John Solomon: China Spy Balloon Episode a Sputnik Learning Moment for America, Black Eye for Pentagon

The weeklong drama over the high altitude spy balloon that crossed the U.S. skies and was shot down by fighter aircrafts is being televised. This may be the generation’s Sputnik Moment. It alerted Americans about rising Chinese aggression, while raising questions about the Pentagon’s ability protect the nation’s national airspace.

Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck was the commander of NORAD’s air defenses. He bluntly admitted Monday that his vaunted command had simply failed to spot several Chinese spy balloons in U.S. airspace prior to Saturday’s attack off the South Carolina coast.

VanHerck used Pentagon-speak to refer to the failure of earlier spy balloon incursions being detected as “a mistake”. “domain awareness gap” This had to be done.

It is a serious gap that raises serious questions within Congress about the ability of NORAD to detect an object that, according to the Pentagon, was 200-feet high and weighed about as much as a regional carrier.

Others also saw failure in the handling of the episode by the Biden administration. They cited its failure to inform the president for three consecutive days and then kept it secret from the public for several days more before finally reacting to national television’s riveting story.

“I think they once again showed that we’re weak, and when we are weak, that generates aggression overseas, especially with the Chinese Communist Party and Russia,” Marianette Miller Meeks, Rep. (R-Iowa), spoke to the “Just the News, No Noise” Television show Monday night.

“The balloon was finally brought down, and I think brought down because the public had brought so much attention to the fact that there was a Chinese Communist Party spy balloon, you know, coursing over our country,” She added.

Victoria Coates, who was a former deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump, stated that there was a silver lining to this episode. It could have triggered a learning moment for Americans about China’s intentions towards the United States similar to how the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite to alert them to the dangers of Cold War.

“Literally, Americans are watching in real time as their sovereignty is being invaded by something the size of three Greyhound buses loaded with surveillance equipment,” Coates appeared on Monday’s John Solomon Reports podcast. “And, you know, the good news is that I think the wake-up moment has worked. We have awakened, and I think it’s late in the game, but there’s still time for the United States to reposture itself onto almost a Cold War-type footing like after Sputnik and really confront this for the intolerable threat that it is.”

There is much still to be known about China’s intentions. While the Pentagon claimed that the balloon was being used to monitor sensitive sites such as nuclear warhead batteries and Beijing said it was trying to do so, Beijing said America was reacting too quickly to what was essentially a climate and weather research project.

However, a growing number security experts believe that the Chinese balloon was less involved in espionage than it was intended to test American defenses to find out if they could be defeated by something that looked like an experimental balloon.

“The Chinese Communist Party, you know, is testing our vulnerabilities, testing our willingness to engage,” Miller-Meeks said. “As you all know, the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly aggressive and provocative, especially since Russia invaded Ukraine.

“So we’ve seen them increase their incursions into the South China Sea. We’ve seen them launch hypersonic missiles. We’ve seen they have increased, you know, air traffic over Taiwan, and then now this balloon that traverses the entire country and over some very sensitive military sites as well. So it’s extremely problematic.” 

It is not impossible to imagine balloons being used for attacks. While relatively old technology, air balloons have been considered by China for deploying hypersonic missiles, and by the United States for deploying drones equipped with explosives.

Fred Fleitz was a long-serving CIA intelligence analyst, and was also the former chief of staff for the National Security Council. He stated that he believes China is testing vulnerabilities more than spying. He expressed concern that the Biden administration would try to minimize the incident in order to improve relations with China.

“I think they are going to sweep it under a rug and send [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken back to China,” He stated. “I don’t think it will make a difference in Biden’s China policy. I really expect the administration to remain in denial.”

The black eye that the Pentagon has received and its air defenses are currently under is something that cannot be ignored.

“We had gaps on prior balloons,” VanHerck spoke to reporters Monday at a briefing held at the Pentagon.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command commander’s comment raised concerns about NORAD’s vaunted ability detect airspace threats. It also undercut an unsuccessful weekend effort by Biden to suggest that former President Donald Trump did not react to three incursions during his presidency.

In fact, VanHerck told reporters during a Pentagon briefing, the Trump administration wasn’t told about the incursions because NORAD missed them, and they only recently were detected after the fact by U.S. intelligence agencies.

“I will tell you that we did not detect those threats,” He declined to give details about when flyovers of Chinese spy satellite balloons had been made earlier. 

He explained how the previous incursions had been discovered. “The intel community, after the fact … made us aware of those balloons that were previously approaching North America or transited North America,” He stated.

VanHerck claimed that the military intentionally moved slowly to down the spy balloon. It was found hovering just outside the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, on Jan. 28, VanHerck said. According to VanHerck, officials determined that it was not an immediate threat to attack and allowed it to maneuver through the United States. However, it blocked its ability to obtain sensitive data to allow the military to learn how and why it missed earlier spy balloons.

“We utilized multiple capabilities to ensure we collected and utilized the opportunity to close intel gaps,” He stated.

Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, stated that earlier incursions dating back to Trump’s administration were found. “we were able to go back and look at the historical patterns.”

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