Is shooting down ‘UFOs’ a new normal in the US? - analysis

US F-22s have now shot down three interesting things in the last weeks – two unidentified objects over Alaska and Canada, and a giant Chinese balloon off of South Carolina. According to CNN, on Saturday “an unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace.” The incident happened on Friday in airspace near the coast of Alaska and a second object was downed over Canada according to a report on Sunday morning. 

The unidentified objects are reported to be similar in size to a car and one report described them as “cylindrical.” Not that much is known about UFOs, but more will soon become clear. This happens as the US is still trying to dredge up all the parts of the Chinese spy balloon. There is a lot more to learn about each case.

Nevertheless, it appears to be a sudden new normal that the US is forced to contend with mysterious types of threats like this.  

What might these “objects” be?

Two years ago, Tyler Rogoway writing at the War Zone noted that adversaries were likely spying on the US using drones, and that they were being treated as unidentified objects. He noted, “our team here at The War Zone has spent the last two years indirectly laying out a case for the hypothesis that many of the events involving supposed UFOs, or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), as they are now often called, over the last decade are actually the manifestation of foreign adversaries harnessing advances in lower-end unmanned aerial vehicle technology, and even simpler platforms, to gather intelligence of extreme fidelity on some of America's most sensitive warfighting capabilities.” 

He went on to note that “it seemed that these mysterious crafts had a very keen interest in America's latest and greatest operational counter-air capabilities.”

The fact that the US appears to now be searching for and confronting these types of UFOs or UAPs shows that something may have changed in how the US is looking for and tracking these “objects.” It could also mean the adversaries are getting clumsy or increasing their attempts to test the US and Canada. Clearly, not enough is known, but there are major ramifications if it turns out that drones or other types of flying objects were entering airspace over the US over the past year undetected, or if they were monitoring Western militaries and capabilities. 

Canada said that the “latest unspecified object was flying over central Yukon at about 40,000 ft (12,000 m.) and intercepted at about 15:41 local time on Saturday, defense minister Anita Anand told reporters,” according to the BBC. Very few details have emerged on the incidents. In addition, attempts to pull the Chinese spy balloon out of the water are also still shrouded in some secrecy. This makes reporting difficult. However, what is clear is that a unique pattern emerged over the last week. This is unprecedented and that are going to be many more demands to learn about these incidents. 

Will Western militaries now have to regularly contend with these kinds of “unidentified” objects, or UFOs?

The big question for countries that rely on Western technology will be questions about whether these objects are also floating around other areas of the world, such as the Middle East or next to US allies in Asia. Partners of the US and US defense technology rely on it and Western defense tech in general, to be superior to adversaries' technology. In essence, this means superior to Chinese and Russian threats. If there are unidentified objects flying around, then it means the West has not done enough to confront and detect these systems.

The fact that the advanced F-22 has been sent up to shoot these things down shows how seriously the US is taking this threat.