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☆ Fishermen delivering possible spy balloon to FBI in Alaska
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Katie Bo Lillis | Evan Perez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Commercial fishermen off the coast of Alaska have found what officials are concerned could be another spy balloon and are bringing it to shore with them, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. The existence of high-altitude surveillance balloons burst into US consciousness last year, when a Chinese spy balloon appeared to blow off course and transited across the continental US. The US assessed that the spy balloon was part of an extensive surveillance program run by the Chinese military, as CNN reported at the time. There were three additional shootdowns of unidentified high-altitude objects in the weeks following the Chinese balloon incident. NORAD later said in a statement that the balloon was “likely a hobby balloon” that posed no threat.

Persons: Biden, Trump, Glen VanHerck, CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz Organizations: CNN —, CNN, FBI, Northern Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, Pentagon Locations: Alaska, Quantico , Virginia, China, Taiwan, Beijing, United, American

☆ Few things worry NATO like Russia's Yasen-class submarines, and Moscow may be planning to build even more of them
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-05 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Despite high-profile losses, Russia's navy has been largely untouched by the war in Ukraine. Russian submarines, especially Yasen-class cruise-missile subs, are a top concern for NATO. A Russian defense industry source told state media outlet Tass in mid-2022 that Moscow was considering adding two more subs to the nine Yasen-class subs it had planned to build. AdvertisementYasen-class sub Severodvinsk during its launch ceremony at a shipyard in the city of Severodvinsk in June 2010. AdvertisementRussian Yasen-class sub Kazan at its home base in Severomorsk in June 2021.

Persons: —, Sasha Mordovets, Glen VanHerck, Lev Fedoseyev, Ine Eriksen Søreide, Jim Mattis, Severodvinsk, Adm, Michael Studeman, LPhot Dan Rosenbaum, Ben Key, what's Organizations: NATO, Service, Tass, US Northern Command, Zircon, Getty, Naval Sea Systems Command, US, Pentagon, CBS News, Chatham, of Naval Intelligence, Russia's, British Royal Navy, US Navy, British navy's Locations: Ukraine, Russian, Russia, Moscow, Northern, Pacific, Severodvinsk, Europe, North America, Severomorsk, Washington DC, NATO, Soviet, Western

CNN —China appears to have suspended its surveillance balloon program following a major diplomatic incident earlier this year, when one of the country’s high-altitude spy balloons transited the United States, multiple sources familiar with US intelligence assessments told CNN. The apparent suspension of the program comes as both the US and China have sought to stabilize an increasingly tense relationship. The US assessed at the time that the spy balloon was part of an extensive surveillance program run by the Chinese military, CNN has previously reported. “We believe that (the balloon) did not collect while it was transiting the United States or flying over the United States, and certainly the efforts that we made contributed,” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. The more sensitive radar systems led the US military to spot more unidentified objects in US airspace, however, leading to three additional shootdowns of unidentified high-altitude objects in the weeks following the Chinese balloon incident.

Persons: Liu Pengyu, majeure, ” Liu, Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, Xi “, Xi, ”, Biden, Antony Blinken, Nancy Pelosi, enraging Xi, Christopher Johnson, Johnson, ’ ” Johnson, Pat Ryder Ryder, Trump, Glen VanHerck Organizations: CNN, Communist Party, US, Economic Cooperation, CIA, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Foreign Ministry, FBI, Pentagon, Northern Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command Locations: China, United States, American, Beijing, Taiwan, Hainan, Alaska, Canada, Idaho, Montana, Asia, San Francisco, United

☆ Seen by the US military as a threat for years, Russia's Yasen-class submarines are now on track to get hypersonic missiles
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Russia's Yasen-class submarines have long been seen as a tough challenge for the US Navy. A Russian shipbuilding official said that work is underway to arm them with Zircon hypersonic missiles. Russia's Yasen-class nuclear-powered cruise-missile submarines are quiet, difficult to track, heavily armed, and able to conduct attacks against land- and sea-based targets. The Russian Yasen-class submarines "are designed to deploy undetected within cruise-missile range of our coastlines to threaten critical infrastructure during an escalating crisis," the commander said a year later in congressional testimony. It may still be some time before Russia's Yasen-class submarines deploy with hypersonic weapons, but the Admiral Gorshkov set sail earlier this year on a deployment that took it into the Atlantic Ocean armed with Zircon hypersonic missiles.

Persons: Russia's, Alexei Rakhmanov, Dave Johnson, Lev Fedoseyev, Glen VanHerck, Gorshkov, Vladimir Putin, Gorshkov —, Putin, Zumwalt Organizations: US Navy, Service, United Shipbuilding Corporation, US, Naval, Systems, Getty, US Air Force, US Northern Command, North American Aerospace Defense Command, NATO, Russian Navy, Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, AP, Army, Navy, Ingalls Shipbuilding Locations: Wall, Silicon, Russian, Severomorsk, Russia, Barents, China, Virginia, San Diego, Pascagoula , Mississippi, Ingalls

☆ Russia's military is more active in the Atlantic, and NATO fears it could sabotage undersea cables to disrupt countries supporting Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russia's military is more active in the Atlantic than in previous years, Western militaries say. NATO's intelligence chief warns that this could lead to the targeting of undersea infrastructure. Officials have warned for years about an increasing threat against undersea pipelines and cables. AP Photo/Elena Ignatyeva, FileThe possibility that a foreign adversary might target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure has long worried officials in NATO countries. Two years later, then-British parliament member Rishi Sunak described undersea cables as "indispensable yet insecure."

☆ The US Navy is putting its submarines on rare public display in a message to Russia's growing undersea force
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The US Navy has announced several visits by its subs to North Atlantic ports in recent years. Since 2020, when Norway allowed NATO subs to use a port near Tromsø, announcements of such visits appear to have increased. 'We're in your backyard'British Royal Navy attack submarine HMS Astute sails to the base at Faslane in November 2009. Russian Navy Yasen-class submarine Kazan at its base in Severomorsk on Russia's Arctic coast in June 2021. During the Cold War, US attack subs operated in the high north to get the Soviets to keep their attack subs close by to protect their ballistic-missile subs.

☆ The mystery objects shot down by US fighter jets were 'most likely' harmless civilian objects, Biden says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Three mysterious objects were shot down by the US military in North American airspace last weekend. The three unidentified objects are "most likely" just civilian objects, he said on Thursday. Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023. Biden on Thursday also said he's directed his team to create "sharper rules" for dealing with unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that pose a security risk and those that don't. In total, four objects — one Chinese surveillance balloon and the three smaller objects that remain unidentified — have been shot down over North American airspace since early February.

☆ The newest Sidewinders have become 'the weapons of choice' against unidentified objects over the US, top general says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

To shoot them down, the jets have used the newest version of the Sidewinder missile, the AIM-9X. The high-tech AIM-9X is the best suited to take down the low-tech objects, a top US general says. But the US Air Force F-22 and F-16 fighters that destroyed a Chinese spy balloon and three other unidentified objects didn't use their 20 mm cannon. Instead, they used heat-seeking AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. US airmen move an AIM-9X missile to an F-22 at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in September 2021.

☆ An F-16 fighter jet missed on its first try to shoot down a mysterious object over Lake Huron, top US general says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An F-16 fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to take down a flying object over Lake Huron on Sunday. "On the fourth one, over Lake Huron, the first shot missed, the second shot hit," Milley said in response to a reporter's question, confirming earlier reports. "And in this case, the missile landed harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron. Sunday's operation marked the fourth instance in about a week in which a US Air Force fighter jet shot down a flying object over North American airspace. The general leading North American Aerospace Defense Command and US Northern Command offered an explanation on Sunday for why there has been a seemingly sudden increase in flying objects appearing over North American airspace.

☆ Why Norad Didn’t Spot Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Doug Cameron | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Norad chief Gen. Glen VanHerck said there is a ‘domain awareness gap’ in the system. The officers staffing North America’s first line of defense against hostile intrusions admit it has gaps: the Cold War-era command hadn’t been watching for balloons. The system of radars, sensors and other intelligence tools overseen by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or Norad, didn’t detect the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down off South Carolina on Feb. 4, but it has been busy ever since.

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts. It was the third unidentified flying object to be knocked out of the sky by U.S. warplanes since Friday, following the Feb. 4 downing of a suspected Chinese weather balloon that put North American air defenses on high alert. "We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason, said VanHerck, who is head of the joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Air Force Northern Command. However, the government's effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects — whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater — has led to hundreds of reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said. But so far, the Pentagon has not found evidence to indicate Earthly visits from intelligent alien life, those officials have said.

☆ Elon Musk joked that the UAPs shot down over North America are alien 'friends of mine' as questions remain over their origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk joked on Sunday about the latest UAP to be shot down over North America. Three more unidentified objects have been shot down since the Chinese spy balloon on February 4. "Just some of my [alien] friends of mine stopping by," he added, including emojis of an alien and a flying saucer. Musk's quip came an hour before an American F-16 fighter jet shot down an object over Lake Huron, Michigan. Like the two other downed objects, officials decided it was a risk to civilian aircraft due to the altitude at which it was flying, the statement said.

☆ US general refuses to rule out aliens after third suspicious flying object is shot down by the military over its airspace
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US has shot down three objects flying over North America in as many days. A top US general said he wasn't ruling out an extra-terrestrial origin for the objects. It comes after the US shot down a spy balloon it alleged was sent by China. The remarks come after the US military shot down three objects flying in North American airspace over the last 3 days. An object flying at high altitude had been shot down on Biden's orders over northern Alaska Friday, while another was downed over Yukon in north-western Canada Saturday.

China widened its dispute with the United States on Monday, claiming that U.S. high-altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022. Washington called that a surveillance balloon, while China has insisted it was a weather-monitoring craft blown badly off course. A White House spokeswoman denied it, and accused China of violating the sovereignty of the United States and more than 40 other countries across five continents with surveillance balloons linked to its military. "It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the United States was a weather balloon and to this day has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace and the airspace of others." Reuters GraphicsThe three objects were flying at altitudes that could have posed a risk to air traffic, officials have said.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this month led politicians to criticize the .S. The Pentagon said there had been four previous Chinese spy balloon flights over the United States in recent years. On Friday, a U.S. F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object about the size of a small car near Deadhorse, Alaska. VanHerck said the military considered shooting guns at the objects, but this was deemed too difficult given the small targets. Whether this is the start of regular shootdowns of unidentified objects over American skies is still unclear.

☆ Morning Bid: Is it a bird?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Officials declined to say whether it resembled the large white Chinese balloon that was shot down earlier this month, though U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck is not ruling out aliens. Markets have kept an eye on the geopolitical mystery, but more focus is on whether U.S. inflation is earthbound or stubbornly hovering. Economists expect Tuesday data to show monthly rates ticked up in January, but the annual measures declined. Revised figures on Friday showed that inflation in December was a little stronger than originally reported, and a closely-watched consumer inflation expectations survey showed a notable spike in the short-term outlook. The BOJ’s YCC faces a reckoningKey developments that could influence markets on Monday:- Fed's Bowman speaks- ECB's Lagarde participates in Eurogroup meetingReporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Here's why mysterious flying objects are suddenly popping up all over the place, according to the military command that's been shooting them down
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Jake Epstein | Grace Eliza Goodwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Four suspicious flying objects have been shot down over North American skies in recent days. NORAD changed its radar filters to help spot smaller, slower objects after a Chinese spy balloon drifted over the US. The command has changed the way it looks for them and is now finding more of these objects. Since the US Air Force shot down the Chinese balloon in early February, fighter jets have downed three additional airborne objects. US officials said this object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a threat to civilian aircraft.

☆ 3 suspicious objects have been downed across North America this week. Officials have no idea where 2 of the UAP came from and the pilots who shot them down can't agree on what they even look like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

US fighter aircraft shot down an object threatening airspace over Alaska yesterday. On Saturday, another unknown object, described as "cylindrical," was shot down over Canada. Here is what we know about the object shot down on Friday. The object shot down on Saturday was spotted in the Northern Canadian territory of Yukon. It is unclear if the object shot down off the Alaskan coast was of similar size or shape.

☆ The US military didn't know if the missile that took out a Chinese spy balloon would work when an F-22 took the shot, commander says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Jake Epstein | Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An F-22 downed a Chinese spy balloon on Saturday with a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. But the Pentagon wasn't sure if the missile would work when the pilot fired it, a top commander said. US Marines transport an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at Iwakuni in Japan in September. Weapons evaluators for the Air Force could not immediately address Insider's inquiry on the matter. The AIM-120, on the other hand, is a "new generation" missile that succeeded the AIM-7 Sparrow, according to the Air Force.

☆ Explainer: What we know and don't know about the Chinese balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Here's what we know, and don't know, about the balloon that has triggered a dramatic diplomatic dispute between the two powers:HOW BIG IS IT? WAS IT A WEATHER BALLOON? Other companies that develop stratospheric balloon systems include U.S. space tourism firm World View and French firm CNIM Air Space. AIR is particularly keen on stratospheric balloon technology and has posted several articles on its WeChat account about Aerostar. read moreWhile analysts did not yet know the size of the Chinese balloon fleet, U.S. officials have spoken of dozens of missions since 2018 across five continents, with some targeting Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

WASHINGTON—The military command in charge of U.S. air defenses failed to detect suspected Chinese surveillance balloons before the recent intrusion and learned about them later from intelligence agencies, the general overseeing the command said Monday, acknowledging a gap in defenses. Gen. Glen VanHerck , commander of Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, contrasted those previous lapses in detecting balloons with the airship the military tracked and shot down Saturday. He described a surveillance gap and said the U.S. is trying to determine why the earlier flights went undetected.

☆ Photos capture the moment US Navy sailors pulled the downed Chinese balloon out of the ocean
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Newly released photos show US sailors pulling a downed Chinese spy balloon out of the ocean. Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023. Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023. It then traveled southeast across the continental US before it was downed off the Coast of South Carolina. Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Feb. 5, 2023.

☆ MTG demands probe over why former President Trump was apparently not informed of previous Chinese balloons over the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a probe into why Trump wasn't informed about spy balloons. Three Chinese surveillance balloons entered US air space during his presidency, officials said. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 6, 2023The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Insider's out-of-hours request for comment. Senior administration officials speaking to Fox News and The Washington Post said they were discovered only after Trump left office. "Two things can be true at once: this happened, and it wasn't detected," one official told Fox.

☆ The 3 Chinese spy balloons spotted during the Trump administration were initially classified as UFOs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Chinese spy balloon seen floating over the United States was shot down on Saturday. Three spy balloons were seen during the Trump administration and were initially classified as UFOs. Trump, however, denies the balloons ever existedIn a Sunday interview with Fox News, Trump said the Biden administration lied about Chinese balloons being seen during his term because "they look so bad." It is unclear if the spy balloons seen during the Trump administration were shot down, as limited details about the incidents were only made public this week. Balloon surveillance has been utilized as far back as the 1800s, according to Al Jazeera, and was popularized during the first World War.

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