What are we shooting down?

In 1957, during the frosty years of the Cold War, President Eisenhower and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker established the North American Air Defense Command in anticipation of defending the continent from Soviet long-range bombers— Sputnik was a few months away—and NORAD went on alert.

Joe Biden was 14 years old, and Justin Trudeau’s father Pierre wouldn’t make his first run for Parliament for another eight years.

But on Saturday afternoon, for the first time in NORAD’s 66 years, President Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly authorized the long since renamed North American Aerospace Defense Command to shoot down something out of the sky.

And so fell on the Yukon tundra an object, following by a day another object that smashed into the frozen waters off northern Alaska, both zapped by Air Force F-22s with AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles (which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece). Having waited 66 years for its first search and destroy mission, NORAD was back in the skies less than 24 hours later, shooting down Object No. 3 Sunday afternoon over Lake Huron with another Sidewinder, this off an F-16.

These objects are not Soviet bombers, but balloons, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was briefed by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan about Object 1 (Alaska) and Object 2 (Yukon). That Object 3 (Lake Huron) is also a balloon would make sense.

Who could be sending high-altitude balloons aloft to look down on us? We know that China had a larger spy balloon lazily cruising above the country until a Sidewinder put it in the drink off South Carolina. Has the Pentagon learned how to spot these floaters and dispatch them? We hope so.

For decades, NORAD was mostly noticed for its annual Christmas Eve tracking of Santa Claus heading south from the Pole. Now it’s focused on finding other red objects, with motivations not as nearly benevolent as St. Nick’s.