The United States has shot down a second “high-altitude airborne object” detected flying over Alaska on Friday.
President Biden reportedly ordered the military to “down”the object “out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Pentagon.”
“On Feb. 9, North American Aerospace Defense Command detected an object on ground radar and further investigated and identified the object using fighter aircraft,” said Department of Defense Press Secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder.
A recovery operation is currently underway conducted by United States Northern Command, according to Ryder who noted no further details were available regarding a description of the object’s capability, design, purpose or origin.
The Department of Defense (DOD) was tracking the “object,” which was reportedly flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet over Alaskan airspace in the “last 24-hours” and posed a “reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed during a White House briefing.
PENTAGON: “High-altitude object” shot down over Alaska is “not similar in size or shape” to Chinese spy balloon pic.twitter.com/yXq5tw0r6p
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 10, 2023
The “object” reportedly fell within United States territorial waters near Alaska, Kirby reported per the New York Post.
“It was much, much smaller than the spy balloon that we took down last Saturday. The way it was described to me was roughly the size of a small car, as opposed to a payload that was like two or three buses size … no significant payload, if you will.”
The “object,” unlike last week’s Chinese surveillance balloon, didn’t appear to have the same “maneuverable capability” and was traveling “virtually at the whim of the wind,” Kirby said, noting it was unclear if the “object” contained surveillance technology.
“We’re calling this an object, because that’s the best description we have right now. We do not know who owns it,” he continued. “We don’t understand the full purpose … We do expect to be able to recover the debris since it fell not only within our territorial space but on what we believe is frozen water.”
Congress and Americans alike criticized the Biden administration’s apparant slow reaction to combat last week’s surveillance balloon, though the criticism did not influence Friday’s swift move to down the “object,” according to Ryder.
“As an Alaskan, I am so angry. I want to use other words, but I’m not going to,” said Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski. “If you’re going to have Russia coming at you, if you’re going to have China coming at you, we know exactly how they come: They come up and they go over Alaska.”
The United States military initially decided against shooting the surveillance balloon down, citing fear of endangering bystanders in the vicinity of the balloon, CNN reported. However, on Saturday, the surveillance balloon was shot down by a United States fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina.
President Biden claimed he ordered to Pentagon to shoot the Chinese surveillance balloon down after he was briefed about its existence last Wednesday, according to CNN.
