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...with Canada's permission; I think that should be said explicitly.
article states that it was on Canada's orders. I didn't know that was a thing, Canadian PM having the power to command US jets. Can anyone who knows more about NORAD weigh in with an ELI5?
It’s not the US that shot it down - it was NORAD.
Says a lot about the RCAF though: they can't even defend their territory properly.
> The Pentagon said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening. U.S. fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation.
I wonder if they're trying to figure out what we can detect and we're giving them all the information they need by publically shooting these down.
I'm convinced that's why the balloons haven't been shot down in the past. Learning our detection abilities is probably way more important for China than anything they would be able to take a picture of.
Now a hypersonic missile, or a stealth plane -- that would be a test. But losing one of those would be pretty expensive.
Reuters sacrificed common sense for sensationalism, these are drones/balloons, not alien space craft, and everyone knows it. Clickbait!
Related: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-22-shoots-down-new-o... https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40638/what-we-know-abo...
Tangentially related, but this site (and its editor, Tyler Rogoway) are my go-to news source for anything military aviation related. Consistently great reporting. He’s worth a follow on Twitter [0] if this sort of thing is of any interest to you. [0] https://twitter.com/aviation_intel
I wonder if they're trying to figure out what we can detect and we're giving them all the information they need by publically shooting these down.