WASHINGTON —Efforts continue to recover remnants of an object shot down over Lake Huron by a U.S. fighter jet on Sunday — the third object downed over North America since a U.S. missile took down a Chinese surveillance balloon on Feb. 4, according to David Vergun in a statement from with U.S. Department of Defense.
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The weeks-long succession of objects, starting with a giant white orb first detected over U.S. skies in late January, has puzzled American officials and stirred curiosity around the world. Though the three most recent objects differed in size, maneuverability and other characteristics from the surveillance balloon shot down Feb. 4 off the Carolina coast, officials moved to eliminate each one from the sky — actions that Pentagon officials believe have no peacetime precedent.
“Because we have not been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are, we acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our security, our interests and flight safety,” Kirby said.
One possibility that the U.S. has been able to rule out is any connection to extraterrestrial activity, the White House said Monday, tamping down lighthearted public speculation about aliens and outer space.
“I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again, no — indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the outset of a press briefing.
Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, confirmed the latest incident at a weekend briefing.
Radar at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, better known as NORAD, first detected the airborne object at 4:45 p.m. Saturday when it was in Canadian airspace about 70 miles north of the U.S. border.
NORAD is a United States-Canada organization with the missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America.
Aerospace warning includes the detection, validation and warning of an attack against North America — whether by aircraft, missiles or space vehicles — through mutual support arrangements with other commands.
The object entered the airspace over Montana and drifted eastward before being taken down at 2:42 p.m. yesterday by a U.S. AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. Additionally, objects were shot down over Alaska and northwest Canada on Friday and Saturday.
"In light of the People's Republic of China balloon that we took Feb. 4, 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," Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said.
The object shot down Sunday had soared over sensitive Defense Department sites, and its altitude of about 20,000 feet posed a potential hazard to civilian aviation, DOD officials said.
VanHerck said an abundance of caution was used in the take-down to prevent potential collateral damage. DOD also worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to clear the airspace and the area was also checked for vessels.
Other Western nations are also trying to assess the spate of incidents. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday that the government would do “whatever it takes” to protect the country, as the U.K. announced a security review. And Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said “there is some sort of pattern” to the balloon and three other objects, though the U.S. has not echoed that claim.
None of the three most recent objects has been recovered, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters in Brussels, where he was scheduled to attend a NATO defense ministers meeting this week.
-The Associated Press contributed to this report