The U.S. government is responsible for an estimated 5.3 million square miles of domesticairspace and 24 million square miles of oceanic airspace. The February 2023 downing of aChinese surveillance balloon after it had flown across the country raised questions about thedegree to which the U.S. government knows who is flying what over its territorial skies. Likeall countries, the United States has finite resources to monitor objects flying through its airspace.At the same time, advances in technology allow the general public, private companies,and civilian government agencies to operate ever-smaller commercially available drones thatintentionally or unintentionally capture and contribute to activity in the skies. This trendcould make public reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) an important source of information for U.S. government officials.
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