The US army shot down one other excessive altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, the Pentagon mentioned.
One other unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in every week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace. Final Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. And on February 4, a Chinese language surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.
That marks the start and the top of what we all know definitively.
Right here’s every thing we nonetheless don’t know, and a few of the issues we do:
Are the newest objects associated to China’s spy balloon? There’s no indication at this level whether or not the unidentified objects have any connection to China’s surveillance balloon.
Canadian retired Maj. Gen. Scott Clancy, former director of operations at NORAD and former deputy commander of the Alaskan NORAD Area, mentioned on Monday he doesn’t consider China is behind the unidentified objects which were shot down in current days. He defined that it could possibly be a “confluence of a particular exercise by our adversaries to check the techniques.”
Assistant Secretary of Protection for Homeland Protection and Hemispheric Affairs, Melissa Dalton advised reporters on Sunday they had been taken down out of an “abundance of warning.”
Dalton mentioned that high-altitude objects can be utilized by a variety of corporations, nations, and analysis organizations for “functions that aren’t nefarious, together with reliable analysis.”
No. They don’t seem to be aliens. It’s nonetheless unclear, however we’re not coping with aliens. Throughout a noon briefing on Monday, the White Home offered one detail of certainty: the objects didn’t originate from outer area.
“I simply wished to ensure we tackle this from the White Home: I do know there have been questions and considerations about this however there isn’t any — once more, no — indication of aliens or extraterrestrial exercise with these current take-downs,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned.
A US official advised CNN there was warning contained in the Biden administration on the pilot descriptions of the unidentified objects shot down over Alaska and Canada as a result of circumstances by which the objects had been seen.
However no less than two high-ranking officers have made reference to balloons.
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer advised ABC Information that he was briefed on the item by White Home nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan and that the item shot down over Canada was possible one other balloon — as was the high-altitude object downed over Alaska on Friday.
Canada’s chief of protection employees, Gen. Wayne Eyre, additionally made point out of a “balloon” when describing directions given to the crew that labored to take down the item.
A Pentagon memo despatched to lawmakers and obtained by CNN mentioned the item shot down over Canada gave the impression to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload under it.”
Why are these objects being noticed now? Notably, the US intelligence neighborhood’s methodology to trace China’s fleet of surveillance balloons was solely found inside the final yr, six folks acquainted with the matter advised CNN.
The findings have allowed the US to develop a constant technical methodology for the primary time, which they’ve used to trace the balloons in near-real time throughout the globe, the sources mentioned.
