people of montana started posting about something strange in the sky. airspace had to be closed, and soon us officials had to explain what this really was. we know that it s a surveillance balloon and i m not going to be able to be more specific than that. china responded by saying it was just a weather balloon that had been blown off course. the us military said they couldn t shoot it down for fear of causing debris or damage below, so it was only when it drifted across america and out over the atlantic that they eventually shot it down. the spotting of the first balloon led north american air defense, norad, to adjust their radar settings. domestic political pressure may have played a part. this is the atrocity that s happening here to america. and if we don t speak stronger, china will continue to do this. scramble some more f 22 raptors, throw some lead in that sucker. trump wanted to nuke a hurricane. you guys won t even throw
after all, the united kingdom is not the united states. we re not a global superpower. but with this increased vigilance, could we see countries shooting down more objects which pose no threat? yeah, it is difficult, especially because a lot of more kind of amateur type balloons that are floating around may not have filed any flight plans or got any permission. and so there may be very little awareness of exactly what s up there, most of which is entirely harmless. it does pose a challenge, doesn t it, because you ve gotjets flying up to try and look and see what they are, which sounds like it s quite difficult for them, and then firing $400,000 missiles to shoot them down, which seems to be the only available option. yeah. even the highest flying military jets, things like the f 22
or the british typhoon, which can operate significantly above 50,000 feet, which is typically where fast jets tend to stop in terms of going higher, f 22, typhoon can operate up to 60,000 feet or even a little above. it s tricky being up there. there are considerations around pilot life support and pressurisation of the cockpit. typically, aircraft are designed to operate at really extreme altitudes above that, like the u 2 spy plane or the 71 blackbird, again, spy plane. crews would wear kind of spacesuits, full pressure suits, and most jet fighters aren t equipped for that. also, where there have been previous examples of weather balloons, for example, or surveillance balloons from the us side that have kind of got lost or cables have broken, where fighters have tried to shoot them down at lower altitudes using cheaper gunnery, you ve had instances where hundreds or even thousands of cannon rounds have gone straight through the balloon, not gone off, in the sense that the rounds have
yeah. even the highest flying military jets, things like the f 22 or the british typhoon, which can operate significantly above 50,000 feet, which is typically where fast jets tend to stop in terms of going higher, f 22, typhoon can operate up to 60,000 feet or even a little above. it s tricky being up there. there are considerations around pilot life support and pressurisation of the cockpit. typically, aircraft are designed to operate at really extreme altitudes above that, like the u 2 spy plane or the 71 blackbird, again, spy plane. crews would wear kind of spacesuits, full pressure suits, and most jet fighters aren t equipped for that. also, where there have been previous examples of weather balloons, for example, or surveillance balloons from the us side that have kind of got lost or cables have broken, where fighters have tried to shoot them down at lower altitudes using cheaper gunnery, you ve had instances where hundreds or even thousands of cannon
happening here to america. and if we don t speak stronger, china will continue to do this. scramble some more f 22 raptors, throw some lead in that sucker. trump wanted to nuke a hurricane. you guys won t even throw a dart at a balloon? there was outcry in america as to why a massive spy balloon had not been spotted and shot down earlier. but that meant in the next few days, they were now seeing many more of what were described not as balloons, but objects. if anything enters into our airspace, whether we know what it is or not, we will monitor it and we ll take appropriate action. one was seen over alaska and shot down near a place called deadhorse on february 10th. the next day, another object was shot down over the yukon in canada. and then on february 12th, a strange octagonal object was shot down by fighters over lake huron. these were lower and smaller than the first balloon, but they could have got in the way of civilian airliners. there seemed to be things in the sky everywhere