The US military shot down a fourth flying object on Sunday, a week after an F-22 fighter downed the Chinese spy balloon.
Following the announcement regarding the first, second, and third unidentified objects, US military officials have revealed the crash of a fourth high-altitude object on Feb. 12, 2023, that flew above Huron lake.
While the second mystery flyer was spotted over Alaska, the third was said to be tracked on Saturday, said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Officials are expecting to receive the fourth jet in order to find the sender, however, no collateral damage has been reported by far and probably there has been no such indication since the object was made crashed into Huron lake.
The Pentagon on Sunday added that “an F-16 successfully shot down an airborne flyer” by firing an AIM-9x, “flying approximately 20,000 ft above Lake Huron.”
As per the findings, the Pentagon disclosed that the altitude raised concerns among the officials as it had the potential to turn into a “hazard to civil aviation.”
Apparently, it is the fourth such operation to be discovered over North America in the last eight days, which makes it more vicious.
The three escapades came roughly after the US military downed a spy balloon, which is believed to be sent by the Chinese, off the coast of South Carolina. Thereafter, another was shot down over Canada’s Yukon over Alaska, and now over Michigan.
The decision to shoot down the latest unrecognized object was made after the US-Canadian military command jointly tracked a skeptical object, entering the American airspace, as detailed by the head of North American Aerospace Defense Command, General Glen VanHerck, (Norad).
Norad further identified the object over sensitive military sites in Montana. Coincidentally, the Chinese spy balloon was also recognized to have loitered above a noticeable site in Montana.
According to VanHerck, the three flyers, which Norad classified as “objects” were hard to be categorized as balloons. He stated that they were calling them objects for a specific reason when in reality, they are astounded by their ability to stay aloft.
VanHeruk asserts that the balloon which they found initially “could be a gaseous type of balloon” or “a type of propulsion system” attached structure.
It’s riveting how the words of VanHerck contradict what the Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer earlier unfolded before his announcement saying the national security advisor Jake Sullivan had notified him the US believed they were only balloons.
VanHerck on the other hand had clearly spoken about the balloons, saying all three of them traveled at a wind speed and he further added that the US and the Canadian authorities were still engaged in digging the roots of those objects, specifying that they were yet to find any lead determining their origin.
Although hesitant, he urged not to attribute the “balloons” to any nation before they find the origin. Also, VanHerck said it was relatively hard for the pilots, who were assigned to monitor the flyers, to identify them, considering the altitude and the much higher relative speeds they covered.
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The balloons are described as “much smaller” when compared to the Chinese spy balloon earlier tracked by the US military, said Sullivan and Schummer, something that was also agreed upon by the National Security Council spokesperson, who pronounced the two objects to have no close resemblance to the Chinese spy balloon, asserting they will not characterize them before the debris is recovered.
Apparently, President Joe Biden had instantly acted out of caution, since the object would feasibly be intimidating to civilian aviation, addressed Mellissa Dalton, the homeland security Pentagon official.
Dalton also held forth to the question when asked why Norad was recently detecting several potential threats together, saying their military had strengthened the scrutiny after the invasion of the Chinese spy balloon.
Currently, the radar has lowered the threshold in order to discover objects that may cross the American borders, which she said, “may explain why there have been more discoveries in the last few days.”
The string of unidentified objects found immediately after shooting down the Chinese air balloon has worsened the already drained US-China relations, adding more pressure on the Biden government, which is also responsible for ensuring civilian as well as national security.
In the meantime, one of the Democratic senators, Jon Tester, stated that whatever happened in the last few days was “nothing short of craziness” and asseverate that the military should have a proper plan to determine the danger that follows.
