Retired colonel has thought why so many unidentified objects are being noticed

Colonel Leighton, what is going on? This is the latest incident, this third shootdown of of a craft. First it was a balloon. Now we have these unidentified objects in a week. What are your thoughts as you're looking at all of this? Is this.

You know, these things are shot down and as an abundance of caution and, you know, they're on our radar screen and we're looking for them because it's top of mind. Or is there something more to be concerned.

About here? Well, I think, Jim, the the big thing is that obviously there's heightened awareness now at this point. So, you know, you had the incident a week ago where we shot down the Chinese surveillance balloon who were pretty convinced that.

That's exactly what that was. And then we started seeing all these other objects. Clearly, the radar operators for North are very sensitive now to anything that even looks remotely like an unusual object in the skies. And the fact of the matter is, is,.

You know, when you look at where these other two objects, the second and the third object where they were, the second one was near Prudhoe Bay, which is a major energy production area for the United States. And then you look at the third one over the Yukon,.

Also rich in resources So there are all kinds of possibilities here. Could it be a weather balloon? Absolutely. Are there other things that it could be? Yes. We just have to really find out exactly what kinds of things these are.

But it's very clear that at least in one instances, one instance, we've had a testing of the American and Canadian air defense systems in the other two instances, that could also be the case. And so we have to really assess where these came from and what they.

What the capabilities of these objects are. Is it a little strange that we're we're about a day or more than a day since the shooting down of that object over Alaska off the coast of Alaska? And yesterday,.

We still haven't been told by the government what it is. Yeah, that's that is a bit strange, although I guess we have to keep in mind that, you know, it's a very remote location. I've been up there in that area once in my Air Force career,.

And it is believed it's the end of the world. It is literally the end of the world. And, you know, it's it's one of those areas where it's very hard to get all the rescue missions in there and the retrieval missions. So to do the forensic analysis.

That is being conducted now on the Chinese surveillance platform that is going to take some time. And also keep in mind, it's a long distance from Quantico if they choose to bring it to Quantico again. So that's you know, that's another reason.

Why they probably don't know exactly what it is yet. And once that happens, we'll probably take a week or two before we get some idea of of what these two last objects actually are. And what about this element of Natasha.

Bertrand's reporting that the pilots had differing accounts as to what they saw and this one particular piece of information that she just reported again a few moments ago, which I think might be giving some people the willies, which is the pilots could not ascertain.

As to what the propulsion system was of this particular object. Yes. So, Jim, these you know, your thoughts on the pilots, you know, whether they fly by very quickly, they've got,.

You know, a few seconds to take a good look at this craft or whatever object this is. Yeah. And in some cases, what's called a misread is the report that the pilot submits to headquarters into the intelligence shop. And when they look at that,.

Then they can determine it's basically an eyewitness account of a car crash or something similar to that. And when you look at that, then you start piecing together, okay, this is what they saw. And then you combine that with the actual forensic evidence.

Of the pieces and parts that we're able to gather from these incidents. And then we can perhaps better ascertain whether or not there really was a propulsion system where there just flew along with the wind stream.

Or if there was some other aspect to this that we don't know about, are there technologies that are being used that we don't understand yet? All of that is possible. Unlikely, but possible and so those are the things we have to consider.

And the possibility that we might have a foreign power like China or Russia sort of poking and prodding with these objects. How concerning is that from a national security standpoint? So these are the kinds of.

Things are a Major No-No, aren't they? Well, we do that all the time. We do it to them. They do it to us. But here's the No-No part. We don't overfly their territory. They have in these cases, overflown our territory if it is, in fact, the objects.

Two and three are in fact, from either China or Russia. We know that in the case of the first object, the balloon, obviously the Chinese did that. That was the big No-No. So the way things run in the reconnaissance world now.

Is, yes, you test the systems, but you don't overfly the systems, the air defense systems of of an adversary don't get caught. And you certainly don't get caught. Like, for instance, Gary Powers back in the early 1960s, you know who definitely got caught. The rules have changed since then.

So we don't do that kind of thing anymore. Now, when it comes to these kinds of assessments, yes, the Chinese and the Russians are obviously always testing our air defenses. It's very logical.

That they did this again. Let's see if the facts bear that supposition out.

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