![]() ![]() ![]() Air Force bases that operate and maintain intercontinental ballistic missiles. defense officials hasn’t expected:īy Wednesday, when the balloon had made its way to the skies above Billings, Mont., Pentagon officials were alarmed because the state is home to the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three U.S. It then moved over Canada before entering the continental U.S. airspace on January 28 over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The New York Times reports that, according to Pentagon officials, the partially maneuverable balloon “began a controlled drift” in U.S. Meanwhile, Americans will likely continue to see events like the Spy Balloon in a more negative, threatening light than they would have in earlier decades. China’s leaders may wish they could take a mulligan and reset things to the trajectory of 2015 or 2017, but eventually they will realize that they can’t, and their tone will likely turn frosty again. If history is any guide, expect at least the next three decades to be defined by mutual U.S.-China distrust and tensions rather than re-engagement or cooperation against shared challenges. So Cold War 2 is a reality, and we’re all living in it right now. will have little choice but to accept the challenge. But if even half of China’s leaders are committed to Cold War 2, the U.S. Of course, China’s policymaking apparatus isn’t a monolith, and it’s possible that doves are trying to reach out even as hawks are pressing for more confrontation. It’s not the kind of thing you do if you’re trying to ratchet down increasing tensions. It’s probably not militarily significant, but it looks like a clear provocation. reengagement with China - let alone a taste of the conflict to come: On his Substack, Noah Smith argues that the spy balloon incident may be the death knell for any potential U.S. Some expert observers have opined in recent days that the incident was most likely an unintentional mistake on China’s part, considering the high diplomatic cost at a time when China appeared interested in repairing relations with the West. territorial waters, the Biden administration was able to maximize the likelihood that the pod could be recovered while minimizing the risk that Americans would be injured by falling debris. ![]() By waiting until the balloon was over U.S. Thus, from an intelligence standpoint, Pentagon officials believe that the strange week-long balloon voyage was ultimately of more benefit to the United States than to China. The pod apparently fell into the Atlantic largely intact, the official said, and it should provide a useful opportunity to examine and reverse-engineer Chinese intelligence and communications systems. radar or electronic-warfare signatures, which would be valuable in a future conflict.” And the episode may end up being an overall win for the U.S., particularly if the balloon’s intelligence pod can be recovered: Ignatius says the official believes any intelligence the balloon gathered would have been of limited value, including the possibility that “the mission was an attempt to trigger U.S. The Pentagon official said Saturday night that five Chinese balloons have circumnavigated the globe, and China has conducted 20 to 30 balloon missions globally over the past decade. The Chinese have been dispatching intelligence-collection balloons for years. In a Washington Post op-ed, David Ignatius passes along some more inside information regarding the balloon incident, per “an authoritative Pentagon official with detailed, firsthand knowledge of the event’: But the Foreign Ministry claimed it too was a wayward civilian aircraft, as it had regarding the U.S. counterpart, had also originated in China. On Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the balloon, which looked to be similar to its U.S. operation to recover the debris from the downed balloon from the Atlantic Ocean is continuing, the general said, involving both a dock-landing ship and an oceanographic survey ship.Ĭhina acknowledges second balloon, which flew over Latin America intelligence community did so after the fact. He also said that NORTHCOM did not detect the previous alleged Chinese spy-balloon incursions into U.S. Northern Command General Glen David VanHerck told reporters on Monday that the alleged spy balloon was up to 200 feet tall and carried a jetliner-size payload weighing more than few thousand pounds. Picking up the pieces of China’s very big balloon ![]()
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