US military shoots down flying object near US-Canada border, fourth such strike this month
The United States on Sunday brought down another unidentified object flying in its airspace, in fourth such interception this month. The latest strike comes a day after a US fighter aircraft shot down a similar “cylindrical” object over Canada.
At the direction of President Joe Biden, an F-16 fighter jet fired an AIM9x to successfully shoot down the airborne object flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in US airspace over Lake Huron in the State of Michigan, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig Gen Pat Ryder said, PTI reported.
This is the fourth such shooting down of an unidentified airborne object in a month and the third in a week. Last Saturday, the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of South Carolina. This week two unidentified airborne objects were shot down by US fighter aircraft – one in Alaska on Friday and another over Canadian airspace on Saturday.
While the first balloon belonged to China, the origin of other three has not been disclosed yet by US and Canadian authorities.Biden ordered the object to be shot down on Sunday at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The object travelled over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and neared Lake Huron on the US-Canada border, reported Reuters quoting a US official.
There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected,” the Pentagon Press Secretary said. North American Aerospace Defense Command maintained a visual and radar track on the object after detecting it Sunday morning. The object appeared to be octagonal in structure, with strings hanging off but no discernable payload.
Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites. We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more,” Ryder said.
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