vanherck sat down with me to talk about the decision making that led to the balloon s ultimate destruction. it was set in motion days earlier in a high-stakes mission to intercept it over alaska. we sent a package that included f-22s and f-16s along with support package of an e3 awacs tanker support with aircraft. did you know what its mission was? we had worked with the intelligence community, and we had a good idea of what the mission actually was going to be. once we intercepted the high-altitude balloon just off the coast of alaska, i made the assessment that it didn t demonstrate hostile intent. the balloon briefly sailed over canada and then back into the u.s. and toward sensitive military sites. it was obviously a great political debate over the timing of the shoot-down. from your military perspective, did things go in the order they should have? the president directed us to shoot
struck over the black sea after dumping fuel on the american reaper forcing the drone to crash into the water. last month u.s. central command deployed f-22 raptor jet in the middle east amidst the escalating tensions with russia. the f-22s have not served as a deterrent after these incidents now. charles? thanks. the big question is are we getting close to a direct conflict with kremlin? joining us right now, kurt volker. ambassador, it feels like that. feels inevitable. these sort of stunts will lead to some sort of domino effect. what comes out of that is frightening. well, it s clearly a deliberate tactic by the russians.
french president macron that raised the retirement age. ashley: a balloon heading toward mexico, spokesman says it responded to unidentified radar signature friday in the vicinity of hawaii, pacific air forces launched three f-22s to assess the situation and identified a spherical object. u.s. on high alert after unmanned flight operated by china traveled over the continental u.s. earlier this year and shot down a week after it entered u.s. air space over the pacific ocean. and rob emanuel seen at rainbow pride parade in tokyo being called out for pushing lgbtq legislation in their country.
ARLINGTON, VA As part of an ongoing effort to crack down on unlicensed, counterfeit imitations of its tactical aircraft, the Pentagon announced Monday that it had discovered bootleg F-22 fighter jets for sale from hundreds of AliExpress vendors. “We are aware of cheap F-22 Raptor knockoffs being sold through this…