The actual nature and purpose of the airborne objects that have been shot down over the United States and Canada since Friday are unknown, according to U.S. military leaders who stated this on Sunday.
Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), said at a press briefing on Sunday that it’s unclear how the most recent objects stay aloft and move in comparison to a balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, described by officials as a spy aircraft.
“I’m not going to categorize them as balloons,” he said. “We’re calling them objects for a reason. I’m not able to categorize how they stay aloft.” After the briefing, a defense official added that there was “no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.”
When asked about that possibility earlier, VanHerck had declined to rule it out. “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” he said.
A senior administration official earlier on Sunday described the unidentified object that was shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off of it but no apparent payload. This was the fourth flying object to be downed over North American airspace in less than two weeks.
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The items that North American forces shot down on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were identical in size and shape, according to VanHerck. Fighter planes are moving at about 200 mph when eyes are focused on them, which is relatively fast compared to items that are aloft but otherwise practically immobile, he claimed, making it difficult to provide a more accurate description.
In contrast to the takedown of aircraft thought to be operated by the People’s Republic of China on February 4, those three remain a mystery, Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said at the briefing on Sunday.
“The spy balloon from the PRC was different in that we know precisely what it was,” she said. The Pentagon verified in a statement issued late Sunday afternoon that the most recent object was shot down at 2:42 p.m. at the height of around 20,000 feet by an F-16 fighter with an AIM9x missile.
The object’s course and altitude aroused worries about threats to civil aviation. Therefore, President Joe Biden issued the order based on the advice of military command. Although it was determined not to pose a military threat, the statement acknowledged it might have had surveillance capabilities.
Fighter aircraft were ordered to examine a radar-detected “anomaly” in the airspace over Montana on Saturday evening, according to NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command, but they could not see any objects.
VanHerck stated that the anomaly’s nightly repetition spurred military officials to formulate a strategy as it was tracked to Lake Huron that day. The general reported that it was destroyed in Lake Huron, roughly 15 nautical miles east of the Upper Peninsula, after receiving the all-clear to engage the target.
The Pentagon said in its statement Sunday that NORAD had been able to track the anomaly visually and via radar. “Based on its flight path and data, we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites,” it said.
The statement said that the location of the shootdown was chosen to minimize risks to people on the ground and improve the chances of recovering the debris. There were no indications any civilians were hurt or otherwise affected, it said.
