US Air Force document says balloons ‘drifted past Hawaii’ and ‘across Florida’ during Trump presidency
www.independent.co.uk
The key quotes:
US officials have also acknowledged that a balloon had floated above the continental US in a previous instance in the early days since
Joe Biden took over as president.
White House national security adviser
Jake Sullivan said at an event on Monday that the US has “enhanced our surveillance of our territorial airspace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect”.
That such craft belonged to China was determined only after they had left US airspace in the previous purported times, according to General Glen VanHerck, the head of US Northern Command.
I will tell you that we did not detect those threats,” he said. The general pointed to “a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out” and said the US intelligence community had pointed to such alleged incursions only “after the fact”.
My own take-China regularly violates Taiwan's airspace to test resolve. I think this was an attempt to do the same. The current administration might have gained a lot more credibility and respect if they had taken it out over the Aleutians rather than let it transit the entire US.