AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
In a rather anticlimactic speech on Thursday, President Joe Biden announced that three “unidentified flying objects” shot down by U.S. Air Force pilots over North America in recent days were likely privately owned balloons related to scientific research or recreation. The revelation – after a puzzling degree of secrecy from the administration and even a statement that the Pentagon “can’t rule out” aliens – marked an apparent end to the saga that began with a Chinese spy balloon’s lumbering week-long journey across the United States late last month that left Biden and his top lieutenants paralyzed and further revealed the degree of their own failure to protect the homeland.
But even as Biden attempts to save face and show some semblance of leadership, he has done nothing to address the underlying gaps in defense infrastructure that allowed unidentified objects to drift through American airspace in the first place.
The U.S. military first detected an object that turned out to be a Chinese spy balloon moving over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska on January 28. Over the next three days, the balloon traveled across Idaho and Montana, including the location of more than 100 Minuteman III nuclear missile silos. Finally, on February 4th, once the balloon had completed its journey across the United States, potentially sending troves of data to Beijing, a U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jet dispatched it with and AIM-9X air-to-air missile. Further findings indicated it also hovered over the U.S. Anderson Air Force base in Guam.
Even as questions mounted about why Biden waited so long to act (the White House claims that it was fearful of potential damage to people and property on the ground, a claim that many experts viewed with skepticism) officials announced that the military was tracking three more UFOs.
Many initially assumed the objects to be more spy balloons or even extraterrestrial spaceships – a hypothesis that was fueled by NORAD Commander General Glen VanHerck saying that “I haven’t ruled out anything,” and “At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it,” when a reporter asked directly if aliens could be involved.
Pentagon officials soon backtracked and confirmed that the objects had, in fact, originated on Earth, killing the dreams of many sci-fi fans. Biden further stated that “nothing right now suggests” that the additional UFOs are “related to China’s spy balloon program.”
Mainstream media outlets have subsequently portrayed Biden’s battle with the balloons – both the Chinese and recreational variety – as an almost heroic triumph over a fierce enemy.
But certain details of this battle reveal critical strategic errors that allowed the first spy balloon to enter American airspace virtually undetected and subsequently left the most powerful military in the world unable to determine the identity of other objects traversing U.S. airspace.
Part of the story begins back during the Clinton administration, when, in 1996, the Pentagon established the Joint Aerostat Project Office and Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System. In effect, the purpose of these programs was to detect flying objects, including missiles, aircraft, drones, and, yes, balloons over North America.
An upgrade to the system, known as JLENS, was proposed during the Bush administration. The new defense network was comprised of two protected aerostats, or stationary balloons, that floated 10,000 feet up with two different 360-degree radars that could detect hostile objects up to 340 miles away and provide directions to missile systems on the ground.
Then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld emphasized the clear advantages of JLENS over surveillance planes and the old system. The floating detection platforms were unrestricted by fuel and could be connected directly to AEGIS ships and Patriot Missile batteries. In the Pacific, the system could have provided significant protection from Chinese and Russian cruise missiles.
Following 9/11, an early version of JLENS played a crucial role in Operation Noble Eagle, a joint U.S.-Canadian homeland security operation providing radar protection from Boston to Lake Erie and down south to Raleigh.
But with the election of President Barack Obama – and Vice President Joe Biden – came a reduction of the U.S. military’s budget. Obama prided himself on “trimming the fat” in the military, which amounted to $487 billion in spending cuts that decimated essential and nonessential programs all the same.
Obama’s conviction that the U.S. military had over-invested in certain areas was most erroneous, leading to the termination of many long-term research and development projects – including JLENS. An accident in 2015 involving one aerostat breaking free from its tether during an extreme storm provided all the excuse the Obama-Biden administration needed to cancel the program.
Though President Trump reversed much of the Obama-era military spending cutdown, other programs were in even more desperate need of revival. As Trump so often remarked, the military “couldn’t even afford bullets” by the time he took office.
Now, President Biden has continued Obama’s failure to invest in the critical defense systems that would protect the United States from just such airborne threats, even as he beats his chest and spouts empty promises to “hold China accountable.” While accountability is good, concrete action is required. If Biden truly wants to guard against airborne threats, he should pressure Congress to invest in re-invest in programs like JLENS that were inexplicably cut nearly a decade ago.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
