It is a new flying “object” detected in the United States. This “octagonal” object without a visible nacelle was detected above the State of Michigan, near Lake Huron, not far from the border with Canada. He was shot down on Sunday February 12 by an F-16 on the orders of US President Joe Biden.
This object flying at 6,000 meters did not pose a “military threat” to American soil, a senior administration official said on Sunday. Its route and its altitude could indeed have represented a risk for civil aviation, the Pentagon said.
This is a new suspicious intrusion in North America. Four objects, including one described by Washington as a Chinese spy balloon, were shot down over the United States or Canada in less than ten days. On Saturday February 11, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that an “unidentified object” flying over northwestern Canada was shot down as part of a joint operation between Washington and Ottawa. He was shot in the Yukon, about 160 km from the Canada-US border.
“We do not currently understand its use”
Planes from both countries were dispatched to the scene, and the firing of an AIM 9X missile from an American F-22 hit its target, said Justin Trudeau. US President Joe Biden had authorized the aircraft, one of the aircraft of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), to “work with Canada”, explained the spokesman of the Pentagon, Pat Ryder. The neutralization of the object was validated by Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau “out of concern for caution and on the recommendation of their armed forces”, said a press release from the White House.
Canadian forces “will now recover and analyze the debris of the object,” added the Canadian Prime Minister. The craft, which was flying at an altitude of about “40,000 feet” (12,200 meters), “had illegally entered Canadian airspace and posed a (possible) threat to the safety of civilian flight,” said to the press the Minister of National Defense of Canada, Anita Anand. Justin Trudeau traveled to the Yukon on Sunday evening, where authorities are working to recover the wreckage of the downed unidentified flying object.
Friday, February 10, Washington announced that it had shot down an “object” flying at high altitude over Alaska. “We don’t know who owns it, whether it’s a state or a company or an individual. […]. And we don’t currently understand its use,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
This “object”, which he said was “the size of a small car” and flew at an altitude of about 12,000 meters, posed “a threat to the safety of air traffic”, said John Kirby. Asked about it by reporters at the White House, Joe Biden said it “had been a success”. John Kirby clarified that this object was “much smaller” than the Chinese balloon that the United States destroyed on Saturday February 4, which was also flying at a higher altitude.
US air defense adjusts its radar systems
On February 2, the Pentagon announced that it was tracking a balloon flying at high altitude over United States territory. The Chinese balloon was about 60 meters high and carried a kind of huge basket weighing more than a ton, according to the Pentagon. Its size would be comparable to that of three buses. For Washington, no doubt, it was a Chinese spy balloon, which entered American territory several days ago. China replied: it was, according to Beijing, a civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological. On February 4, the US Army shot down the balloon off South Carolina.
In this context of tensions between Beijing and Washington, China assured this Monday, February 13 that American balloons had violated its airspace more than ten times since the beginning of 2022. “Only since last year, American balloons flew over (the territory of) China more than ten times without any authorization,” Chinese foreign affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.
According to specialists, American and Canadian intelligence continuously receive huge amounts of data and are particularly on the lookout for potential missiles, not slow objects like balloons.
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton said on Sunday that after the Chinese balloon was detected, US air defense adjusted its radar systems to be able to detect smaller, slower-moving objects.
The United States believes the balloon was controlled by the Chinese military and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents for espionage purposes. For some analysts, this could be the start of a major Chinese spy operation to map out foreign military capabilities, ahead of a possible rise in tensions around Taiwan in the years to come.