A US warplane shot down a new flying “object” near the Canadian border on Sunday, the latest of three mysterious craft spotted since military radars were upgraded following the downing of a supposed Chinese spy balloon.
Concerned Americans watch the skies as mysterious incursions follow one another amid heightened tensions with China – although only the first object has been attributed to Beijing so far.
On Sunday, the Pentagon said it was unaware of the nature of the other three objects for the time being – one shot down Friday over Alaska, one Saturday over Canada’s Yukon Territory and the most recent Sunday over Lake Huron. which separates the US state of Michigan from the Canadian province of Ontario.
But he said the object shot down on Sunday had been tracked for almost a day and did not resemble the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was destroyed off the Atlantic coast on February 4 after crossing the country.
Although it was not considered a “military threat” to the ground, it was shot down by an F-16 because its course and altitude could have posed a risk to civil aviation, the report said. Pentagon.
This time it is an “octagonal” object with no visible nacelle, which flew at an altitude of about 6,000 meters in the state of Michigan, according to a senior administration official.
General Glen VanHerck, head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad), told reporters that after sending planes to inspect the latest object, they concluded there was no indication of any threat.
Declining to describe the shape or size of the objects, he nevertheless specified that they moved very slowly, at about the speed of the wind.
Speculation about the nature of these objects has increased in recent days.
“I’ll let intelligence and counterintelligence answer that question,” VanHerck told reporters when asked if it was possible the objects were extraterrestrials.
“I haven’t ruled anything out at this stage.”
The three objects downed since Friday were detected after US Air Defense adjusted radar settings to look for smaller, slower-moving objects, Deputy Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton said.
“In light of the People’s Republic of China balloon we shot down last Saturday, we have taken a closer look at our airspace at these altitudes, including strengthening our radar, which may explain, at least in part, the increase in the number of objects we have detected over the past week,” she told reporters.
She said authorities are aware of the fact that there are objects drifting at such altitudes operated in the air by research institutes and private companies.
“But since we had not been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, the President wanted to proceed with an excess of caution to protect our safety and our interests,” she added.
The United States believes that the first object officially detected, a balloon, was controlled by the Chinese military and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents, for the purpose of espionage .
The Chinese government assures that it was a civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.
On Sunday, US Deputy Defense Secretary Melissa Dalton said that “contacts have been made” with China about this first balloon, without specifying the nature.
This week, two other flying objects were shot down by American forces, one Friday over Alaska, the other Saturday in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is visiting the Yukon province on Sunday evening, where the third was shot down, while Washington and Ottawa are still busy collecting the remains of the devices.
These events have added to the tension between China and the United States, and a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been postponed.
Republican lawmaker Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of the US Congress, accused China on Sunday of an “act of belligerence” in connection with the balloon shot down on February 4.
The sending of this object “was done provocatively to gather intelligence and collect elements on our three major nuclear sites,” he said on CBS.
Republicans have strongly criticized Democratic President Joe Biden for letting the balloon hover over the country for days before shooting it down.
The Pentagon said it “continuously monitored and evaluated” it, which allowed it to learn “more about China’s spy capabilities and techniques”.
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer defended Biden’s handling of the case, telling the ABC on Sunday that an analysis of the debris would be “a big blow to the United States.”
The president, however, faces calls for more transparency from both parties.
“I have real concerns about why the administration is not communicating more,” Democrat Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC.
“The American people deserve a lot more answers than what we have,” Republican lawmaker Jack Bergman tweeted.
13/02/2023 07:46:17 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
