That suspected
Chinese surveillance balloon
spotted in the skies over
the continental U.S.
has sparked concerns
about national security
and diplomacy regarding Beijing.
Is it more about symbolism
than substance?
Secretary of State
Anthony Blinken
was due to travel to China this week,
and he postponed his trip,
calling the balloons infiltration of U.S.
airspace a, quote,
irresponsible act
that created conditions
that undermine the purpose of the trip.
The public first learned of the balloons
existence Thursday
while it was over Montana
which is home to US
intercontinental ballistic missile
silos and strategic bomber bases.
China is saying that it's all innocent.
On Friday,
a spokesperson
for the Chinese foreign
ministry said this is a civilian airship
used for research,
mainly meteorological purposes
affected by the westerlies
and with limited self
steering capability.
The airship deviated far
from its planned course.
The Chinese side regrets
the unintended entry
of the airship
into airspace due to force major.
But the U.S.
State Department
called it a, quote, clear
violation of our sovereignty
as well as international law.
The Pentagon said on Friday
the balloon currently does not pose
a military or political threat.
And a senior US defense official told CNN
that military officials had advised
President Biden
not to shoot the balloon down
due to fear over the debris
posing a safety threat.
I tweeted out a quick take last night.
I said The violation of our sovereign
airspace should not be a partizan issue.
Many are questioning why
we aren't taking it out
and they especially are coming
from the right.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio,
a member of Congress,
so-called Gang of Eight,
who are briefed
on national intelligence matters.
He tweeted this
It was a mistake to not shoot down
that Chinese
spy balloon
when it was over
a sparsely populated area.
This is not some hot air balloon.
It has a large
payload of sensors, roughly
the size of two city busses
and the ability
to maneuver independently.
Utah Senator
Mitt Romney wrote a big Chinese
balloon in the sky
and millions of Chinese TikTok
balloons on our phones.
Let's shut them all down.
Over on Truth
Social former President Trump,
much more succinct
shoot down the balloon, he said.
Joining me now to discuss
is retired
Air Force Lieutenant General
David Deptula,
who was the Air
Force's first chief
of intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance.
He's a fighter pilot
with more than 3000 flying hours.
He was the principal attack
planner for the operation
Desert Storm Air campaign
commander of no fly
operations over Iraq in the late nineties
and served on two
congressional commissions
focused on America's
future defense strategy
He's currently
the dean of the Mitchell Institute
for Aerospace Studies. General.
Thanks so much for being here.
What exactly are the options
when an object like this is
at 60,000 feet
Well, Michael,
first, thanks
for having me on and
really appreciate it.
It's a great question.
There are several options
Some of them depend upon the location of
the balloon.
What makes this
a complicated situation
is that it's up at 60,000 feet
And there aren't a lot of
aircraft that are capable
that can go up there
with the kind of means to shoot it down
today.
You're looking at the F-22 or the F-15
and then the weapons
that can be used to actually
shoot the balloon down.
Of course,
there's surface to air missile systems,
but those are fixed.
And we really don't have any of those
operationally deployed
in the continental United States.
So the options are, you know, added to
fighter aircraft.
Do you know that it's necessarily
going to fall over a particular area,
meaning if you use the weapon systems
that you just identified
and you're successful in hitting it,
like how long is it
going to take for it to come down?
And do you necessarily know where it
will land
Well, that's a great question.
And the short answer is no.
You don't know
with any degree of accuracy
because it depends upon just how large
the hole or the damage
done to the balloon,
which will determine
how fast it will come down
and then what you hit
I mean, you hit the balloon
and you can penetrate it
and it can come down at a certain rate
if it's all in one piece.
Probably no big deal.
It's going to land in one place.
But if you hit the payload package
and destroy that,
now you have the debris
that's going to be scattered.
But the fact of the matter is,
the the dog on thing
should have been shot down
before it
penetrated the territory
of our sovereign airspace.
Your introductory conclusion
was a pretty good one.
Because what's really a more concern
than the sensor package
that this Chinese balloon is carrying is
why did we let a potential adversary
air vehicle
penetrate the sovereign territory
of Canada, the United States?
It should have been neutralized
as it entered our air defense
identification zone.
So of course, we in
the public
only learned of this on Thursday.
I think what you're saying, General,
is that the military
probably had knowledge for much longer,
including preceding
when it entered our airspace.
Is that what you're saying?
Yeah, absolutely.
We have this organization,
it's known as the North American
Aerospace Defense Command.
It's a combined organization
of the United States and Canada.
It provides
aerospace warning, air sovereignty
and then protection.
At least it's supposed to protect Canada
in the continental United States.
But I would suggest to you, too,
and this is a discussion for a whole
nother program,
but I think like most of the capabilities
of the United States
Air Force,
they've been underfunded
and allowed
to atrophy over the past 30 years.
And this is a consequence
General, how's it going to end?
I pointed out a political reality
that the president's
going to speak to the nation
and to the Congress on Tuesday night.
And the reports
that we're getting suggests
that this thing will hit the Atlantic
probably by the end of the
the weekend, depending upon the wind.
So you think he's going to take it out?
You think the president's going
to give the order and the U.S.
military will take it out before Tuesday?
You know, that's
that's a I don't want to be facetious.
That's a question for the president.
I really don't know.
I would tell you that my opinion is
he'll probably let it go.
But the fact of the matter is,
this is not an inconsequential act.
And it should have been shot down prior
to violating a sovereign U.S. airspace.
So my poll question today asks
whether this is a matter
of national security or national pride
What's your answer to that question?
National security.
I mean, look, this particular
balloon
may have been just a weather balloon that
flown off course.
I don't believe that.
I don't think it was an accident.
I believe it was a Chinese testing
the U.S. reaction.
But, you know,
another balloon could carry, for example,
an MP device, electromagnetic pulse
that could shut down segments of our U.S.
electric power grid.
So it's not an inconsequential fact
that this balloon has been sent to fly
over the continental United States.