Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Reportedly Flew Near U.S. Military Bases in Middle East Last Fall

According to a top U.S. official, a Chinese spy balloon flew past sensitive U.S. military bases on Monday. However, they were far enough away that the military did not decide to shoot them down.

According to a senior U.S. official, the balloon was created in China or near China. It traveled against the wind, which means that it had its own propulsion system.

The military tracked the balloon’s journey from Asia to the Middle East.

According to the report, the American top air commander in Middle East, Lt. General Alexus Grynkewich made reference to the incident at a meeting this week with reporters but refused to give any details because it was classified.

“It never got to the point where it was a high enough concern,” He stated. “We just monitored it.”

This is the latest news after the U.S. Military has shot down several items over the last two week, including a Chinese spy satellite on the first weekend of the month, an unknown object over Alaska on Friday and Saturday, as well as an unidentified objects over Canada, Lake Huron, and Canada on Saturday.

U.S. Air Force Commander Glen VanHerck, who oversees North American Airspace, didn’t rule out aliens after the incident that occurred at the beginning of the week above Lake Huron.

VanHerck replied that the U.S. had not ruled out an extraterrestrial source for the unidentified items when he was asked: “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything.”

“At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it,” VanHerck continued.

Unidentified aircraft was shot down by a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter plane “octagonal” Sidewinder missile to fly object above Lake Huron

Later, a U.S. defense official spoke anonymously to Reuters. “No indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent take downs.”

VanHerck claimed that U.S. officials believed that the objects were not balloons.

“I’m not going to categorize them as balloons. We’re calling them objects for a reason,” VanHerck stated. “I’m not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they’re — they’re able to stay aloft.”

VenHerck said that U.S. officials considered trying to use the fighter jet’s machine guns to shoot down the objects so that the objects would be better preserved after they were shot down.

“We assessed taking a gunshot yesterday in that event, as well as today, and the pilots in each situation felt that that was really unachievable because of the size, especially yesterday in the altitude and also because of the challenge to acquire it visually because it’s so small,” VanHerck stated.

“We have taken extreme caution to ensure that we limit potential collateral damage, so today, we worked closely with the FAA to clear out the airspace,” He concluded. “I gave direction specifically to the pilots to use their visual acuity to check for mariners on the ground, airplanes in the air to clear with their radars as well. And when they were comfortable, that we can minimize collateral damage, they selected the best weapon today that was the AIM 9x (missile). And they took the shot.”

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