IRIA News

A high-altitude object was shot down near Lake Huron, making it the third time that the U.S. military has taken down such objects in North American airspace in just over a week.

The third airborne object was described as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off it. It was flying above the lake waters and posed a hazard to civil aviation, U.S. officials said.

The octagonal flying object was shot down by an F-16 fighter jet with a missile on February 12, following the direction of U.S. President Biden and based on the recommendations of military leadership. The teams are now working to recover the object and learn more about it.

The U.S. defense officials said that the object did not pose any “kinetic military threat” but was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the flying object on Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, at 2:42 p.m. ET, a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet fired an AIM9x short-range air-to-air missile and successfully shot down an airborne object flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron in the State of Michigan.

“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,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

Based on the object’s flight path and data, the U.S. experts connected this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to the Department of Defense sensitive sites.

On February 11, NORAD also released a statement confirming that it detected a radar anomaly and sent fighter jets to investigate the issue, however, the aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits.

First Unidentified “High-Altitude Object”

On February 10, the U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified “high-altitude object” flying over the Northern coast of Alaska. Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that the object was about the size of a small car, it wasn’t an aircraft and does not resemble in any way the surveillance balloon.

U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Ryder said “We have no further details about the object at this time, including any description of its capabilities, purpose, or origin,” however he stressed that the object was nothing like the Chinese balloon that the U.S. shot down off the coast of South Carolina earlier this week.

The first flying object was detected by U.S. ground radar on February 9 and the U.S. Air Force pilots ascertained the object was unmanned and no human was aboard after flying alongside the object before shooting it down using an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The object was “flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Ryder said.

Second Airborne Object

A day after the action over Alaska, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that another “unidentified object” emerged over Canadian airspace and had been shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on his orders. “Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau said on Twitter. The second flying object was “cylindrical”, according to Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand.

Following a call between the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States, President Biden authorized a U.S. F-22 fighter jet assigned to NORAD to shoot down the “high-altitude airborne object” over northern Canada using an AIM 9X missile, the Pentagon statement read.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as Canadian authorities are conducting recovery operations to learn more about the flying object.

NORAD Air Defense Exercise

Soon after intercepting unidentified flying objects, North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted live-fly air defense exercises off the coast of British Columbia, Washington state, and over waters of the coast of North Carolina.

During the exercise a number of U.S. and Canadian surveillance aircraft and fighter jets operated at high altitudes to test responses, systems, and equipment.

Although the NORAD Command statement highlighted that the exercises were not related to the operations conducted by NORARD and U.S. Northern Command to intercept airborne objects over Northern American territories, the NORAD Command conducted exercises using “a variety of scenarios, including airspace restriction violations, hijackings, and responding to unknown aircraft”.

The NORAD statement also stressed that “the defense of Canada and the United States is NORAD’s top priority and we are on alert 24/7/365”. The NORAD Command is further pacing efforts to enhance capabilities to identify and intercept “potential air threats to North America in the execution of its aerospace warning and aerospace control missions,” the statement added.

Another Unidentified Flying Object appeared in China

On February 12, Another unidentified flying object was detected near Rizhao in China, according to Chinese media.

According to China’s Global Times, Chinese maritime authorities in Shandong Province announced that they had detected an “unidentified flying object” in waters near the coastal city of Rizhao.

The local media reported that the Chinese authorities were also planning to shoot down the object and warned fishermen to be safe and clear the area.

An unidentified flying object was detected near Rizhao in China, according to Chinese media.

This comes after United States fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” flying high over northern Canada, a day after the US took a similar action over Alaska. pic.twitter.com/xnaSkdzNZV

— IRIA (@IRIA_Research) February 12, 2023