UFO launches reveal “strategic gaps” in securing US airspace, defense experts say

Following the influx of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) shot down over North America, defense experts told Fox News Digital about America’s preparedness and defense capabilities, and whether they think we’re better or less prepared to defend our airspace, as experts previously thought The current situations were unfolding.

Fighter jets recently shot down at least four aerial objects, including a Chinese spy balloon that had traveled from Alaska to South Carolina, and three other UFOs over the US and Canada.

Four experts have commented on the matter, noting strategic gaps, failures that may be due to optics related to safety, concerns about readiness and the lack of responses related to the aircraft.

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US forces pull parts of China’s surveillance balloon out of the sea. (US Naval Forces)

Major General John Ferrari (ret.), 32 years in the army and now a non-resident senior defense fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the situation showed the US had “strategic gaps” in securing airspace.

“The balloon episode showed that we have strategic gaps in securing our airspace,” Ferrari told Fox News Digital. “The gaps are both complacency and skill. We will have to spend more money and time on this problem. These balloons can be as dangerous as armed drones.”

“The fact that they had intelligence payloads instead of weapons is just a decision made by China,” Ferrari continued. “We are entering a new era in which we must now take the surveillance and defense of our airspace very seriously.”

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US troops recover debris from a downed Chinese surveillance balloon in South Carolina. (US Naval Forces)

John Venable, a 25-year Air Force veteran who is now a senior defense policy researcher at the Heritage Foundation, said failures likely came from those driven more by optics than their desire to serve the US to protect

“North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) readiness rests on three things. The first is a network of radars that provide the mechanical ability to detect and process potential threats and relay that data to leadership within our command-and-control system,” Venable told Fox News Digital.

“The second is the ability to scramble combatants or other assets like the Patriot batteries around Washington, DC to study these threats and respond in a timely manner if necessary,” Venable said. “The third is our leadership’s willingness to direct these assets to engage and, if necessary, destroy these threats before they fulfill their intended mission.”

“The balloon that transited the United States and was eventually destroyed was apparently detected before crossing into CONUS (continental US) airspace, meaning the mechanical side of our command and control network was working,” Venable said. “This means the failure occurred either within NORAD, whose leadership may have failed to mobilize fighters to probe the balloon, or within the National Command Authority (NCA), which was unwilling to go ahead with what the investigating.” fighters reported back via NORAD.”

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The Chinese spy balloon floats over the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its vapor trail visible below on February 4th. (Chad Fish via AP)

“The three subsequent engagements in which objects or balloons were destroyed all appear to have taken place within Canadian or US airspace,” Venable continued. “While they may have gotten past the radars protecting NORAD from a possible attack, it is more likely that they were spotted and that the heat surrounding the first sortie forced NORAD and/or the NCA executives to move towards these threats.” react.”

“Bottom line: A balloon with a bus or car attached should be easy for our military to detect, examine and destroy,” Venable said. “The failures likely came from those driven more by optics than their desire to protect the United States.”

Eric Gomez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who focuses on the US military budget and troop posture, said when the military hunts non-threat flying objects, it could affect their operational readiness.

“The rapid pace of detection and engagement of these objects is remarkable,” Gomez told Fox News Digital. “From what we know about the objects, they were rather small and made of materials that make them difficult to see. That means they’re shaped to reduce radar cross-section and coated with special materials—they’re difficult to locate for other reasons.

“The military’s ability to locate and shoot down the objects at a regular pace suggests that there has been either a technological breakthrough or an adjustment in the way the US military searches for these objects in order to track their.” to maximize probability of detection,” Gomez said. “I suppose the ability to quickly adjust and improve detection is good news, although we still know very little about the other objects shot down after the first balloon.” Are these all spy platforms? Are they from China or somewhere else? I’m excited to learn more details about what was actually shot down after the first balloon to see if all of these objects are intelligence related or not.”

President Joe Biden has not responded to recent UFO launches in North America. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images/File)

“The sudden increase in object detection and kills may seem alarming,” Gomez added. “However, the military’s ability to find and attack these objects appears to be working very well now, and there is political pressure on the government to respond very aggressively. So the general readiness of the US military and their ability to detect and shoot these objects seems fine to me.”

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“The bigger questions are what are these objects, where are they coming from, and will shooting them stop them?” Gomez said. “If they are all intelligence gathering and they are all from China then hopefully the loss of many platforms will have a deterrent effect but spying is also something countries do against each other and Beijing can decide that the objects are expendable enough to continue sending despite the high detection probability.”

“But even if the first balloon was a Chinese spy ship, we don’t have definitive information about the other objects that were shot down more recently,” Gomez continued. “Perhaps there are more harmless explanations for the other objects. In which case does the US military continue to hunt things that pose no threat? That could have a negative impact on readiness as planes become increasingly worn down on things that don’t pose a threat.”

“There’s still so much we don’t know,” said a defense expert of recent UFO launches. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/File)

Austin Dahmer, senior policy analyst at Science Applications International Corp. with a focus on defense policy and an advisor to the Marathon Initiative with a focus on defense strategy, said the lack of responses on the flying objects is worrying.

“There’s still so much we don’t know, but the situation is worrying to say the least,” Dahmer told Fox News Digital. “If these objects turn out to have been a regular presence in US airspace for some time and are only now being detected, that obviously reflects very poorly the state of our air defenses, including our radars and other sensors designed to alert us to such threats.” “

“If these objects were discovered in the past and allowed to enter US airspace with impunity, the question must be asked: Why weren’t they destroyed sooner?” adds Dahmer.

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“The third possibility is that this is really the first time such objects have entered US airspace,” Dahmer continued. “Given the recent Chinese balloon debacle, the proliferation of these threats to US airspace is deeply troubling. As I said, there is still much we do not know, including the origin and purpose of these objects, but Americans are right to demand answers from our government.”

Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar and Aaron Kliegman contributed coverage.