The United States Military Shot Down Four 'Unidentified Flying Objects' over Our Airspace in A Week

Pentagon: "I'm not going to categorize them as balloons. We're calling them objects for a reason. [...] These are objects. I am not able to categorize how they stay aloft."

The United States Military, over the weekend, shot down a total of three unidentified flying objects over North American Airspace; one in Canada, one in Michigan, and one in Alaska. Previously, just days ago, the U.S. Military shot down an identified object in South Carolina, the Chinese Spy Balloon. The uptick in objects flying over our Airspace hasn't been reported in recent years. While the United States regularly intercepts Russian bombers near Alaska, we haven't shot down an object in our domain in the better part of a decade, or at least reported that we have.

The Chinese Spy Balloon was originally spotted in Alaska; it traveled through Montana and a handful of other states before it met its end in South Carolina, where the United States Military shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon. The balloon traveled over several military installations across the United States, had surveillance capabilities, carried a payload, and transmitted information back to China. The Biden administration allowed this spy craft to fly through our Airspace without recourse until it was off the coast of South Carolina, where an F-16 shot down the balloon. The one over our Airspace was made with Western parts and was part of a large-scale spy operation conducted by China. Last week it was reported that approximately 40 balloons were being tracked worldwide.

Questions were raised about why the Biden Administration allowed this object to fly over our Airspace. According to the U.S. military, they blocked transmission signals from the balloon. While doubt has been raised as to the response time of the Biden Administration, it would be made clear over the next several days that they made a mistake in allowing said object in our Airspace. Fast forward a week, and it seemed like UFOs were invading us. Then, over the weekend, whenever you scrolled Twitter or turned on the news, there was another report of an unidentified flying object in our Airspace. Two of which the military has no answers about how these objects could stay aloft.

On Thursday, the U.S. military was made aware of a "high-altitude object" in Alaskan Airspace. By Friday, the object was shot down by a pair of fighter jets that had previously been sent to investigate, according to a U.S. official. The object, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said during a White House press briefing, was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and "posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight." "We were able to get some fighter aircrafts up and around it before the order to shoot it down, and the pilots assessment was this was not manned," Kirby added. The president was first briefed Thursday night "as soon as the Pentagon had enough information," Kirby said, adding that at the recommendation of the Pentagon, Biden ordered the military "to down the object – and they did." An F-22 fighter jet from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska took down the object "at 1:45 p.m. eastern standard time today, within U.S. sovereign airspace over U.S. territorial water," Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Friday.

On Saturday, a "cylindrical" object, smaller than the Chinese Spy Balloon, was located over Canadian Airspace and was brought down by a joint operation from the United States military and Canada. Biden and Trudeau authorized the take-down of the object, a White House readout of a call between the two leaders said on Saturday. And according to the statement regarding the call, the leaders "discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin." A statement from Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the object shot down on Saturday was first noticed over Alaska on Friday evening. Two F-22 fighter jets "monitored the object" with the help of the Alaska Air National Guard, Ryder's statement said, "tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object." "Monitoring continued today as the object crossed into Canadian Airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to assess the object further. A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile," his statement added.

Then on Sunday, a US F-16 Fighter Jet shot down another object over Lake Heron near Michigan. Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the object was not assessed to be a military threat, but it was a flight hazard. "We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assessed it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more," Ryder said. "In light of the People's Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, 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 detected over the past week," Melissa Dalton, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs said, referring to a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina last weekend.

Four flying objects within a week, and as previously stated by Mellisa Dalton, we have yet to watch this altitude; therefore, in previous years, it is quite likely that we have had other objects go unnoticed. Furthermore, in recent years, there has yet to be a report of the United States downing' an object in our Airspace, according to the available information. In previous years we have intercepted two Russian reconnaissance aircraft while they were flying off the Alaskan coast in 2020, Fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson intercepted Russian reconnaissance planes three times in a week in 2022 in Airspace around Alaska, and in 2017, two F-22s were scrambled from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) to intercept a Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber that was approaching the coast of Alaska.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner told CNN that the Biden administration does appear "somewhat trigger-happy" in how it dealt with objects over the weekend after allowing the first spotted balloon to fly across the country. "What I think this shows, which is probably more important to our policy discussion here, is that we really have to declare that we're going to defend our Airspace. And then we need to invest," the Ohio Republican added. "This shows some of the problems and gaps that we have. We need to fill those as soon as possible because we certainly now ascertain there is a threat." Read More.