude balloons (HAB) and unattended ground sensors were also part of the mix.

Lt. Col. Aaron Ritzema, commander of the 2nd Multi-Domain Effects Battalion, noted that soldiers used sensor data to inform the employment of so-called “launched effects” — such as loitering munitions — to strike targets.

“For us, as we kind of, you know, fought through the scenario-based portion of this exercise, it was using … the micro HAB to provide that geolocation. And then that would trigger battalion- and company-level decision points on if and when … we launched the launched effect to actually close the kill chain on that,” he told reporters.

Stitching together the different technologies involved in the exercise and enabling interoperability between platforms and payloads were some of the biggest challenges the Army had to tackle, he noted.

Rafferty emphasized the importance of being able to pass live data through mission command systems — which in the case of Arcane Thunder, involved forces in both Europe and the continental United States.

He noted that the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force under Moffett’s command demonstrated the ability “to make sense of the information and generate enough fidelity to produce targets that then, in some cases, were passed back to the 56th multi-domain headquarters … to work through the process of assigning, you know, the right shooter to those particular targets. So there was a whole range of possibilities and scenarios there.”

Rafferty added: “Really the breakthrough, like I said, was getting that data in virtually real-time from a micro HAB, refined by another platform, made sense of by [Moffett’s team in Poland] and Aaron Ritzema’s soldiers at Fort Huachuca [in Arizona] … and then, in seconds, back here to Wiesbaden and Mainz-Kastel in Germany for, you know, additional analysis and assigning to the right shooter. So really taking that kill chain and taking what was once, you know, hours to really into minutes, essentially … That live data part is probably the biggest breakthrough for us, from my standpoint.”

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Tensions between China and Taiwan have been on the rise in recent years — particularly since Chinese President Xi Jinping revealed his intent to ensure that the People’s Liberation Army would be prepared and equipped to “unify” (or invade) its smaller neighbor by 2027. Although Beijing sees the island as a piece of its territory, Taipei has been under the rule of its own separate government for roughly 75 years.

The security situation in the Indo-Pacific seems more uncertain this week, after Taiwan national security officials raised alarm that they’re detecting a large fleet of warships, high-altitude surveillance balloons and other markers of potential future aggression they associate with China’s military.

“We have remained focused on the [People’s Republic of China’s] activity for quite some time. That’s why the PRC has been our pacing challenge for the last four years. We’ve talked about their coercive actions in the region. And certainly, this latest activity is something that we will continue to monitor and make sure that that nobody does anything to change the status quo in the [Taiwan Strait],” Austin said during a press briefing to close out a multi-day trip to Japan, which will mark his final visit to the Indo-Pacific as the U.S. defense chief.

The secretary highlighted joint pursuits that America and Japan executed on during his tenure, including an ongoing push to collaboratively upgrade their militaries’ command-and-control frameworks and expanding their shared operational responsibilities.

Notably, the Taiwan Strait is considered one of the world’s most critical waterways for global shipping, as heaps of valuable trade assets pass through it every day. Beijing so far does not appear to have made it clear whether the capabilities its surging near the strait this week are part of a training exercise, military drill — or some other, more threatening scheme.

Responding to DefenseScoop’s questions in Japan Wednesday, Austin didn’t say if he’s spoken to his Taiwanese counterparts about the still-evolving incident, or if his team has any indications of China’s reasoning for the deployments near the island this week.

“Our policy hasn’t changed. We’ll continue to do what we can to help Taiwan acquire the means to defend itself. Again, that work continues on. But this latest activity — we’ll continue to monitor it and see what happens,” he said.

Austin also expressed confidence that the U.S. military will continue to have the capacity and focus to deter China and work with its allies to promote peace around the Indo-Pacific, even as conflicts around the Middle East and in Ukraine continue to expand.

“Throughout [the last four years], the PRC has been our pacing challenge. And we have done a number of things that — globally — can help our partners and allies,” he told DefenseScoop. “A combination of what we’ve done to help Ukraine defend itself and put more pressure on Russia, to help Israel do what it’s done, has made Russia weaker and Iran weaker as well. And so that has had an impact.”

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In a new letter, shared with DefenseScoop on Tuesday before it was disseminated publicly, the lawmakers cite recent articles in the American press to warn of what they view as Beijing’s recent, intensifying expansion of espionage efforts to access secretive U.S. defense installations using human spies and technology.

“Recent reporting by the Wall Street Journal indicates that citizens of the PRC have gained or attempted to access military bases and other sensitive sites at least one hundred times over the past few years. In one case, potential agents infiltrated a U.S. Army test range, accessed numerous missile sites, and used drone technology to surveil the grounds. In another case, individuals were found scuba diving in a location home to a launch site for U.S. spy satellites and other sensitive military equipment,” the Congress members wrote.

House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chair Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, led the cadre in penning the letter. It’s also signed by Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., Rep. Andy Barr, R- Ky., Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla.

In the new letter, the lawmakers point to recent media reports that, since 2018, the Defense Department has conducted several base security reviews — including one completed late last year that honed in on the physical security of approximately 1,400 gates at U.S. military bases.

Beyond the classified briefing, the Congress members wrote to “request that [Austin and Wray] provide the Select Committee with all documents related to these security reviews as soon as possible but no later than” the Oct. 6 deadline.

Noting other examples of potential China-led espionage, they also reference the “Chinese spy balloon” that traversed skies across the continental U.S. with signals intelligence collection capabilities earlier this year before President Biden ordered it to be shot down — and separately, a case where Chinese officials allegedly tried to hack the emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other senior officials in August.  

“There is a growing trend of persons working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to obtain sensitive information about America’s military, economic, and technological secrets,” the lawmakers wrote.

Citing their committee’s broad investigative authorities, the legislators call for a closed-door briefing regarding “how the DOD and FBI are protecting against these threats to U.S. military sites.”

An official on Rep. Gallagher’s team confirmed that the Pentagon acknowledged receipt of the letter on Tuesday.

Regarding whether Austin plans to agree to share requested records and engage in a classified briefing, a Pentagon spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email: “As with all Congressional correspondence, the Department will respond directly to the author.”

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Still, they recognize how this “eye-opener” is informing their teams and the public about related and “irresponsible” activities they say China has been steadily conducting globally via a secretive fleet of similar airships.

“The balloons — I think they’ve been a wake up call for the American people, in particular, who did not think of China as a very near, clear and present danger. So, I think that’s been useful in a way,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told DefenseScoop during a roundtable at the annual AFA Warfare Symposium last week.

In separate discussions throughout that summit, Kendall and other senior Defense Department and military officials shed light on how the U.S. government is processing that incident and the emerging risks associated with it.

‘What we know’

The Pentagon first publicly confirmed the existence of a high-altitude object hovering over Western states in the U.S. on Feb. 2. At first, military brass advised President Biden not to immediately shoot it down, partially to avoid harming any people or property with debris.  

Under the president’s direction on Feb. 4, multiple aircraft were mobilized and the balloon was ultimately taken down by an F-22 fighter jet‘s AIM-9X missile — over water six nautical miles off the coast of South Carolina. Notably, the shootdown of the system came after it likely captured data from tens of thousands of feet above sensitive U.S. government sites.

On the heels of that occurrence, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command — both led by Gen. Glen VanHerck — recalibrated military radar and fine-tuned detection assets to sharpen the scrutiny of potential threats in the harder-to-monitor altitudes of the initial balloons course. At least three mysterious platforms that U.S. government officials have described as “objects” — as opposed to balloons — were subsequently hit by missiles from American fighter jets on Feb. 9, 10 and 11 off the coast of Alaska and over Canada and Lake Huron, Michigan, respectively.

Despite requests, VanHerck did not brief reporters at the AFA Summit this year. But during a panel at the event, he provided some new perspective on this overarching balloon saga.

“What we know is that China’s had a program for years that they’re utilizing to gain collection [of information on] places they haven’t been before. For me, it was an eye opener. I didn’t find out about balloons flying over the homeland until Jan. 27 of this year. I was aware of balloons around the globe in August as they presented that to us — and at that time I told my team, I said ‘It’s just a matter of time before one of these approaches the homeland or flies over the homeland. Let’s go figure out, from a legal standpoint, where we are and what our options are.’ And so low and behold, there we were on Jan. 27 — we got notified of the potential high-altitude balloon flying over our country,” VanHerck explained. 

In his view, the Defense Department “did PhD-level work” to detect and mitigate the multiple high-altitude threats.

“Shooting something down 65,000 feet that’s only going to 20 or 30 knots — everybody thinks that’s easy. I get asked questions like, ‘Well, couldn’t you just go out there and lasso it?’ And I’m not kidding you, I get questions like that,” VanHerck said. 

Early into the crisis, the commander “called up the weapons folks over at Tyndall” Air Force Base, Florida, to obtain information on success rates for assets the military had that could be useful “for shooting this thing down.”

He was told that the service did “not have any of that info.”

“Okay, so we’re guessing essentially. I told the president that, ‘Hey it’s 50/50 that we take this thing out.’ But going forward, we know a lot more now. In an unclassified environment, we can’t really talk about that. But, I will tell you that we learned a lot about our domain awareness,” VanHerck said.

At a media roundtable during the AFA Summit, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, who also serves as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s air component commander, confirmed that his team “had seen that type of [high-altitude, balloon-like] vehicle, probably for about a year-and-a-half to two years before what you saw happened” with the object that traversed Alaska, Canada and the continental U.S., in early February.

“We’ve been watching them — and so, we’re fairly certain that it has incurred upon multiple countries’ sovereign airspace several times before it actually went across North America. So, we had been monitoring it,” Wilsbach told DefenseScoop.

Throughout multi-team efforts to recover the remnants of the high-altitude objects, the Pentagon has been tight-lipped about their attributes, elements, and alleged “surveillance” technologies onboard. In clarifying how he perceives the massive aerial system, Wilsbach hinted at some of its components. 

“We say balloon because it looks like a balloon — but in actuality, that vehicle was an airship. So it had a vessel that looked much like a balloon. But underneath it was a, I call it a ‘gondola,’ but it was a structure that hung from the balloon that had some sensors on it, but also had some props, and so that’s how it maneuvered,” Wilsbach said. 

Mixed reactions

At the AFA summit, DefenseScoop asked military leaders whether the high-altitude object-centered events are shifting how their teams are currently operating.

“I would tell you that I don’t think we’ve really changed our homeland defense procedures,” Wilsbach said, noting that “certainly we are very attuned to vehicles that aren’t flying at airline type speeds.”

While it was all eye opening for the American public, Kendall said as far as he can tell at this point, these balloons do not “represent a serious threat to” U.S. national security. 

“They are surveillance balloons. We have [detected] thousands of other objects now that we’ve changed the sensitivity of our radars and so on. So, we need to be aware of them and we need to be cognizant of them. I think we sent a very strong message to China about: ‘Don’t send these over our sovereign territory in our airspace.’ But, I don’t consider them to be one of the threats that’s really compelling as a motivator right now for me,” he told DefenseScoop.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman did not get into specifics regarding whether the Space Force considered any post-balloon event posture changes in response to DefenseScoop’s question. However, he said the pace of China’s “shift to a very operational aggressive counterspace capability” in this century is at this point “the thing that concerns him the most.”

When the Chinese conducted their anti-satellite missile test back in 2007, U.S. military officials immediately realized “things are going to be different,” Saltzman noted. And over the last 17 years, China has sent what he views as “some remarkable capabilities to orbit, and on the ground, to really affect the advantages that we have in space.” 

“That’s a pretty remarkable shift if you think about how fast they’ve put all that together. And so I would say it’s the mix of weapons that they’ve chosen to invest in and the speed with which they’ve been able to demonstrate operational utility of those weapons — from lasers, from on orbit plane-matching capabilities, kinetic kill capabilities, the hypersonic reentry vehicle that glided and maneuvered, and the grappling arm that pulled a satellite out of its mission orbit — I mean, these are dramatic offensive capabilities. And so the pace with which they’ve been able to do that is probably the biggest technical concern,” Saltzman told DefenseScoop.

Northcom and NORAD officials have for years been trying to alert lawmakers and government leaders about “the lack of domain awareness and the challenges” their organizations have been confronting, according to VanHerck.

“In the history of Northern Command, [congressional] appropriators have never given us the opportunity to testify. Magically, the House and Senate each want to talk to me this year — and so that’s a great opportunity to tell our story,” he said.

“The fact that these things have flown over before and we didn’t see, that ought to concern all of us, folks. I’m convinced now that we will see them, but we need to see them further out. And I think that this experience — not only for me, but for the commands I get the privilege of commanding, and for our nation — will make us better going forward,” he added.

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As U.S. tensions with China remain strained in the incident’s aftermath, the Defense Department is deepening communications with its international partners in the Indo-Pacific region, according to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Lindsey Ford. 

During an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, the officials spotlighted the nascent Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative, which leaders of the Quad Security Dialogue nations — Australia, India, Japan, and the U.S. — agreed to last May at the 2022 Tokyo summit. Broadly, IPMDA is designed to enable a near-real-time, integrated, and cost-effective maritime domain awareness “picture” to help the nations involved fully monitor the waters and shores in that increasingly contested Indo-Pacific realm.

“Let’s actually show what’s going on in the region,” Ford said at the event.

DOD, intelligence community and administration officials have individually maintained that the equipment on board the massive, now-grounded balloon was associated with intelligence surveillance activities steered by the Chinese military — but they still have yet to provide hard proof of its capabilities. 

In response to questions Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder told DefenseScoop that he’d let the publication know if DOD has new imagery or information to share in the near future, but that there was nothing to report at that time. In that vein, at the event on Thursday, Ratner also noted that “because of the nature of the spy balloon, this is inherently an intelligence issue” and is therefore being handled secretively by the government.

“Obviously, much of the balloon itself and the associated equipment was recovered in salvage operations and is being examined very carefully now by the FBI and other elements of the intelligence community and the U.S. military — but we want to do that carefully. And at the appropriate time, we’ll be able to share the findings associated with that,” Ratner said.

Though Ratner also did not get into specifics about the possible “spying” technologies the balloon was equipped with, he reiterated the Pentagon’s previous claims that “there’s no ambiguity” that it was being used “for intelligence surveillance.” He added that the entire incident — and still-ongoing absence of communication with the People’s Republic of China, despite multiple requests from the U.S. — is “destabilizing and dangerous.”

The balloon shot down over the U.S. East Coast is part of “a broader fleet of capabilities that we know the PRC has developed to conduct surveillance operations,” Ratner also confirmed, noting that other alleged Chinese balloons in that fleet have flown over more than 40 countries and across five continents. 

“So this was not just an isolated incident — and I have not heard a plausible explanation for this activity,” he said. 

Both Ratner and Ford pointed to ways the PRC conducts efforts that appear to “violate sovereignty” of other countries but vehemently denies its actions publicly.

“So for example, you saw back in the wintertime, there was an incident in which PLA rocket debris fell into Philippine waters, so Philippine fishermen went and were recovering it. Then, the Chinese came in and essentially ripped it away and drove off with it — and when the Philippines tried to come out and say what had happened, the PRC basically said it was ‘fake news.’ But the Philippines said ‘here’s the receipts,’ and they put it up and showed the video [of what happened]. That kind of transparency for the United States and for other countries, I think, is a big part of what we’re trying to do,” Ford explained.

Those happenings, and the balloon fleet, are all “part of why the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative is important,” she added. 

A version of IPMDA has been in the works over recent decades, but only now is finally materializing. 

“Essentially, we are working through new emerging technologies — including commercial radio-frequency technologies — to create a common operating picture that is much more comprehensive and facilitates for our partners real-time data on what is actually going on in the maritime domain, that folks can see bilaterally and that we can begin to share multilaterally in the Indo-Pacific region,” Ford explained.

With data and information captured by and to be shared across the Quad partners’ militaries, the initiative is ultimately intended to provide a more thorough view and grasp of activities there.

“Think of it as the countries maybe had like two ‘layers of a cake,’ in terms of what they could actually see happening in the maritime domain — and suddenly they’re looking at a seven-layer cake, in terms of the data that they’re [getting]. And instead of waiting an hour for that ‘cake’ to be baked, it’s served on a plate immediately. That’s sort of what we’re talking about here,” Ford said. 

The IPMDA kicked off in Southeast Asia, so far, but the Pentagon envisions “rolling out this kind of information and data streams elsewhere in the region,” Ford added.

“What that does is it enables things like, for example, ships who’ve turned off [their ​​Automatic Identification System] signals — so they’ve gone dark and you may not have been able to see them in the path — now you can because technology has evolved to a degree that you can’t essentially do these things actually in the dark anymore. And so this for us is just a way of saying, ‘Hey, let’s all see the same thing. Let’s all understand what’s going on so that we can’t have countries who essentially are denying what’s actually occurring,’” she said. 

A Pentagon spokesperson briefly provided DefenseScoop with a few more details on the maturing initiative Thursday afternoon.

“It harnesses cutting-edge technology, including commercial space-based platforms, to deliver a faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture and empower our partners to respond to a range of challenges — from trafficking and illegal fishing to natural disasters,” the spokesperson said.

The initial IPMDA pilot programming by the U.S. offers the regional partners access to radio-frequency-derived satellite data, which is meant to deliver a faster and more accurate maritime picture than existing systems. 

“We will continue to work with innovators from across the region to refine our approach and develop innovative solutions to the maritime domain awareness issue set, including through holding technology challenges,” the spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

In his annual Message to the Force — also released Thursday — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin alluded to the military’s growing need to “out-innovate” its “increasingly aggressive” pacing threat of China, and other adversaries via emerging and disruptive technologies.

“We are strengthening our deterrence posture in the Indo-Pacific by developing new concepts and capabilities, deepening our alliances and partnerships, and expanding our activities and operations,” Austin wrote. 

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In 1983, during the height of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan labeled the Soviet Union as the “Evil Empire” and made the case that the struggle between our two nations was one of “good vs. evil” because it was a choice between totalitarianism and freedom. His political opponents immediately condemned Reagan’s rhetoric, suggesting it was reckless and could provoke the Soviet Union to war. But the “great communicator” — as Reagan was known — understood something those opponents did not: When communicating a position or vision, whether about domestic politics or international affairs, it is far better to paint a picture that uses “no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people.”

When China refers to the United States as its “adversary” and we choose to use terms like “pacing challenge,” we should not be surprised that the actions that follow are disparate. As history has proven, to the leaders of the CCP (Communist Chinese Party) it would be unthinkable to allow a U.S. spy balloon, or any other aerospace vehicle, to transverse the majority of their nation if they had the means to stop it. Furthermore, the talk of it being a violation of their national sovereignty and a potential act of war would certainly have followed.

However, during the most recent spy balloon incident, not only did we not shoot the balloon down at our first opportunity, we allowed it to continue its mission. The Department of Defense has stated that we took steps to protect against the collection of sensitive information and that by allowing it to continue its journey across America we were able to gather important information about how it operates. Additionally, while the DOD did shoot down the subsequent three “objects” when they became a safety concern in regard to civilian aviation, we still don’t know the origin or purpose of those devices. While I do not doubt the authenticity of the DOD’s claims, it still raises several key questions.

First, as the DOD has admitted, we have been observing these balloons for several years in other locations around the globe. If we had gaps in our understanding of how these aerospace vehicles were operating and the missions they were conducting, wouldn’t it have been better to gather that data in a location outside our sovereign airspace? Second, if we still wanted/needed to gather information on how the platform operates, how confident are we that we prevented it from collecting any sensitive information? Finally, how confident are we that these smaller objects are not also part of the Chinese near-space surveillance enterprise/network? If we viewed China as the adversary they openly claim to be, these questions would have been addressed long before the events of the last few weeks.

Regardless, the issues above still miss the bigger point. The optics and accompanying message sent to the CCP, our allies and other potential foes by allowing a week-long journey over our homeland by what we have admitted is a foreign nation’s spycraft is far more damaging than any of the intelligence it may have gathered. When it comes to issues of national security and the sovereignty of our nation, we must paint a picture of clarity and resolve using bright “bold colors.” We must also be ready to back up those words with action — not to cause conflict but to prevent it. Make no mistake, authoritarian regimes — like those of the Soviet Union and today’s CCP — interpret weak words as weak resolve. Reagan’s tough and accurate rhetoric in regard to the Soviet Union did not escalate the Cold War or turn it into a hot one. On the contrary, his clear and concise description of the choices between our two forms of government gave the citizens of the United States a clear understanding of our foe and the rest of the world a clear choice — choose freedom over tyranny and good over evil. And most importantly, back up those words with supportive actions. 

The United States, and the world, benefits when our country takes clear positions of strength and resolve. When we don’t take those positions in regard to our own sovereignty, it’s only natural that our friends and allies will have doubts about our commitment to theirs. The question now is how do we reassure our citizens, the CCP, and others around the globe that the United States is serious about national security and our future approach to China? I suggest a clear and completely unambiguous statement to the Chinese government that any future events like this will not only result in the immediate destruction of the aerospace vehicle but in ramifications across all our levers of national power. Additionally, show the recovered wreckage, and its obvious intelligence-gathering sensors, to the world to further demonstrate the CCP’s flagrant disregard for international law and aversion to the truth. Most importantly, call the CCP what they are: an authoritative regime and an adversary to the United States and all freedom-loving countries. 

In 1959 when told of the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, then-Senator Lyndon Johnson quipped, “I refuse to sleep at night under the light of a communist moon” (Americans, unfamiliar with what a satellite was, were told to think of it as another moon orbiting the earth). I am confident that most Americans do not want to sleep at night under the watchful eye or listening ear of a communist spy balloon regardless of its capabilities. I am also confident the world is a safer, more secure, free and prosperous place when the United States takes positions of strength and clarity and backs those positions up with decisive action. We must take every step necessary to make sure events like this do not happen again. 

Lt. Gen. Charlie “Tuna” Moore (retired) is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University. He is a former US Air Force fighter pilot and Deputy Commander of U.S. Cyber Command.

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The launches are continuing in the wake of several recent shoot downs of unidentified “objects” flying over North America by U.S. fighter jets launching AIM-9X air-to-air missiles. Those incidents occurred just after a suspected Chinese spy balloon traversed much of the United States over several days before eventually being downed off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.

About a week ago, the official Facebook page of Eglin Air Force Base announced that the 96th Operations Group planned to release red weather balloons in the Feb. 11-20 time frame from Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

“Each day balloons will be released … to collect weather data for a Naval Post Graduate School research project to understand the physical interaction between the lower atmosphere and the upper ocean,” per the post.

Defense officials are taking steps to make them more easily identifiable.

“The balloons are red to ensure they are visible and easy to spot. We also notified the public to ensure they were aware they might see balloons in the sky from Feb. 11 to 20 for a Naval post-graduate school research project to ensure they knew the balloons were not connected to current events … The local FAA has been notified about the flight plans,” an Air Force spokesperson at Eglin told DefenseScoop in an email Friday.

The plan is to send up at least two per day, but additional launches may be added “depending on the weather conditions, science requirements, and airspace availability,” the spokesperson noted.

The platforms are small — just three feet in diameter — but “may expand as they ascend.”

North American Aerospace Defense Command recently changed its radar filters to better detect small and slow-moving systems, which may have contributed to the recent detections and downings of the unidentified objects, NORAD and other officials suggested.

The altitude of the red balloons that are being launched from Florida will vary because they’ll float with the wind, according to the Air Force spokesperson at Eglin.

“In general, we expect them to travel 40 – 60 km down-wind, but they can go higher and further. They may change directions at different levels because of the direction change in the wind,” the spokesperson said.

DefenseScoop is still trying to learn whether the balloons are equipped with electronic transponders to aid with their identification.

Meanwhile, the three unidentified “objects” that were shot down off the coast of Alaska, over Canada’s Yukon and over Lake Heron, Michigan in the Feb. 10-12 time frame, may have been weather balloons, according to U.S. officials.

Officials said the decision was made to down the objects due to concerns about the potential risks they posed to commercial air traffic — and the possibility that they might have been surveilling sensitive military facilities could not be ruled out.

However, “the intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” President Biden said Thursday during remarks at the White House.

“We know that a range of entities, including countries, companies, and research organizations operate objects at altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate scientific research,” he added.

John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council, said the objects that were recently shot down are not believed to have been owned by the U.S. military or other federal agencies.

“In checking with the FAA, they do not appear to have been operated by the U.S. government, so [we’re] pretty comfortable in ruling out that they were U.S. government objects,” he said during a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Biden has directed his national security team to recommend “sharper rules” for dealing with UFOs in the future.

The administration aims to distinguish between platforms that are likely to pose safety and security risks that “necessitate action” — such as downing them — and those that are benign.

Biden outlined several moves that will be taken which could lead to changes in how airborne objects are identified and dealt with. They include establishing a better inventory of unmanned objects flying in U.S. airspace and making sure it’s accessible and up to date; implementing further measures to improve the federal government’s capacity to detect uncrewed platforms; updating the rules and regulations for launching and maintaining unmanned objects in the skies above the United States; and leading a diplomatic push to establish “common global norms in this largely unregulated space.”

“These steps will lead to safer and more secure skies for our air travelers, our military, our scientists, and for people on the ground as well,” Biden said.

“But make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down. I’ll be sharing with Congress these classified policy parameters when they’re completed, and they’ll remain classified so we don’t give our roadmap to our enemies to try to evade our defenses,” he noted.

Meanwhile, recovery operations for China’s suspected spy balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, have wrapped up. The U.S. Navy used underwater drones to help locate the debris.

“U.S. Navy assets assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully located and retrieved debris from the high-altitude [People’s Republic of China] surveillance balloon shot down Feb. 4, 2023. Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered. U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels have departed the area. Air and maritime safety perimeters have been lifted,” Northcom said in a statement Friday.

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The changes were instituted after a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon traversed much of North America earlier this month and was eventually downed at President Biden’s direction. At least three mysterious platforms that U.S. government officials have described as “objects” — not balloons — were subsequently taken out by American fighter jets on Feb. 9, 10 and 11 off the coast of Alaska and over Canada and Lake Huron, Michigan, respectively.

National Security Council and Defense Department officials who briefed reporters on these incidents over the last several days, said that NORAD’s recent radar recalibrations and enhancements — and sharpened scrutiny of potential threats in these altitudes since the Chinese balloon takedown — are one reason why so many anomalies have been detected and acted upon recently.

“Radars essentially filter out information based on speed. So you can set various gates — we call them velocity gates — that allow us to filter out low-speed clutter,” NORAD and U.S. Northern Command commander Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters during a briefing Sunday evening.

“If you have radars on all the time that are looking at anything from zero speed up to, say, 100, you would see a lot more information. We have adjusted some of those gates to give us better fidelity on seeing smaller objects. You can also filter out by altitude. And so, with some adjustments, we’ve been able to get a better categorization of radar tracks now. And that’s why I think you’re seeing these overall. Plus, there’s a heightened alert to look for this information,” he explained.

At a White House press briefing on Monday, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said: “It’s difficult for me to say exactly what you can expect going forward. One of the reasons that we think we’re seeing more is because we’re looking for more.”

He continued: “They have modified the filters … of the radar capabilities to look more discreetly at high-altitude, small radar cross-section and low-speed objects. And so if you do that … and if you set the parameters in such a way that — to look for a certain something, it’s more likely that you’re going to find a certain something.”

President Biden on Monday formed a new interagency team under the direction of National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, to study the broader policy implications for the detection, analysis and disposition of unidentified anomalies threatening national security. Kirby confirmed that one of the team’s responsibilities will be to determine “what other, if any, improvements might need to” be made to strengthen how the U.S. military pinpoints and monitors such objects — beyond what’s already been done by NORAD.

This past weekend, the U.S. was able to recover “some of the electronics” of the high-altitude Chinese balloon’s payload off the East Coast, Kirby also confirmed.

Still, as these new investigations kick off and recovery operations for debris from the balloon and other downed objects remain ongoing, U.S. officials are not being forthcoming about the items’ specific features, assets and characteristics.

“What I would tell you is that what we’re seeing is very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section. I’m not going to go into detail about shapes or anything like that really because it’s really, really difficult for pilots at the altitudes we’re operating,” VanHerck said about the three objects that were shot down over the past few days.

“I’m not going to get into a description” of the shape or shapes of the craft, Kirby said Monday at a White House briefing in response to reporters’ similar inquiries. “I think we all need to be humble here in terms of what our ability is to positively identify stuff from fighter aircrafts that are going several hundred miles an hour.”

Kirby also declined to provide information at that time about whether the originally spotted balloon was emitting any signals.

Asked if the U.S. government would share images or videos of these latest intercepts, Kirby referred reporters to the Defense Department.

When Pentagon reporters requested such media during the briefing on Sunday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton did not provide a firm yes or no answer on plans to share visuals in the near term.

“We absolutely want to be transparent about our military operations and what we are learning about these objects and the [People’s Republic of China] high-altitude balloon and hope to share more in the coming days,” she said.

Updated on Feb. 13 at 9:00 PM: This story has been updated to include additional comments from John Kirby about radar capabilities.

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“I can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours,” John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, told reporters during a press briefing Friday afternoon.

“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. Out of an abundance of caution at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object — and they did,” Kirby said during a press briefing at the White House.

The object was flying “inside territorial airspace and over territorial waters” and was “just off the very, very northeastern part of Alaska right near the Alaska-Canada border” when a fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command fired on it, he added.

The airborne system was first detected Thursday evening, and Biden gave the order to shoot it down Friday morning, according to Kirby.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed Friday that the object was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet off the northern coast of Alaska at 1:45 pm EST with an AIM-9X missile. It was originally detected using ground-based radar and identified by fighter aircraft.

Ryder told DefenseScoop during a press briefing at the Pentagon Friday afternoon that he had not seen images of it at that point, and he would not characterize the shape of the object. He said U.S officials did not know the origin of the platform.

Kirby would not describe the object as a “balloon” or assess its purpose, saying the U.S. government has limited information about what exactly it was and why it was flying over American airspace.

“We’re calling this an ‘object’ because that’s the best description we have right now. We do not know who owns it … whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately owned. We just don’t know,” he said. “We don’t have any information that would confirm a stated purpose for this object.”

The Defense Department will attempt to recover the debris, which officials said landed in frozen waters, to learn more about the system.

Ryder said drones will be used as part of the recovery effort and were headed to the salvage site.

Kirby noted that the object was “much smaller” than the alleged Chinese spy balloon that flew over Alaska and the continental United States last week.

“The way it was described to me was roughly the size of a small car” and it had “no significant payload, if you will,” he said. In comparison, the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina last week was about 200 feet tall and carried a payload that was about the size of a jetliner, according to NORAD and Northcom commander Gen. Glen VanHerck.

Unlike the balloon, the object that was shot down on Friday did not appear to be maneuverable, according to Kirby, adding that it appeared to be “virtually … at the whim of the wind.”

The Biden administration took criticism from Republican lawmakers and others for waiting days until the Chinese balloon was no longer over land to shoot it down last week. Kirby said the object that was downed Friday was traveling at a more dangerous altitude than the suspected spy balloon — which was flying above 60,000 feet last week — and it posed a potential threat to civilian air traffic.

“The predominant concern by the president was the safety of flight issue at that altitude,” Kirby said.

U.S. military personnel determined that the object was uncrewed before it was attacked.

“We were able to get some fighter aircraft up and around it before the order to shoot it down. And the pilots’ assessment was that this was not manned,” Kirby said.

However, the pilots weren’t able to learn much more about the platform.

“They worked really hard to try to get as much information as they could about this object. Given its size, which was much smaller, and the capabilities on the fighter aircraft themselves [and] the speed at which they were flying, it was difficult for the pilots to glean a whole lot of information — not like we were able to glean off … the balloon” last week, Kirby said.

With regard to whether the object was a surveillance platform, Kirby said: “We haven’t ruled anything in or out.”

When asked if the U.S. government was currently tracking any similar objects, Kirby said he was “not aware of any other tracks.”

However, on Saturday another so-called “high-altitude airborne object” was shot down by a U.S. F-22 over Canada’s Yukon territory, according to American and Canadian officials.

NORAD first detected this object flying over Alaska late Friday evening, according to a statement issued by Ryder on Saturday evening.

“Two F-22 aircraft from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska monitored the object over U.S. airspace with the assistance of Alaska Air National Guard refueling aircraft, tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object. Monitoring continued today as the object crossed into Canadian airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to further assess the object.  A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities,” Ryder said.

“As Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations to help our countries learn more about the object, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” he added.

Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau authorized the downing of the platform, according to officials.

“Earlier today, President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Trudeau on the unidentified, unmanned object in North American air space … Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down,” according to a White House readout of the call between the two leaders. They also discussed “the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.”

Meanwhile, recovery efforts are ongoing for both the object that was downed on Friday and the the colossal high-altitude Chinese balloon shot down last week continue off the South Carolina coast.

“Recovery operations continue today near Deadhorse, Alaska. U.S. Northern Command’s Alaska Command and the Alaska National Guard, in close coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement, are conducting search and recovery activities,” according to a statement issued Saturday evening by Northcom.

However, “Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety. Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice. We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose, or origin,” it added.

Meanwhile, off the coast of South Carolina, the U.S. Navy continues its efforts to locate and recover debris, with support from the Coast Guard and FBI.

“Sea states Feb. 10 permitted dive and underwater unmanned vehicle (UUV) activities and the retrieval of additional debris from the sea floor. The public may see U.S. Navy vessels moving to and from the site as they conduct offload and resupply activities. Operations will continue as weather permits,” Northcom said in a statement.

Update: This story was updated at 7:45 PM on Feb. 11 to include information and statements about the shoot-down of another “object” on Saturday over Canada, and ongoing efforts to recover debris.

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The Department of Defense on Thursday released an image of a UUV being prepared for deployment by sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2, which is participating in the search effort. On Friday morning, a DOD spokesman confirmed to DefenseScoop that the platform in the photo is the Defender undersea drone.

Earlier this week, Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said explosive ordnance disposal teams had deployed to the area to begin UUV operations, but he did not identify which specific system would be employed.

“I’m not the expert … [but] I can assure you that it has photographic capabilities. It’ll have capabilities to emplace things such as inflatable devices and mapping sonar, those types of things,” he told DefenseScoop and other reporters during a briefing on Monday.

Explosive ordnance disposal teams “went out in what’s called a rigid hull inflatable boat … to proceed to the area to utilize unmanned underwater vehicles, using side-scan sonar to further locate sunken debris,” he said. “And so we expect them to get on there and to do some additional categorization of potential threats such as explosives that may be [there] … hazardous materials that could be in [the balloon’s] batteries, etc. So we’re working very hard. I’d remind you this is an effort that’s in the open ocean ongoing in approximately 50 feet of water, and so we have to be very cognizant of the [sea] states, currents, etc. So we continue to move forward.”

In an August 2022 press release, VideoRay announced what it described as “a large and diverse order for its Defender remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) by the U.S. Navy.”

The company’s support for Navy users of the man-portable system includes training facilities and staffing in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and San Diego.

“Recent new capabilities for Defender systems are evolving rapidly due to close cooperation testing and development between VideoRay, its component manufacturers and several units of the Navy. These include the ability to autonomously identify and defeat underwater mines and perform other tasks with minimal or no active user input. Defender units now can go deeper, can be equipped with batteries and lightweight splash-proof controllers and communicate without tethers over long distances underwater,” per the release.

In a statement, VideoRay Chief Technology Officer Marcus Kolb said the company is “proving we can do real work at one kilometer of depth, acoustically transceive video and telemetry data through one kilometer of open ocean, and find and neutralize mines autonomously. We designed the Defender system to be powerful, open and flexible so it could handle large payloads, instruments and tools — many of which hadn’t been conceived when we designed the platform. We are delighted to see how well the Defender systems have been working with larger, more complex payloads and missions than we had initially envisioned.”

The platform has a depth rating up to 1,000 meters, submersible weight in air of 38 pounds, total system weight of 71.6 pounds, and forward speed of 4 knots, according to VideoRay’s product description.

Other nations and organizations are also interested in the Defender tech. As of August 2022, VideoRay had delivered or had “firm orders” from 20 other navies and coast guards from allied countries, as well as orders from commercial customers, according to the company.

The U.S. Navy photo released on Thursday indicates that the system the sea service is employing for the balloon search effort may include control and navigation capabilities or other technology provided by Greensea Systems.

DefenseScoop asked the Pentagon if other types of UUVs were also being deployed for the balloon debris search effort, and how many underwater drones are involved in the operation. A DOD spokesman said he had “nothing further to provide about any other potential capabilities being utilized at this time.”

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