US jets take down object flying over Lake Huron
Newest incident is fourth downing in space of eight days
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday ordered an “unidentified object” shot down with a missile by U.S. fighter jets over Lake Huron, believed to be the same one tracked over Montana and monitored by the government beginning the night before, the Pentagon said. It was the third such downing in as many days.
The extraordinary air defense activity began when a white orb the U.S. has said was a massive Chinese spy balloon appeared over the U.S. in late January and hovered above the nation for days before fighter jets downed it off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Now, four objects have been shot out of the sky by U.S. fighter jets in eight days, including over Alaska and Canada. Pentagon officials have said they don’t know when the last downing of an unknown or unauthorized object over U.S. territory occurred before this spate of incidents.
U.S. authorities have made clear that they constantly monitor for unknown radar blips, and it is not unusual to shut down airspace as a precaution to evaluate them, but they’d also take action when necessary. The unusually assertive response has raised questions about whether such use of force was warranted.
The latest object brought down was first detected on Saturday evening over Montana, but it was initially thought to be an anomaly. Radar picked it up again Sunday hovering over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and it was going over Lake Huron, according to U.S. officials, who had knowledge of the downings and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operations.
U.S. and Canadian authorities had restricted some airspace over the lake earlier Sunday as planes were scrambled to intercept and try to identify the object. The latest object was octagonal, with strings hanging off, but had no discernible payload. It was flying low at about 20,000 feet, according to one of the officials.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials were still trying to precisely identify the other two objects shot down by F-22 fighter jets, and were working to determine whether China was responsible as concerns escalated about what Washington said was Beijing’s large-scale aerial surveillance program.
An object shot down Saturday over Canada’s Yukon was described by U.S. officials as a balloon significantly smaller than the balloon — the size of three school buses — hit by a missile Feb. 4. A flying object brought down over the remote northern coast of Alaska on Friday was more cylindrical and described as a type of airship.
Both were believed to have a payload, either attached or suspended from them, according to the officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Officials were not able to say who launched the objects and were seeking to figure out their origin.
The three objects were much smaller in size, different in appearance and flew at lower altitudes than the suspected Chinese spy balloon that fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
The officials said the Alaska and Canada objects were not consistent with the fleet of Chinese aerial surveillance balloons that targeted more than 40 countries, stretching back at least into the Trump administration.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC’s “This Week” that U.S. officials were working quickly to recover debris. Using shorthand to describe the objects as balloons, he said U.S. military and intelligence officials were “focused like a laser” on gathering and accumulating the information, then compiling a comprehensive analysis.
“The bottom line is until a few months ago we didn’t know about these balloons,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said of the alleged spy program that the administration has linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army. “It is wild that we didn’t know.”
Eight days ago, F-22 jets downed the large white balloon that had wafted over the U.S. for days at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. U.S. officials immediately blamed China, saying the balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals and could maneuver itself. White House officials said improved surveillance capabilities helped detect it.
China’s Foreign Ministry said the unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had blown off course. Beijing said the U.S. had “overreacted” by shooting it down.