Your Taxes Are Being Spent on the Pentagon’s “Inflated EGOS”

Today is the one year anniversary of the Chinese spy balloon mishap

Exactly one year ago today, a Chinese spy balloon drifted across the continental U.S. because our multibillion dollar NORAD somehow failed to shoot it down. The Pentagon is working on a solution it calls “Inflated EGOS” — not theirs, of course, but an acronym for “Exploitation of Gas-Operated Systems.”

The flippant tone should give you a sense of how much contrition there is within the halls of the Pentagon for failing to protect our airspace and doing nothing as it floated across the country for several days. While claims that the spy balloon posed a major security threat were of course overblown (I will not say “threat inflation”),  a lavishly funded entity like NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] should be able to secure our airspace at the very least from balloons, which are not known for their speed.

Got any tips about the Pentagon’s counter-balloon efforts? Text me securely via Signal at 202-510-1268

Inflated EGOS calls for “wide-ranging exploration and analysis” of ways to combat “an adversary’s use of high-altitude lighter-than-air (HALTA) systems” — Pentagon speak for spy balloons.” 

In other words, the only people paying for the U.S. military’s spectacular failure is the American taxpayer. Not a single official resigned over this media spectacle so embarrassing that it derailed a planned trip to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Instead of demanding accountability, Congress introduced legislation to shower $293.5 million “to protect the U.S. homeland from surveillance efforts by adversaries like the Chinese government” and to make “improvements to NORTHCOM/NORAD’s domain awareness.” And the year before that, in 2022, Canada committed $38.6 billion over the next two decades to NORAD. 

NORAD is not wanting for money, which cannot be said of ordinary Americans who increasingly can’t afford to buy homes. (A recent study found that homes are unaffordable in 99% of the country.)

What the Pentagon is wanting for is accountability.

Below is a copy of the Pentagon document detailing “Inflated EGOS.” I’m going to make an effort to provide you guys with primary source documents as much as possible so you don’t have to take my word for anything — I really hate that the media forces people to just Trust Us. Anyway, please please please become a paid subscriber so I can keep doing this newsletter. — Ken