The NY Times reports:
The top military commander overseeing North American airspace said Monday that some previous incursions by Chinese spy balloons during the Trump administration were not detected in real time, and the Pentagon learned of them only later. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats, and that’s a domain awareness gap,” said Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of the Pentagon’s Northern Command. One explanation, multiple U.S. officials said, is that some previous incursions were initially classified as “unidentified aerial phenomena,” Pentagon speak for U.F.O.s. As the Pentagon and intelligence agencies stepped up efforts over the past two years to find explanations for many of those incidents, officials reclassified some events as Chinese spy balloons. It is not clear when the Pentagon determined the incidents involved Chinese spying. When the determination was made, officials kept the information secret to avoid letting China know their surveillance efforts were uncovered, the officials said.
First, you cannot "blame" Trump. The Generals blew it big time.
Second, the US has massive intel from the CIA to the NRO. NROs job is intel from the sky. It is a massive organization. Historically, I worked for two former heads, Joe Charyk and John McLucas, so I have a modest understanding. It is their job to do reconnaissance. But guess they missed this one.
Third, NORAD does have a big role. They blew it also.
Fourth the TRIAD land based ICBMs should have threat identification and remediation systems. This one does not.
Fifth, seeing a 200 foot diameter threat at 60K feet is really not a problem, if you are doing your job. The Generals did not do their jobs.
Solution, simple, get new Generals and keep doing it every time the mess up. They may get to do it right if they cannot play golf at the Country Club.
And, by the way. perhaps they may want to tell the White House something.
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