Pentagon officials stated on Sunday (local time) that they have been analysing radar more closely since the sightings of unexplained objects and have been unable to determine what the most recent items are or how long they have been in the air.
In a press briefing, Air Force General Glen VanHerck, who safeguards US airspace as head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, said, “We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason.” He said that Pentagon does not know what keeps these “objects” aloft, unknown propulsion systems.
The military will try to recover the object downed over Lake Huron, which they said likely fell in Canadian waters, to learn more about it, VanHerck told reporters.
Pentagon and intelligence officials are trying to make sense of three unidentified flying objects over Alaska, Canada and Michigan that US fighter jets shot down with missiles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, an unidentified object was shot down over the Great Lakes region Sunday at the direction of President Joe Biden.
“Today at 2:42 p.m. ET, at the direction of President Biden, and based on the recommendations of Secretary Austin and military leadership, an F-16 fired an AIM9x to successfully shoot down an airborne object flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in US airspace over Lake Huron in the State of Michigan,” read North American Aerospace Defense Command statement.
The item was an octagon with threads dangling from it that did not appear to be transporting anything. On Sunday, it was shot down by US F-16 fighter planes while flying at 20,000 feet above Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was going to fly over Lake Huron when it was shot down.
According to VanHerck, military experts think the item shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday is most likely the same thing seen over Montana on Saturday.
He informed reporters that the item fired down on Sunday was initially seen at 4:45 p.m. ET on Saturday. He dispatched F-15 jets and a KC-135 tanker to investigate, and the item entered US airspace a few hours later, according to him.
“It’s likely, but we have not confirmed, that the track that we saw in Wisconsin was likely the same track in Montana,” VanHerck said.
“We monitored the track of interest as it passed over Lake Michigan. We assessed that it was no threat, physical threat, military threat … to critical infrastructure. That’s my assessment and continues to be today,” he added.
The operation marks the third day in a row that an unidentified object was shot down over North American airspace. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. On Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. Last weekend, a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.
Notably, the US military has not yet recovered the object shot down over Alaska on Friday. “We’re actively searching for that object right now. I’ve got a Navy P-8, which is surveilling the area, with helicopters as well. Once we locate that object, we’ll put an Arctic security package in there and begin the analysis and recovery, but we don’t have it right now,” VanHerck said.
He also said that the country of origin, shape or mechanics of the three latest objects downed cannot be confirmed.
“I would be hesitant and urge you not to attribute it to any specific country. We don’t know,” VanHerck said
