US President Joe Biden ordered the downing of an unidentified object that flew over Alaska — less than a week after the military shot down a Chinese balloon that flew over the States.
This is reported by Reuters.
The main representative of the Pentagon, General Patrick Ryder, said that the Sidewinder missile knocked down an object the size of a small car.
“We donʼt know who owns this object,” White House spokesman John Kirby said, adding that it was also unclear where it began its flight.
The Pentagon and the White House declined to provide a detailed description of the object, saying only that it was much smaller than a Chinese balloon. The object was first detected on February 9 using ground-based radars. F-35 jets were then dispatched to investigate. The object was flying at an altitude of about 12,190 meters, creating a danger for civil air traffic.
The object was shot down off the coast of northeastern Alaska over frozen territorial waters of the United States near the Canadian border, it could not maneuver and did not look like an airplane. Officials said it would be much easier to retrieve parts of this object from the ice than parts of the Chinese balloon that sank in the ocean.
- On February 4, an American F-22 fighter jet shot down what the US government said was a Chinese reconnaissance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after a week-long flight over the United States and parts of Canada (hereʼs relevant photo). The Chinese government said it was a civilian research vessel.