Ever since Feb. 4, when the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina, the military has been in something like skeet-shooting mode, blasting three more unidentified aerial objects out of the sky on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (Feb. 10, 11, and 12). The first of the three, spotted by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) radar over the northern coast of Alaska was described by fighter pilots as a metallic, cylindrical airship; it was flying at about 40,000 ft.—low enough to menace civilian aircraft. How it stayed aloft was not clear.

“It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some kind of propulsion system,” said NORAD commander Gen. Glen VanHerck in a Sunday night news conference, reported by CN…