According to reports from the Pentagon yesterday US military fighters shot down a octagonal object on Lake Huron. After the Chinese balloon, it was the third flying object to be shot down over North America by a US missile in just over a week. The news was beaten by Reuters.
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US Air Force General Glen Van Herck, head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, told reporters he was unable to identify the three downed airborne objects, how they were up or where they came from: it is not excluded that they are alien or any other explanation not known to us.
"I will let the intelligence community and the counterintelligence community figure that out.", said the general.
Another defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, said the military had no proof that the objects were extraterrestrial.
On orders from President Joe Biden, a US F-16 fighter jet shot down the object at 14:42 p.m. local time on Lake Huron on the US-Canadian border, the Pentagon spokesman said.
While it posed no military threat, the object could have potentially interfered with domestic air traffic because it was at 20.000 feet (6.100m) and could have had surveillance capabilities, Ryder said.
The object appeared to have an octagonal structure, with hanging wires but no discernible payload, a US official said.
The military is recovering the downed object that fell into Lake Huron.
"We need to know where they come from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing"He said Debbie Dingell, one of many Michigan lawmakers.
US officials identified the first object as a Chinese surveillance balloon and shot it down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4. On Friday, a second object was shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska. And a third object was destroyed on Saturday over the Yukon in Canada.
"Citizens' safety is our top priority and that's why I made the decision to have that unidentified object shot down."the prime minister told reporters on Sunday Justin Trudeau
Since the Chinese balloon was shot down near Montana, the military of the Pentagon have claimed to have treated more carefully the data of the radars placed in defense of American airspace. They have effectively increased the sensitivity of radars to detect any type of intrusion into American and Canadian airspace.
In 24 hours, US officials closed the airspace twice. It was immediately reopened, after some insights into some tracks.
The Federal Aviation Administration briefly closed the space above Lake Michigan on Sunday. On Saturday, the Air Force sent two fighter jets to Montana to investigate a radar anomaly there.
The White House simply said the recently downed objects "didn't look much like" the Chinese balloon, echoing Schumer's description of them as "much smaller."
"We won't definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working ona spokesperson said.
Last year atAspen Security Conference in Colorado, the general Glen D. VanHerck he stated that the United States fails to detect some intrusions because NORAD radars are unable to detect hypersonic threats or other types of threats (not specifying which ed). The general also said that the United States and Canada are investing heavily in the supply of new radars to better identify potential new threats, integrating them with innovative artificial intelligence systems.