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There were six violations of a restricted airspace over Bedminster, New Jersey, while President Donald Trump was staying at his residence there over the weekend, the U.S. Air Force said.
One of those violations—all by general aviation aircraft—required an intercept by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) fighter jets.
This is a developing article. Updates to follow.
The U.S. military intercepted several Russian and Chinese bombers in international airspace near the coast of Alaska Wednesday.
Two Russian Tu-95s and two Chinese H-6s entered what is known as the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement Wednesday night.
The aircraft were “detected, tracked and intercepted,” NORAD said. They remained in the Alaska ADIZ and did not enter U.S. airspace.
The bombers were intercepted by U.S. F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, along with Canadian CF-18s and other support aircraft, a U.S. defense official confirmed to CBS News.
The official said that this marks the first time ever that Russian and Chinese aircraft have jointly entered the Alaska ADIZ, and the first time Chinese H-6s have encroached off Alaska.
While the Alaska ADIZ is considered part of international airspace, it is defined as an area where sovereign U.S. airspace ends but “that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” according to NORAD.
The activity from the Russian and Chinese bombers was “not seen as a threat,” NORAD noted.
Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In February, the U.S. detected four Russian warplanes flying in the Alaska ADIZ, as was another Russian military aircraft in May 2023.
And in February 2023, Russian warplanes were intercepted there twice in one week. And that same month, a Chinese spy balloon was detected near Alaska before eventually making its way across the continental U.S. and being shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
Military activity by the U.S., Canada, Russia and China has also ramped up in the Arctic. Just days ago, Moscow said it scrambled fighter jets to intercept two U.S. military long-range bomber aircraft that approached the Russian border over the Barents Sea in the Arctic.
Russia has ramped up military operations in the Arctic Circle, including tests of advanced hypersonic missiles. Earlier this month, Canada’s defense ministry said it plans to acquire 12 new submarines capable of traveling under sea ice to bolster the defense of the country’s vast Arctic coastal region.
China has expanded its own underwater fleet, and Russian submarines continue to collect intelligence in Arctic waters, the Canadian defense ministry said.
— Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.
Tonight Santa Claus is making his annual trip from the North Pole to deliver presents to children all over the world. And like it does every year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, known as NORAD, will have its official tracker following Santa’s journey for Christmas 2023.
NORAD, which is responsible for protecting the skies over the United States and Canada, has been tracking Santa every Christmas Eve for the last 68 years.
Here is all you need to know to track Saint Nick on his travels this Christmas:
As of 10:45 a.m. ET, NORAD says Santa has made his way from China to Singapore and is headed to Indonesia next.
NORAD’s Santa tracker is currently live, and you can monitor Santa’s progress in the map below. [Note: Map works better on mobile devices; if you don’t see it below you can click here to view it on NORAD’s website.]
You can also follow updates on NORAD’s Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube pages.
Operators will be standing by at 1-877-HI-NORAD starting at 6 a.m. ET on Christmas Eve for families who want to call for an update on Santa’s whereabouts.
Last year, NORAD and volunteers answered over 73,000 calls on Christmas Eve, according to the Pentagon.
According to NORAD, it’s impossible to know because only Santa knows his route. But history suggests he only arrives when children are asleep, so anytime between 9 p.m. and midnight on December 24 is a good bet.
“If children are still awake when Santa arrives, he moves on to other houses. He returns later, but only when the children are asleep!” NORAD says.
NORAD uses a combination of radars, satellites and jet fighters, it says, to keep a watchful eye on Santa’s progress.
Its radar system, called the North Warning System, monitors the North Pole every Christmas.
“The moment our radar tells us that Santa has lifted off, we begin to use the same satellites that we use in providing air warning of possible missile launches aimed at North America,” NORAD’s Santa tracker website says.
Satellites located 22,300 miles above the Earth with infrared sensors also help NORAD in its tracking duties.
“Rudolph’s nose gives off an infrared signature similar to a missile launch,” NORAD says. “The satellites detect Rudolph’s bright red nose with no problem.”
And finally, NORAD says Canadian and American jet fighters welcome Santa and his reindeer and escort them through North American airspace.
“Even though Santa flies faster than any jet fighter (Santa slows down for us to escort him), all of these systems together provide NORAD with a very good continuous picture of his whereabouts,” according to NORAD.
Two American F-16 warplanes intercepted four Russian aircraft near Alaska, the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said Tuesday. The “routine” intercept of the Russian planes — which included Tu-95 bomber and Su-35 fighter aircraft — occurred Monday, NORAD said in a statement.
“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” it said, adding that such Russian activity “occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative.”
The Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, is a perimeter in which air traffic is monitored beyond the border of national airspace to provide additional reaction time in case of hostile actions.
U.S. warplanes stationed in North America have seen rare offensive action this month, shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon and three unidentified objects. U.S. officials said Tuesday that intelligence officials were tracking the spy balloon that was shot down since it lifted off from the south coast of China.
“NORAD also assessed that this Russian flight activity is in no way related to recent NORAD and U.S. Northern Command operations associated with airborne objects over North America during the last two weeks,” the command said.
Interceptions of Russian aircraft in the area — which is close to Russia’s far eastern border — are relatively frequent.
In October, U.S. F-16 warplanes intercepted two Russian bombers in international airspace near Alaska and in September, NORAD said it detected two Russian maritime patrol aircraft in the ADIZ.,
NORAD says it uses “a layered defense network” of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter jets to track and identify aircraft.
According to its website, the Alaskan NORAD Region can detect “what goes on in and near North American airspace 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
“Aerospace control requires capabilities to intercept, shadow, escort, divert, direct landings, and if necessary, use force up to and including the destruction of airborne objects,” the command says.
Several unidentified flying objects have been shot down by the U.S. military in recent days, and so far there’s no explanation for them.
At least one high-ranking official won’t rule out the possibility that they could be extraterrestrial in origin.
“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD, told reporters on Sunday when asked about the possibility of aliens. “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.”
A suspected Chinese spy balloon transfixed the nation when it was spotted over Montana in January and ultimately shot down when it reached the Atlantic earlier this month.
Since then, at least three more objects have been blown out of the skies. One was initially described as a balloon, but VanHerck hedged when asked if these additional objects were also balloons.
“I’m not gonna categorize them as balloons. We’re calling them ‘objects’ for a reason,” he said. “Certainly the event off the South Carolina coast for the Chinese spy balloon, that was clearly a balloon. These were objects.”
He also said he’s not certain how the objects are even flying.
“It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure, or it could be some type of a propulsion system,” he said.
One of the objects, shot down on Friday over Alaska, was described as “cylindrical and silverish gray” and with “no identifiable propulsion system.” Another, shot down along the U.S.-Canadian border, was described as a “small, cylindrical object.” The third, shot down on Sunday over Lake Huron, was described by officials as “an octagonal structure” with strings.
“We’re going to remain vigilant about our airspace.” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday. “We’re going to remain vigilant about the skies over the United States.”
It’s not year clear if the objects being shot down are related to the growing number of sightings of what the Pentagon now calls “unidentified aerial phenomena,” which is their preferred term for UFOs.
Last year, an American Airlines pilot reported a “long cylindrical object” in the skies over New Mexico, and several by U.S. Navy pilots have described and attempted to track small fast-moving objects, including some “without discernible means of propulsion.”
Washington
CNN
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A day before the suspected Chinese spy balloon entered US airspace over Alaska, the Defense Intelligence Agency quietly sent an internal report that a foreign object was headed towards US territory, military and intelligence officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
The report – also known as a “tipper” – was disseminated through classified channels accessible across the US government. But it wasn’t flagged as an urgent warning and top defense and intelligence officials who saw it weren’t immediately alarmed by it, according to sources. Instead of treating it as an immediate threat, the US moved to investigate the object, seeing it as an opportunity to observe and collect intelligence.
It wasn’t until the balloon entered Alaskan airspace, on January 28, and then took a sharp turn south that officials came to believe it was on a course to cross over the continental US – and that its mission might be to spy on the US mainland.
This timeline of events – previously unreported – helps explain why US defense officials declined to act before the balloon had crossed over US territory. That lack of urgency has become a sharp political flashpoint on Capitol Hill, where some Republicans have criticized the administration for not sounding the alarm sooner.
“Our government knew a Chinese military spy balloon was going to enter the airspace over the continental U.S. at least TWO DAYS BEFORE it happened Yet they failed to act to stop it,” Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted on Wednesday. “Biden must disclose to Americans when they knew the spay [sic] balloon was headed towards the U.S. & explain why they didn’t stop it.”
Officials familiar with the original DIA report conceded Rubio’s point that they didn’t see the balloon as an urgent threat until it was already over US territory – even as fresh revelations have emerged about what the US knew about Chinese spy balloons.
During a closed door briefing on Tuesday, Senate staff repeatedly pressed military officials about who knew what – and when. On Wednesday, Rubio and Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to President Joe Biden’s top defense and intelligence officials raising questions about the administration’s decision-making after the balloon crossed into Alaskan airspace.
CNN reported on Tuesday that US officials tracking the balloon’s trajectory recognized it as part of a known aerial surveillance operation run by the Chinese military that officials say has flown dozens of missions world-wide, including half a dozen near or within US airspace. A military intelligence report from April of 2022, exclusively reported by CNN, revealed that the US had tracked previous flights by similar balloons.
It was only when the balloon turned south that it “got strange,” a senior US official told CNN. “We immediately started talking about shooting it down, then.”
On January 28, when the balloon entered US airspace near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, sent up fighter jets to make a positive identification, according to defense officials, reflecting a subtle shift in urgency.
Still, officials tracking the balloon saw little reason to be alarmed. At the time, according to US officials, this balloon was expected to sail over Alaska and continue on a northern trajectory that intelligence and military officials could track and study.
Instead, shortly after the balloon crossed over land, it alarmed officials by making its unexpected turn south.
On January 31, the balloon had crossed out of Canada and into the Lower 48. And concerns that the balloon had been sent by Beijing explicitly to spy on the mainland US were confirmed when NORAD observed the balloon “loitering” over sensitive military facilities, multiple sources familiar with the intelligence told CNN.
How much control China exerted over the balloon’s path remains a matter of debate. Although the balloon was equipped with propellers and a rudder that allowed it to turn “like a sailboat,” according to the senior US official, it largely rode the jet stream – one of the reasons US officials were able to predict its path across the US in advance.
Senior administration officials appear not to have been made aware of the balloon until on or near January 28, when it crossed into Alaskan airspace, including America’s top-ranking general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
Biden, according to senior administration officials, was not briefed until three days later, on January 31, when the balloon crossed out of Canada and into the continental United States. At that point, Biden asked the military to present options “immediately” to shoot the balloon down, officials said.
Military officials said it is not necessarily surprising that the president was not briefed until January 31, given the expectations for the balloon at the time.
The “tipper” sent by the DIA also goes out across government channels routinely, and although US officials have access to these reports, whether they read them or whether those reports are included in briefings to senior policymakers is a matter of discretion.
“Some of these places send emails and then count that as someone being informed,” the senior US official said.
As more information about the administration’s decision-making process on the balloon has continued to trickle out, Congress has taken a keen interest.
“There are still a lot of questions to be asked about Alaska,” a Senate Republican aide told CNN. “Alaska is still part of the United States – why is that okay to transit Alaska without telling anyone, but [the continental US] is different?”
Some Republican lawmakers have raised pointed questions about why the Biden administration did not move to shoot down the balloon before it crossed down into the continental US – either while it was over Alaska or sooner.
Military and intelligence officials who spoke to CNN said that it wasn’t known that the balloon was going to dip south into the Lower 48 until the balloon was already over Alaska. Before that, officials didn’t believe that it posed any real risk to the US, and in fact, presented more of an intelligence-gathering opportunity.
“The domain awareness was there as it approached Alaska,” NORAD commander Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters on Monday. “It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical military threat to North America… And therefore, I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating hostile act or hostile intent.”
Once it was over US territory, officials have argued that the benefits of gathering additional intelligence on the balloon as it passed over far outweighed the risk of shooting it down over land.
The US sent up U-2 spy planes to track the balloon’s progress, according to US officials.
One pilot took a selfie in the cockpit that shows both the pilot and the surveillance balloon itself, these officials said – an image that has already gained legendary status in both NORAD and the Pentagon.
The U.S. military agency known for tracking Santa Claus as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve doesn’t expect COVID-19 or the “bomb cyclone” hitting North America to affect Saint Nick’s global travels.
NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is responsible for monitoring and defending the skies above North America.
But the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based agency also runs the NORAD Tracks Santa service, which allows people to follow his Christmas journey through its noradsanta.org website, social media channels and mobile app.
The agency this year plans to have about 1,500 volunteers working on Christmas Eve to field phone calls from children who want to know Santa’s location and delivery schedule.
Jhomil Bansil/U.S. Department of Defense via AP)
Lt. General David Nahom, a NORAD official based in Anchorage, Alaska, said the pandemic has not affected Santa’s busy delivery schedule and he doesn’t expect any impact this weekend.
The freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall that’s disrupting holiday travel in the U.S. shouldn’t be a problem for a man who lives at the North Pole, Nahom said.
“I think Santa will be right at home with the Arctic weather that’s hitting into the lower 48,” Nahom said.
NORAD’s holiday tradition began in 1955 after a kid mistakenly called a Colorado military command asking to speak to Santa. More calls came in so the commander on duty assigned an officer to answer the Santa calls, and the tradition took hold.
