Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Susan Katz Keating
A flurry of UFO reports are the result of a “domain awareness gap” that caused American air defenses to miss a Chinese spy balloon, security sources told Soldier of Fortune. They come from an automated filtering program that now has been shut off, resulting in a flurry of “UFO” discoveries, the sources said.
“We’re not filtering out slow moving objects as per usual,” one U.S.-based source told Soldier of Fortune. The filtering allowed defense monitors to watch for fast moving objects such as missiles or bomber jets, while ignoring mundane slower moving objects that don’t pose a threat, the source explained.
The filtering allegedly allowed defense monitors to focus on fast-moving objects such as missiles or bomber jets, while disregarding slower-moving objects deemed non-threatening.
One airborne intruder did come into focus: an object over Lake Huron along the U.S.-Canada border, according to Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin.
“The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard,” Slotkin tweeted. “Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters.”
Other reported sightings of foreign objects have included balloons over Alaska and Canada, and an unidentified object reported over Montana. The Federal Aviation Administration briefly imposed a “national defense airspace” restriction over part of Lake Michigan, during which time an object was shot down.
American forces have shot down four objects over North America in total, beginning on 4 Feb. 2023 with what was identified as a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
As for why the first Chinese spy balloon wasn’t intercepted as it approached Alaska, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the Air Force general overseeing North American airspace, said it showed no “hostile intent.” He also attributed the failure to detect previous balloons to what he called “a domain awareness gap,” a phrase that has since become the go-to explanation for the wave of sightings.
That gap has since been closed, security sources claimed.
“Now we’re paying attention to things we previously ignored,” a security source said. “That’s why you’re seeing all these UFOs pop up around the country.”
Among the objects that suddenly came into view: the incident over Michigan.
