U.S. jet shoots down object in Canada skies
Missile fired at Trudeau’s command
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that on his order a U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” that was flying high over the Yukon, acting a day after the U.S. took similar action over Alaska.
North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined U.S.-Canada organization that provides shared defense of airspace over the two nations, detected the object flying at a high altitude Friday evening over Alaska, U.S. officials said. It crossed into Canadian airspace Saturday.
“I ordered the takedown of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace,” Trudeau said on Twitter.
He said a U.S. F-22 with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which is operated jointly by the United States and Canada, downed the object over the Yukon Territory. The Yukon is the westernmost Canadian territory and among the least populated parts of Canada.
After a call between Trudeau and President Joe Biden, the president authorized U.S. pilots to shoot down the latest object, Brig.
Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said Saturday in a statement.
The object Saturday was taken out with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile after coordination that included a discussion between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Canadian Minister of Defense Anita Anand, Ryder said.
“As Canadian authorities conduct recovery operations to help our countries learn more about the object, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” Ryder said.
The White House said Saturday night in a statement Biden had been “continually briefed by his national security team” since the latest object was detected.
“Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down,” the statement said. They also discussed “the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.”
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday night that it had closed some airspace in Montana to support Defense Department activities and referred further questions to NORAD. The airspace was later reopened, an FAA
spokesman said.
Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” Trudeau said in his Twitter post, adding, “Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”
3 IN A WEEK
F-22 fighter jets have now taken out three objects in the airspace above the U.S. and Canada over seven days, a stunning development that is raising questions on just what, exactly, is hovering overhead and who has sent them.
The incursions over the past week have changed how analysts receive and interpret information from radars and sensors, a U.S. official said Saturday, partly addressing a key question of why so many objects have recently surfaced.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that sensory equipment absorbs a lot of raw data, and filters are used so humans and machines can make sense of what is collected. But that process always runs the risk of leaving out something important, the official said.
“We basically opened the filters,” the official added, much like a buyer unchecking boxes on a car website to broaden the parameters of what can be searched.
That change does not yet fully answer what is going on, the official cautioned, and whether stepping back to look at more data is yielding more hits — or if this is part of a more deliberate action by an unknown country or adversary.
At least one of the objects downed was believed to be a spy balloon from China, but the other two had not yet been publicly identified. While Trudeau described the object Saturday as “unidentified,” NORAD spokesman
Maj. Olivier Gallant said the military had determined what it was but would not reveal details.
Officials say the objects shot down Friday in Alaska and Saturday in Canada are roughly the same size as a Volkswagen Beetle. But while they are similar in size, “they are slightly different in profile,” the official said.
The pilots over Canada had more time to observe the object compared with Friday’s encounter, leaving pilots to have various interpretations of what they were able to see.
The object was shot down in a rugged and remote area, the official said.
“All of the objects are similar in certain ways and then dramatically different in certain ways. What we don’t yet understand is what sorts of technology are in there,” the official said. “Really capable technology can be very small and portable. So the size doesn’t tell us a whole lot.”
SEARCHES CONTINUE
The latest disclosure came as U.S. military officials said searches continued Saturday near the north Alaskan town of Deadhorse for the object shot down Friday, and off the coast of South Carolina for the suspected Chinese surveillance airship that made a cross-country journey.
Officials couldn’t say if it contained any surveillance equipment, where it came from or what purpose it had. A U.S. official said there were “no affirmative indications of military threat” to people on the ground from the object when it was shot down.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was shot down because it was flying at about 40,000 feet and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, not because of any knowledge that it was engaged in surveillance.
Defense officials said its remnants landed in a mix of snow and ice near Prudhoe Bay, complicating any effort to recover the craft by boat.
Military personnel in helicopters and an HC-130 search-and-rescue plane immediately began looking for pieces.
Troops with U.S. Northern Command were working Saturday with Alaska National Guard units, the FBI and local law enforcement near Deadhorse, Alaska, to recover it and determine its nature, Defense Department officials said.
“Arctic weather, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight, are a factor in this operation, and personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety,” U.S. military officials said of the object shot down Saturday over Alaska.
“We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose and origin,” the Pentagon said in a statement about the Alaskan incident.
A BALLOON’S JOURNEY
On Feb. 4, U.S. officials shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed the continental United States — which was roughly the size of three buses and soaring at an altitude above 60,000 feet — and was first spotted Jan. 28 by the U.S. government off the coast of Alaska.
The balloon shot down last weekend fell into the Atlantic Ocean, landing in relatively shallow water measuring about 50 feet deep.
The Chinese airship was first detected near the Aleutian Islands. It crossed above mainland Alaska and into Canada before appearing over the continental United States, first Jan. 30 in northern Idaho and in Montana the next day.
The administration weighed shooting it down then, and even temporarily imposed a stoppage on flights in and out of the airport in Billings. Biden has said his advisers talked him out of shooting down the craft in Montana, fearful that falling debris could harm civilians and property on the ground.
“I don’t want a d*** balloon going over the United States when we could have taken it down over the Aleutian Islands,” said Sen. Jon Tester, D.-Mont.
The balloon was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the Pentagon has said. The U.S. has said Chinese balloons have flown over dozens of countries across five continents in recent years, and it learned more about the balloon program after closely monitoring the one shot down near South Carolina.
China responded that it reserved the right to “take further actions” and criticized the U.S. for “an obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”
The Navy continued survey and recovery activities on the ocean floor off South Carolina, and the Coast Guard was providing security. Additional debris was pulled out Friday, and additional operations will continue as weather permits, Northern Command said.
“All of the objects are similar in certain ways and then dramatically different in certain ways. What we don’t yet understand is what sorts of technology are in there,” the official said. “Really capable technology can be very small and portable. So the size doesn’t tell us a whole lot.”