A United States Air Force F-22 shot down a suspicious object approaching Alaska through the air at high altitude, the White House reported Friday, without providing details of its origin. The order to demolish the property was given by President Joe Biden. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who made the announcement, said it was a smaller object than the Chinese balloon that was shot down last week.
“I can confirm that the Department of Defense has been tracking a high altitude object over Alaskan airspace for the past 24 hours,” Kirby said. “The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet (about 12,000 meters) and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flights. Out of caution and on the recommendation of the Pentagon, President [Joe] Biden ordered the military to shoot down the object, and they did so when it entered our territorial waters. Those waters are now frozen. But within territorial airspace and over territorial waters, fighter jets shot down the object in the last hour,” he added this Friday. The demolition occurred at 1:45 p.m. Washington time, 7:45 p.m. mainland Spain.
Kirby referenced a subsequent Pentagon press conference but provided a few more details. You can’t characterize the new object as a speech bubble (although you made a mistake calling it that a few times). It’s about the size of a small car, he said. At the moment there is no evidence that the new object has surveillance equipment or its own propulsion, he added. The Chinese balloon had a maneuverability that this object apparently did not have. It was unmanned, as a Luftwaffe fighter was able to determine on a flight prior to the demolition.
The main concern with this new object is the risk it posed to civilian flights, but it posed no military threat. The United States hopes to find the remains in the frozen waters of Alaska’s northeastern state near the Canadian border in the Arctic and analyze them to draw additional conclusions.
The risk to civilian flights has allowed Biden to order immediate intervention. “We will remain vigilant regarding our airspace,” Kirby said. “The President recognizes his primary obligation to protect our national security interests,” he added. The president received information about the object Thursday afternoon after two warplanes flew over it.
The Pentagon has provided little additional information about the object, referring to the recovery and analysis of the remains. He pointed out that the US Navy has already recovered a significant amount of debris from the Chinese balloon shot down last week and that it is being processed. The Pentagon spokesman has assured that they have learned a lot about the Chinese device and that they will be easier to spot in the future.
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The Chinese balloon incident has soured relations between Beijing and Washington. After the sighting, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken canceled a trip to China, where he was due to arrive last Sunday. And Biden warned during his State of the Union address Tuesday, “If China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country.”
China resists, claiming it was a civilian weather balloon with scientific research capabilities. The State Department responded Thursday that the balloon carried antennas capable of intercepting communications and solar panels large enough to generate electricity for sensors to gather information. He says the high-resolution images the Air Force took as the balloon flew across the United States last week showed equipment developed for intelligence purposes, not the kind used in weather balloons.
The State Department claims surveillance equipment from Beijing has flown over more than 40 countries on five continents. In addition, it is confirmed that the Chinese balloon was equipped with instruments that appeared to be able to intercept and geolocate communications signals, without specifying the type. As Blinken explained, the United States has shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through embassies.
In addition, Washington assures that the company that makes the balloon, whose name has not been released, has ties to the Chinese army and is considering taking action against the organizations linked to the intrusion into US airspace.
The Pentagon assures that four balloons have already flown over US territory, three during Donald Trump’s presidency and one with Biden’s, as part of a Chinese program that has been running for several years.
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