Fox news：北美防空司令部在气球进入美国之前就探测到

Anders Hagstrom

Mon, February 6, 2023 at 11:11 AM PST

 

 

NORAD personnel detected China's surveillance balloon before it reached the coast of Alaska, but "could not" take action to shoot it down, a top military official said Monday.

NORAD chief Gen. Glen VanHerck spoke to reporters in a press call on Monday and faced questions as to why the U.S. did not shoot down China's surveillance craft as it crossed Alaska's Aleutian Islands. VanHerck confirmed that NORAD had detected the craft before it entered Alaskan airspace, but said he "could not" take immediate action because the balloon did not pose a direct threat.

"The domain awareness was there as it approached Alaska. It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical military threat to North America," VanHerck said Monday. "This is under my NORAD hat and therefore, I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating hostile act or hostile intent."

Reporters then pressed VanHerc on why the U.S. was so confident that it had limited the Chinese craft's ability to gather information as it crossed the continental U.S. VanHerck says the military took precautions to cover all sensitive areas the craft flew over, but declined to go into specifics.