US officials on Friday revealed that an F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object flying high over Alaska.
Representational Image
This development comes a week after the military brought down a Chinese balloon that had flown across the United States.
A Sidewinder missile downed the latest craft, which was about the size of a small car, said US Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson.
Click Here: custom stamp die mould
“We don’t know who owns this object,” said White House spokesperson John Kirby, adding that it was unclear where it began its flight.
Jump To
President Biden ordered shootdown
President Joe Biden ordered the shootdown, which was announced from the White House.
AP
On Feb. 4, another US F-22 fighter jet brought down what the US government called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina following its week-long journey across the United States and portions of Canada.
China’s government has said it was a civilian research vessel.
Some lawmakers criticised the president for not shooting down the Chinese balloon sooner.
The US military had recommended waiting until it was over the ocean out of fear of injuries from falling debris.
Object was far smaller than Chinese balloon
The Pentagon and the White House declined to give a detailed description of the latest object, saying only that it was far smaller than the Chinese balloon.
AP
US officials declined to speculate about what the object might be, even after a day of observation, raising questions about what kind of object could be so challenging to identify by experienced US pilots and intelligence officials.
The Pentagon said it was first detected on Thursday using ground radars, and f-35 aircraft were then sent to investigate.
The UFO was flying at about 40,000 feet (12,190 meters) in a northeasterly direction, posing a risk to civilian air traffic.
The object was shot down off the coast of northeastern Alaska over frozen US territorial waters near the Canadian border.
Officials said it would be far easier to retrieve pieces of the object from the ice than it was with the Chinese balloon, pieces of which sank in the ocean when it was shot down.
Unidentified vessel was uncrewed
Ryder said American pilots who flew alongside the latest object before it was downed determined that no human was aboard. He added it was incapable of manoeuvring and did not resemble an airplane.
Ryder and other officials would not say whether it could simply be a weather balloon or another type of balloon.
Patrick Ryder/ Image by AFP
“It wasn’t an aircraft per se,” Ryder told a news briefing.
Asked why Biden’s authorisation was necessary, Ryder acknowledged that the US military commander overseeing North American airspace had the authority to shoot down objects that posed a military risk or risk to the American people.
“In this particular case, it was determined that this posed a reasonable threat to air traffic,” Ryder said.
Since the shootdown of the 200-foot-tall (60-meter-high) Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon, US officials have been scouring the ocean to recover debris and the undercarriage of electronic gadgetry.
Ryder told reporters “a significant” amount of the balloon had already been recovered or located.
(With inputs from Reuters)
For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.