For years, DoD has conducted tests using high-altitude balloons and solar-powered drones to collect data, provide ground forces with communication and mitigate satellite problems. The Pentagon is quietly transitioning the balloon projects to the military services to collect data and transmit information to aircraft, POLITICO discovered in DoD budget justification documents.
The U.S. military has been experimenting with stratospheric balloons since the 1950s, and private firms and individuals have been floating them up for various purposes for years. At the rate things are going — roughly one obliterated UFO a day with official acknowledgment — it’s possible we’ll get a better explanation for what’s actually happening here soon enough. On Tuesday, the National Security Council de-escalated its UFO rhetoric a bit:
NSC’s Kirby says “thus far” the three downed objects don’t appear linked to PRC surveillance programs. They do not belong to the U.S. government and no other entity has come forward to claim them. IC is evaluating possibility they were balloons tied to research agencies.
for “airships, balloons, and pseudo-satellite platforms,” known collectively as “high-altitude platforms,” or HAPs, in the coming years.