Following the appearance and destruction of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S. during the week preceding Feb. 4, multiple similar incidents involving unidentified aerial phenomena have been reported.
Another object was shot down by U.S. fighter jets over Deadhorse, Alaska on Feb. 10 at 9:45 pm local time. In a press release, White House spokesperson John Kirby described the object as roughly the size of a small car, floating at 40,000 feet, significantly lower than the Chinese surveillance balloon’s 65,000 feet.
Fighter jet pilots confirmed that the object was unmanned before it was shot down. Recovery helicopters were dispatched soon after the takedown to retrieve the wreckage, Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder said in a press conference. Kirby said that the Pentagon was not ready to determine the object’s nature, origin, or purpose.
“I want to stress again, we don’t know what entity owns this object. There’s no indication that it’s from a nation or an institution or an individual. We just don’t know. We don’t know who owns this object.” Kirby said. “We’re going to remain vigilant about the skies over the United States.”
On Feb. 11, another unidentified object was shot down by a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) military jet over Canada’s Yukon territory. NORAD first detected the object over Alaska on the evening of Feb. 10, and closely monitored it until it crossed into Canadian airspace the following day, according to Ryder.
“Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a tweet. “Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.”
“To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that a NORAD operation has downed an aerial object,” Canadian defense minister Anita Anand said at a press conference. “From all indications, this object is potentially similar to the one that was shot down off the coast of North Carolina, though smaller in size and cylindrical in nature.”
A third object was shot down by U.S. forces over Lake Huron on Feb. 12. This object was first detected over Havre, Montana on Feb. 12, according to a statement from NORAD. The object was downed at the direction of President Joe Biden, recommended by military leadership.
“We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities,” Ryder said.
Rep. Jim Himes, Congressman and ranking member of the U.S. House Intelligence committee, told NPR that he believes none of these objects represent a major threat to national security.
“I’m confident that they are very unlikely to have the kinds of surveillance capabilities that the Chinese balloon that was shot down had,” Himes said. “And the reason I say that is that if they were a threat, if they were a military action, if they had dangerous capabilities, I’m quite certain I would have been briefed on that.”