Where did they come from?
US officials have not yet announced the origin of the equipment. On Sunday the US Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation, although another US official later said there was no evidence extra-terrestrials were involved.
Why are we seeing so many now?
After the first balloon sighting, the US military adjusted its radar to find slow-flying objects at varying altitudes, and the government announced that several Chinese spy balloons had visited the United States in recent years. Was.
US officials said the US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is adjusting the filters and algorithms used to check radar data, making them sensitive enough to detect small objects that are overhead The ability to stay aloft and move with the wind is confusing to US officials.
How did the army kill him?
On February 4, an F-22 fighter jet shot down the first balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina. F-22s also shot down objects in Alaska on Friday and Canada on Saturday. The device, located over Lake Huron, was blown out of the sky by an F-16 on Sunday.
All four were targeted with Sidewinder missiles, each costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The army considered using guns, but it was deemed too difficult given the small targets. The guns would also be more dangerous to the pilot, as debris could more easily hit an aircraft than a missile could be launched from afar.