Fox News reports that the 3 items shot down subsequent to the Chinese balloon are not obviously balloons. They quote four star General Glen VerHerck, Commander of United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, as follows.
We’re calling them objects for a reason. Certainly, the event off the South Carolina coast for the Chinese spy balloon, that was clearly a balloon. These are objects. I am not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure, or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly they’re able to stay aloft.
Did a four-star really say "Some type of a propulsion system?" We are in X-Files country at this point, the Mulder part of me wants to believe it's aliens. The Scully part says suspend judgment and await further input.
I suppose the "objects" could be mini-dirigibles in odd shapes, filled with hydrogen, constructed by someone with a weird sense of humor. If the military puts it all behind a Top Secret label, a la Roswell, we'll truly be weirded out. Here is how the Fox News piece ends.
Asked by a reporter whether he has ruled out aliens VanHerck said: "I haven’t ruled out anything at this point."
Image courtesy of Ed Driscoll, posting at Instapundit.
