Newsman: The U.S. military shot down third unidentified flying object over Michigan Sunday. It is a strange weekend that multiple unidentified objects appeared and no one knows what are these unidentified flying object are, where they came from and who own it.
US F-22 shoots down unidentified ‘cylindrical’ object detected over Canada. Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand described a “cylindrical object” smaller than the Chinese balloon.
“It appears to be a small cylindrical object and smaller than the one that was downed off the coast of North Carolina,” Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said.
An ‘Octagonal’ object shot down by military aircraft over Lake Huron, US officials confirmed.
At 2:45 p.m., a U.S. Air Force F-16 from the Wisconsin Air National Guard fired a sidewinder missile at the objects, the Pentagon said.
“Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation. The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected,” North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement.
The Pentagon confirmed the takedown, saying they’ve been keeping a closer watch on American airspace since the discovery of the Chinese spy balloon earlier this month, and they “will remain vigilant”.
It is the third in three days and fourth since downing a Chinese spy balloon off on Feb. 4th of South Carolina coast.
In the latest event, a high-altitude object was shot down on Sunday afternoon by an F-16 over Lake Huron, which lies between Michigan and Ontario. The Pentagon said the object was not assessed to be a military threat but was a flight hazard. But it did connect the craft to a radar signal picked up earlier over Montana, the home to US intercontinental missile silos and other sensitive sites.
On Saturday, a US F-22 warplane operating on the joint orders of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Biden fired a missile that took down an object flying at 40,000 feet over central Yukon in the far north of Canada.
On Friday, an F-22 shot down another unidentified craft over Alaskan airspace. US pilots were able to get up around the object before it was shot down and reported that it didn’t appear to be carrying surveillance equipment.
Sunday’s object had been flying at about 20,000 feet over Lake Huron in a path and altitude that raised concerns about it , Shooting it down over the lake minimized the chances of injuring people or damaging property.
The shoot down occurred hours after airspace had been temporarily closed over Lake Michigan by the Federal Aviation Administration and NORAD. Fighter jets had scrambled to investigate a radar finding there but did not find an object, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment.
An F-16 shot down the object at 2:42 p.m. ET Sunday at the direction of President Joe Biden, according to Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary. The pilot fired an AIM 9X sidewinder missile, the same weapon used in the previous instances.
“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,” Ryder also said, indicating the possibility that it is another spy balloon.
It’s possible that the increased number of sightings of unidentified objects is due to closer scrutiny of airspace after the Chinese spy balloon was shot down Feb. 4, Melisssa Dalton, assistant secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, told reporters Sunday night. The last three objects shot down may also have been civilian aircraft engaged in research, she said, but the aircraft need to be recovered and analyzed to determine their origin and function.
The object downed Sunday was first detected by radar late Saturday afternoon about 70 miles north of the U.S. border in Canada, VanHerck said. F-15 fighter jets were scrambled from Portland but were unable to locate it. It appeared again on radar Sunday near Wisconsin and was tracked across the state into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
U.S. and Canadian troops are seeking to recover debris from the objects downed in Alaska on Friday and Canada on Saturday.
Fighter pilots observe the object and confer with headquarters before taking a shot, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
US F-22 shoots down unidentified ‘cylindrical’ object detected over Canada.
A temporary flight restriction was put in place after a ‘radar anomaly’ was detected but it has been lifted over Montana Saturday.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the “take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace” Saturday, according to a tweet.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said Saturday it was monitoring “a high altitude airborne object” over northern Canada, and that military aircraft were operating in the area from Alaska and Canada, according to a news release from the agency.
The object was shot down over the Yukon by another U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jet.
“Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau added.
Trudeau also said he has spoken with President Biden and that Canadian Forces will recover and analyze the wreckage of the object.
“Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America,” Trudeau said.
“We have no further details about the object at this time other than it appears to be a small cylindrical object and smaller than the one that was downed off the coast of North Carolina,” Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said Saturday evening.
“It appears to be a small cylindrical object and smaller than the one that was downed off the coast of North Carolina,” Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said.
A temporary flight restriction was put in place Saturday night over Montana but it has been lifted, according North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
The temporary restriction was issued after NORAD detected a “radar anomaly.” Aircraft were sent to investigate the incident but didn’t see anything.
Fighter jets were scrambled to investigate and saw nothing, so the restriction was lifted
“With the cooperation of the Federal Aviation Administration, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) implemented a temporary flight restriction airspace in central Montana on Feb. 11, 2023, to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations. The restriction has been lifted,” NORAD said in a statement. “NORAD detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter aircraft to investigate. Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. NORAD will continue to monitor the situation.”
“I’m in direct contact with the Pentagon regarding the object in Montana’s airspace & will receive frequent updates,” Senator Steve Danies said in a tweet Saturday. “Montanans still have questions about the Chinese spy balloon that flew over our state last week. I’ll continue to demand answers on these invasions of US airspace.”
On Friday, the US military shot down a “high-altitude object” over Alaska after US officials determined that it posed a “reasonable threat to civilian air traffic” as it was flying at 40,000 feet. The object was brought down by fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command, and Biden referred to the operation as a “success.” Recovery teams are now attempting to retrieve the debris that is sitting on top of ice in US territorial waters.
While officials have given no indication so far that the object shot down over Alaska is at all related to the Chinese spy balloon, details have been scarce.
A week earlier, US military fighter jets shot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, ending a remarkable public drama that prompted diplomatic fallout between Washington and Beijing as the American public tracked the balloon from Montana all the way to the Carolinas.
The Biden administration has been subjected to a slew of questions this week about the timing of the president’s decision to shoot the spy balloon.
The balloon was spotted after entering the US Air Defense Identification Zone over Alaska on January 28 before flying over Canada, a Department of Defense official told lawmakers last week. It then reentered continental US airspace three days later.
Officials said that the risk of intelligence collection against the US was low, while the risk to people and property on the ground, if the balloon were to be shot down over the US, was high given the balloon’s size and weight.
Instead, the military ultimately shot it down over water after it crossed over the East Coast of the US.
The second object was first spotted on Thursday, officials said, and F-35 fighter jets were sent up to examine the object further. The object was flying at 40,000 feet, which posed a “reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said on Friday.
“Recovery activities are occurring on sea ice,” the statement said. “We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose, or origin.”
the FAA also temporarily closed airspace over parts of Lake Michigan Sunday for Department of Defense activity.
Another high-altitude object was shot down Sunday, over Lake Huron. The object was shot down by a U.S. military aircraft, marking the latest in a string of such incidents.
The Lake Huron object was an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernible payload. The official also said that there is no indication of surveillance capabilities but they cannot rule it out.
The debris landed in Canadian waters, where both Canadian and U.S. crews are working to
The operation marks the third day in a row that an unidentified object was shot down over North American airspace. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. On Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22.
