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Pentagon Confirms Shot-Down Objects Aren’t Balloons, Makes an Even Weirder Admission

. . .The Pentagon gave a briefing on Sunday evening after yet another unidentified flying object was shot down, this time in US airspace over Lake Huron. Reports began to circulate that the object was an “octagon” and that it didn’t appear to be a balloon.

That set off some speculation that the recent rash of UFOs were balloons, likely from China, but that they were simply shaped differently than one would expect. In a pretty shocking statement, though, Gen. Glen VanHerck made it clear that’s not the view of the US military.

The UFOs not being balloons would be crazy enough, but things get even weirder when you hear a top US general admit that we don’t even know what is keeping these objects in the air. I’d think they did ample recon on whatever it was before shooting it down, including taking detailed pictures. I’d also think that the US military has the capability to identify pretty much anything China or another nation could throw at us. . .

Whatever these objects are, there are a lot of them, and there has to be a reason for them. If it’s China, are they testing US defense capabilities? And if they are, that leads to the obvious question of why they are testing them. Further, did China shoot down its own craft over Rizhao to keep up the ruse? (Read more from “Pentagon Confirms Shot-Down Objects Aren’t Balloons, Makes an Even Weirder Admission” HERE)

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Pentagon Shoots Down ANOTHER Unidentified Object, This Time Over Canada; Yesterday, UFO Shot Down Over Alaska; Total of Four

By Faris Tanyos. An “unidentified object” which “violated “Canadian airspace” was shot down over Canada Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced.

The object was shot down by a U.S. military F-22 fighter jet over the Yukon, Trudeau said.

A U.S. official had previously confirmed that the object was detected by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and appeared to be a “high-altitude balloon.”

Trudeau tweeted that “Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled” after he “ordered the take down” of the object by NORAD.

In a statement to CBS News, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that it was first detected over Alaska on Friday night, and then monitored by two F-22 fighter jets with the assistance of the Alaska Air National Guard. (Read more about the unidentified object that was shot down over Canada HERE)
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Fourth “Unidentified Object” Located Over Montana, Says Congressman

By Harriet Alexander. A Montana congressman said on Saturday night that he had been told an unidentified object was spotted over his district, forcing the temporary closure of airspace – and the search for it would resume at daylight.

Matt Rosendale, a Republican elected in 2020, said he had been briefed by the Department of Defense, while he was at a Lincoln Reagan dinner.

Fighter jets were scrambled and airspace above Havre, a town of 10,000 people, 30 miles south of the Canadian border, was shut at 7:50pm before being reopened about 50 minutes later.

‘I’m at an event, a Lincoln Reagan dinner in Columbus, Montana right now,’ Rosendale told Fox News.

‘And DOD called me as I have been sitting here and started giving me briefings to tell me what was going on. I clarified with them that this is actually the fourth balloon, OK.’ (Read more about the fourth unidentified object HERE)

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Mystery Object Shot Down Over Alaska

By New York Times. The Pentagon said it shot down an unidentified object over frozen waters around Alaska on Friday at the order of President Biden, less than a week after a U.S. fighter jet brought down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic in an episode that increased tensions between Washington and Beijing.

U.S. officials said they could not immediately confirm whether the object was a balloon, but it was traveling at an altitude that made it a potential threat to civilian aircraft.

At a news conference on Friday, John F. Kirby, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Biden ordered the unidentified object near Alaska downed “out of an abundance of caution.”

The Friday shootdown showed Mr. Biden taking direct and forceful action far more quickly than he did last week, when some Republican lawmakers criticized him for letting the spy balloon linger over the United States for several days before destroying it. But that period of observation last week allowed American officials to collect intelligence about the spy balloon, while in the episode on Friday, officials seemed unsure about what exactly they shot down. (Read more from “Pentagon Shoots Down Unidentified Object at High Altitude Over Alaska” HERE)

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After China Balloon Scare, Air Force Shoots Down Object Flying Above Alaska’s North Slope

By Alaska Public Media. An F-22 fighter jet from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson shot down an unidentified object flying above Alaska’s North Slope on Friday, officials at the White House said.

The shootdown, at 9:45 a.m. Alaska time, took place less than a week after an Air Force fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. . .

John Kirby, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House, said in a news conference that the object on Friday was “much, much smaller” than the Chinese surveillance balloon and was “about the size of a small car.” . . .

President Joe Biden ordered the object be shot down, Kirby said. It was traveling at an elevation of about 40,000 feet and could have posed a threat to commercial aviation, he said. (Read more from “After China Balloon Scare, Air Force Shoots Down Object Flying Above Alaska’s North Slope” HERE)

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‘Look Up’: DoD Spokesperson Gets Snarky With Reporter

Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told a reporter Friday that Americans can simply look at the sky to determine the whereabouts of an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon after Ryder refused to provide an updated location.

“Does the public not have the right to know?” a reporter asked.

“The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is,” Ryder responded.

(Read more from “‘Look Up’: DoD Spokesperson Gets Snarky With Reporter” HERE)

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House Republicans Demand Answers From Biden Over Decision to Send U.S. Tanks to Ukraine

Texas Rep. Troy Nehls and a group of House Republicans sent a letter Friday to President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin demanding answers over their decision to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

The letter, first obtained by the Daily Caller, was signed by three other House Republicans — Reps. Paul Gosar and Eli Crane of Arizona and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. In it, the lawmakers express concerns about the recently announced deployment of 31 M1A2 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The lawmakers say the decision creates several logistical challenges, specifically that it will take several months to train Ukrainian forces to operate the tanks and that it will take another take several months to get the tanks onto the battlefield.

The Republicans also mention comments from Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, nothing that both “recommended against sending M1 tanks to Ukraine.”

They also cite Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl’s concerns about the policy. “The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It’s expensive. It’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine. I think it’s about three gallons to the mile of jet fuel. It is not the easiest system to maintain,” the letter quotes him as saying on Jan. 18.

“Each M1 Abrams tank costs approximately $9 million to build, and to date, Ukrainian aid and security packages have totaled over $97 billion,” the Republican lawmakers wrote in the letter. (Read more from “House Republicans Demand Answers From Biden Over Decision to Send U.S. Tanks to Ukraine” HERE)

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The War in Ukraine Is Finally Starting to Pay Off for Big Defense Contractors

The two largest U.S. defense contractors saw a boost in sales as the Pentagon accelerated weapons orders to fill the gap left by billions in weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine, the companies said Tuesday.

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies posted fourth quarter 2022 earnings Tuesday that came in still slightly below earnings from the same period in 2021, attributing the downturn to labor shortages and supply chain issues that suppressed earnings throughout 2022, statements show. However, the two largest beneficiaries of $6.6 billion in Department of Defense (DOD) contracts awarded to industry as part of the Ukraine war response are picking up the pace compared to the previous quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We’ve got the orders, we’ve got the capacity,” Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said on an investor call Tuesday to break down the company’s quarterly earnings report. “We just need to bring the materials in.”

Lockheed reported quarterly sales of $19 billion, 3% above internal forecasts, netting $1.9 million in profit compared to $2.05 billion the prior year. Raytheon earned $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to $685 million in the same period in 2021, with sales skyrocketing nearly 6% to $18.1 billion, results that beat Wall Street expectations, The Associated Press reported. (Read more from “The War in Ukraine Is Finally Starting to Pay Off for Big Defense Contractors” HERE)

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68 Percent of Active Duty Military Believe Pentagon Is Politicized

The vast majority of U.S. active duty military members believe the Pentagon has become politicized, according to data obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.

Sixty-eight percent of active duty members say they have “witnessed a growing politicization,” while 53 percent say the military has become “too politicized.” Sixty-eight percent also say such politicization would impact their decision to encourage their children to join the military.

The data, gathered by the National Independent Panel on Military Service and Readiness (NIPMSR), show specific policy areas of concern for active duty military at a time when President Joe Biden’s Pentagon has been criticized by many for conducting social experiments in the ranks of the military, as opposed to focusing on national defense. The NIPMSR was empaneled by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.

“The Pentagon should be focused on winning America’s future wars rather than prioritizing divisive programs and issues,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), who chaired the panel, said. “The Pentagon should be focused on how best to counter our global adversaries like China and recruiting the best and brightest to our ranks.” (Read more from “68 Percent of Active Duty Military Believe Pentagon Is Politicized” HERE)

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Pentagon’s UFO Office Has Received Hundreds of New Reports

A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects has received “several hundreds” of new reports, but no evidence so far of alien life, the agency’s leadership told reporters Friday.

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was set up in July and is responsible for not only tracking unidentified objects in the sky, but also underwater or in space — or potentially an object that has the ability to move from one domain to the next.

The office was established following more than a year of attention on unidentified flying objects that military pilots have observed but have sometimes been reluctant to report due to fear of stigma. (Read more from “Pentagon’s UFO Office Has Received Hundreds of New Reports” HERE)

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Russia’s Ammo ‘Rapidly Dwindling,’ May Begin To Run Out in Early 2023: Pentagon

The Russian military is quickly running out of artillery and rocket ammunition, Pentagon officials said Monday, and the Russian army can only sustain its current rate of attack in Ukraine until early next year.

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on a conference call that Moscow is increasingly turning to Iran and North Korea to replenish its “rapidly dwindling” stockpiles of rocket and artillery rounds, which have been crucial to Russia‘s months-long assault on Ukraine‘s energy infrastructure.

The Russian military has relentlessly attacked Ukrainian civilian targets across the country in recent months ahead of the looming winter season, but the current pace may only be sustainable for another few weeks or months at best. (Read more from “Russia’s Ammo ‘Rapidly Dwindling,’ May Begin To Run Out in Early 2023: Pentagon” HERE)

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Woke Pentagon to Pay Travel Costs for Service Members to Get Abortions

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a memo calling for the Pentagon to create travel allowances for service members to travel for so-called “reproductive health care” that is unavailable in their areas, which means that soldiers’ abortion-related travel would be funded by hard-working American taxpayers.

The memo calls for the DOD to “Establish travel and transportation allowances for Service members and their dependents, as appropriate and consistent with applicable federal law and operational requirements, and as necessary amend any applicable travel regulations, to facilitate official travel to access noncovered reproductive health care that is unavailable within the local area of a Service member’s permanent duty station.” . . .

The move is a response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that returned to the states the authority to determine how to handle the issue of abortion and whether to ban the practice. Some states have banned most abortions. (Read more from “Woke Pentagon to Pay Travel Costs for Service Members to Get Abortions” HERE)

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Senate NDAA to Pentagon: ‘Immediately’ Halt Fight Against Extremism

The Senate Armed Services Committee has called on the Defense Department to halt its programs to prevent and root out extremism in the ranks.

The report accompanying the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act, which was made public late Monday, states the committee’s view that “spending additional time and resources to combat exceptionally rare instances of extremism in the military is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, and should be discontinued by the Department of Defense immediately.”

The language has not previously been reported in the press. While not legally binding on the Pentagon, it appears to send a signal of congressional opposition to efforts to counter extremist narratives in the military. The Defense Department initiative was fueled largely by the fact that dozens of people charged with ransacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were former or current service personnel — about 17 percent of those charged.

While the Senate report language suggests the committee as a whole supports halting counter-extremism training and analysis, the same document reveals that the committee approved including that section of the report by only the narrowest of margins: 14-12.

Every Republican on the committee voted for the motion, and every Democrat voted against it. Maine Independent Sen. Angus King’s vote in favor of the language tipped the balance in the GOP’s favor. (Read more from “Senate NDAA to Pentagon: ‘Immediately’ Halt Fight Against Extremism” HERE)

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