US fighter jets have shot down three objects, including a Chinese spy balloon and two unidentified objects, over the North American skies in the past one week. This includes the shooting down of an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada on Saturday.
On Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. This was preceded by a week-long Chinese spy balloon saga that drew the global spotlight and it was also taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.
The object was shot down by an AIM-9X missile from a US F-22 – the same missile was also used to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon on February 4, CNN reported.
Here’s a quick recap of what has happened so far:
On February 4, US military fighter jets shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern coast. The Pentagon said the balloon was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years”. It added that Chinese balloons have flown over dozens of countries across five continents in recent years.
The spy balloon was first spotted in the sky over Montana at first and travelled across the middle of the country. The US said the balloon carried high-tech equipment capable of collecting communications signals and other sensitive information. The US is confident that China’s military supported the surveillance balloon’s incursion into its airspace.
But China has maintained that the “airship” was used for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes. “China will continue to maintain communication with the US side to properly handle this accident,” it said.
The US military is still working to recover debris from the balloon from the ocean floor.
The already strained US-China ties soured further after US military troops shot down the spy balloon that hovered into US airspace. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week called off a visit to Beijing over the balloon fracas.
A US military fighter jet shot down an unknown object flying off the remote northern coast of Alaska on Friday on orders from President Joe Biden, White House officials said. The object was downed because it was flying at about 40,000 feet (13,000 meters) and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, the White House said.
The ‘car-sized’ object shot down by F22 jets appeared in the skies above US waters. The US military said on Saturday it still could not offer even basic details about the unidentified flying object it shot down off Alaska, Reuters reported. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there were stark differences between the ‘object’ shot down and the Chinese balloon downed six days ago.
However, not much is known about what the object was, where it came from and who owned it.
“The object was flying at 40,000 feet, which made it a risk to civilian traffic. That set it apart from the Chinese surveillance balloon, which was traveling well above commercial air traffic,” Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder was quoted by CNN as saying.
On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that an “unidentified object” was shot down by a US fighter jet over Canadian airspace on his orders.
US President Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau both approved the shoot down on Saturday, according to a statement from the White House.
“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau said on Twitter.
I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 11, 2023
Biden and Trudeau discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin.
Meanwhile, the US military also scrambled fighter jets in Montana to investigate a radar anomaly that triggered a brief federal closure of airspace.
