The US has identified more aerial objects — and shot them down as a precaution — as it has paid closer attention to North American skies after shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4, according to the Pentagon.
(Bloomberg) — The US has identified more aerial objects — and shot them down as a precaution — as it has paid closer attention to North American skies after shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4, according to the Pentagon.
The Defense Department doesn’t yet know what the additional objects are, but they approached sensitive military sites and posed a potential threat to commercial aviation, according to Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs.
After downing the Chinese balloon “we have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week,” Dalton said in a briefing Sunday. She said countries, companies and research organizations “operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research. That said, because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, we have acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and interests.”
A US F-16 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron in Michigan earlier on Sunday, the fourth time in eight days a high-flying balloon or other craft has been brought down over the US or Canada.
The Biden administration said the high-altitude craft brought down on Feb. 4 was a Chinese spying balloon, which China denies, saying it was a weather balloon that went adrift.
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