Although the US claims not to rule out the hypothesis that there has been an intensification of China’s spying mechanisms, the recent diplomatic crisis opened by the episode of the alleged spy balloons has led Washington to review its own defense system.
Over the weekend, Norad, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said it had tweaked its radar system to make it more sensitive to objects that are smaller, slower moving and distinct from the planes and missiles that worry the Pentagon. .
As a result, the number of objects identified —and sometimes shot down— jumped. In just ten days, four objects were located and shot down by the US. The last one this Sunday (12), when another unidentified flying object, UFO, was shot down while flying over Lake Huron, on the border with Canada.
“We’ve taken a closer look at our airspace at these altitudes and improved our radar, which may explain, in part, the increase in the number of objects we’ve identified over the past week,” said Assistant Secretary for Security Affairs for the Americas, Melissa Dalton. .
According to General Glen VanHerck, leader of Norad, the balloons – which the US says are spy instruments, and China claims to be meteorological research artifacts – are difficult to detect due to their size and shape. “These are very, very small objects that produce very low motion.”
The detection of the first balloon in Beijing, in the first week of the month, caused American politicians to criticize the country’s anti-aircraft defense system. The Pentagon had said that in recent years, four similar balloons had been identified flying over the country.
The alterations, however, already open up another challenge for Norad. With a much higher volume of search, the agency now needs to understand which signals on its radar are mere noise and which are potential threats that are worth being pursued by the system and, if applicable, knocked down.
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