- The Air Force general charged with protecting America’s air space from hostile threats acknowledged Monday that the U.S. military failed to detect some previous incursions by Chinese spy balloons, calling it a troubling “awareness gap” that needed fixing.
- “We had gaps on prior balloons,” Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters at the Pentagon.
- The comment by the North American Aerospace Defense Command commander raises concern about NORAD’s vaunted ability to detect airspace threats and also undercut a bungled weekend effort by the Biden administration to try to suggest former President Donald Trump failed to react to three incursions on his watch.
- In fact, VanHerck said the Trump administration wasn’t told about the incursions because NORAD missed them and that they only recently were detected after the fact by U.S. intelligence agencies.
- “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats. And that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out,” he said, declining to be more specific about how earlier flyovers of Chinese spy balloons were missed.
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NORAD General Concedes US Military Failed To See Prior Balloons
Top General Admits NORAD Missed Earlier Chinese Spy Balloons
