A high-altitude object was shot down close to Lake Huron by the US military on Sunday, making it the third one that the US military has destroyed in North American airspace in less than a week.
An unidentified object was shot down by a US F-22 over Alaskan airspace on Friday, followed by another object which was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. Besides, a Chinese surveillance balloon was brought down by F-22s last weekend off the South Carolina coast on February 4.
What do we know about these unidentified objects?
February 12
A US F-16 fighter jet shot down an "airborne object", flying at an altitude of 20,000 feet, over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon at the direction of President Joe Biden. According to the statement released by the US Department of Defense, the North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and maintained visual and radar tracking of it. The object was classified as a flight hazard rather than a military threat. “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,” it read.
The location for this shootdown was strategically chosen "to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery", the department said.
Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said in a tweet on Sunday, that the operation to strike down the object over Lake Huron was carried out by pilots from the US Air Force and the National Guard.
February 11
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that an “unidentified object” had been shot down by a US fighter jet over Canadian airspace on his orders, on Saturday.
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said that the object was shot down at 3:41 p.m. EST, on Saturday approximately 100 miles from the Canada-US border in central Yukon. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Army were working together on a recovery operation. The object was “cylindrical” and smaller than the suspected Chinese balloon shot down, she added.
Elaborating on the details of the operation, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Pat Ryder said, "President Biden authorized U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to work with Canada to take down a high-altitude airborne object over northern Canada". The object was struck down by a U.S. F-22, "following close coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities."
February 10
According to the US Department of Defense, the North American Aerospace Defense Command located the "high altitude object" on February 9 using ground radar and sent an aircraft to identify the object. Post the scrutiny, the pilots ascertained the object was unmanned. "The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight," Ryder said. The object fell into the "sea ice off the coast of Alaska", after being struck.
The press secretary said that two "F-22s flying out of Joint Base Elmendorf in Alaska" struck the object which was about the size of a small car and did not "resemble in any way the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina".
Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, also emphasized the distinction between the incidents. “These objects shot down on Friday and Saturday were objects and did not closely resemble the PRC balloon. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you,” she said.
February 4
On February 4, the US said it shot down what it called a "surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People's Republic of China (PRC)". The balloon was first spotted by US officials on January 28 when it entered US airspace near the Aleutian Islands. It flew over Alaska, Canada, and back into US airspace over Idaho. The balloon "was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States", according to a statement from the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin.
An operation to strike it down was delayed until the balloon was "over water off the coast of South Carolina to ensure no Americans on the ground were harmed". Finally, a F-22 Raptor brought it down and it fell approximately six miles off the coast in about 47 feet of water. The Canadian government supported and coordinated the mission, according to the defense department. The balloon was estimated to be the size of three school buses.
China, meanwhile, has maintained that it strictly adheres to international law. It said that politicians in the US were "hyping" the incident to attack China. "We have no intention to violate and has never violated the territory or airspace of any sovereign country. Some politicians and media in the US have hyped it up to attack and smear China. The Chinese side is firmly opposed to that," a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.