1 min agoPentagon confirms F-16 fighter jet shot down an airborne object over Lake HuronFrom CNN’s Haley Britzky
The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that an F-16 fighter jet shot down an airborne object over Lake Huron earlier in the day.
Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the object was not assessed to be a military threat, but it was a flight hazard.
“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. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more,” Ryder said in a statement.Ryder also said the object was the same one that radar detected on Saturday over Montana that caused airspace to briefly close Saturday evening.
“North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it. Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites,” he said.
22 min agoCanada ‘unequivocally supports’ shooting down the unidentified object, defense minister saysFrom CNN’s Paula Newton
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said Sunday her country supported the shooting down of an object over US airspace by US fighter jets near Lake Huron. The object was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when it was shot down.
“Today, a high-altitude object was detected in US airspace over Lake Huron,” Anand said. “NORAD launched Canadian and US aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in US. airspace by US aircraft.”
“We unequivocally support this action, and we’ll continue to work with the US and NORAD to protect North America,” she said.31 min agoHouse Intelligence chair says he prefers ‘trigger-happy’ approach with unidentified objectsFrom CNN’s Paul LeBlanc
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said Sunday he prefers how the US shot down unidentified objects over North American airspace in recent days to allowing them to traverse the country.
Later Sunday, a US fighter jet shot down an unidentified object near Lake Huron, marking the fourth time in a week that the US military has taken down objects in North American airspace. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, and on Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. A Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina last weekend.
“I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive, but we’re going to have to see whether or not this is just the administration trying to change headlines,” Turner, an Ohio Republican, said of the Biden administration in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” before Sunday’s shoot-down took place.
“What I think this shows, which is probably more important to our policy discussion here, is that we really have to declare that we’re going to defend our airspace. And then we need to invest,” added Turner. “This shows some of the problems and gaps that we have. We need to fill those as soon as possible because we certainly now ascertain there is a threat.”
There’s no indication at this point that the unidentified objects have any connection to China’s surveillance balloon but it seems that national security officials across the continent remain on edge.
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54 min agoObject was flying at 20,000 feet when shot down near Lake HuronFrom CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Arlette Saenz and Phil Mattingly
The object shot down Sunday by US fighter jets was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and about to go over Lake Huron when it was neutralized, a senior administration official told CNN.
The object was shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it and no discernible payload, according to the official and another source briefed on the matter. Although the United States has no indication that the object has surveillance capabilities, that has not been ruled out as yet.
The object was first detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the US Northern Command over Montana on Saturday night, and fighter aircraft were sent to investigate, the senior administration official said. At the time, those planes did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits, which led NORAD and NORTHCOM to believe it was an anomaly.
But on Sunday, defense officials reacquired the radar contact and detected the object flying over Wisconsin and then Michigan. The path of the object and its altitude raised concerns that it could pose a threat to civilian aircraft, but it did not pose a military threat to anyone on the ground, the official said. President Joe Biden ordered the object to be shot down.
CNN initially reported that the object was shot down over Lake Huron based on what sources said to CNN and a public tweet by Rep. Jack Bergman.
1 hr 3 min agoNORAD has readjusted its filters to better track slow-moving targetsFrom CNN’s Natasha Bertrand
One reason why additional “objects” have been detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in recent days could be because the command recently readjusted its filters to better spot slow-moving targets operating above a certain altitude, a source briefed on the matter told CNN.
The filters were only readjusted and broadened in the past week, the source said, after a high-altitude, suspected Chinese spy balloon transited the US and ignited a debate over the United States’ ability to detect and defend against any potentially threatening objects entering its airspace.
The Washington Post first reported on NORAD’s adjustment.
The US was able to track the spy balloon’s path before it entered US airspace — and ultimately shoot it down off the coast of South Carolina — in large part because the US intelligence community developed a method within the past year to track the balloons using a particular set of signals they emit, as CNN has previously reported.
But, in general, NORAD has tended to prioritize the detection of fast-moving targets below a certain altitude — at which threatening planes or certain missiles, for example, might fly.
The more narrow filters were meant to allow NORAD and defense officials to better make sense of the mass of data that was being collected on any particular day, the source said. If they didn’t filter out slow-moving objects, early warning air defense systems would pick up lots of noise, such as weather balloons and birds.
Two of the three objects shot down in the past three days– near Alaska and over northern Canada — were flying at around 40,000 feet, US and Canadian officials said, posing a potential risk to civilian aircraft. Both of the objects also appeared to feature a balloon, with a small metal cylinder underneath, officials said.
Very little is known so far about the third object shot down near Lake Huron on Sunday.
1 hr 15 min agoMichigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer: Michigan National Guard stands readyMichigan’s governor said Friday that the object was taken down “swiftly, safely and securely.”
34 min agoUS military shoots down high-altitude object over Lake Huron on SundayFrom CNN’s Oren Liebermann and Kylie Atwood
The Pentagon is seen November 29, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)The US military shot down another high-altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, according to a US official and a congressional source briefed on the matter.
Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan said Sunday that the operation to down the object over Lake Huron was carried out by pilots from the US Air Force and the National Guard.
“Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters. We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and it’s purpose,” she said in a tweet.
Republican Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan also confirmed the operation Sunday, tweeting, “The US military has decommissioned another ‘object’ over Lake Huron.”
“I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots,” he said.
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1 hr 34 min agoHere is what we know about the unidentified objects shot down over North AmericaFrom Haley Britzky,. CNN
A US official said Sunday there has been caution inside the Biden administration on the pilot descriptions of the unidentified objects shot down over the United States and Canada due to the circumstances in which the objects were viewed.
“These objects did not closely resemble and were much smaller than the PRC balloon and we will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” a National Security Council spokesperson said, referring to the suspected Chinese spy balloon.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh also noted the difference between the incidents.
“These objects shot down on Friday and Saturday were objects and did not closely resemble the PRC balloon. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you,” she said Sunday
Earlier Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC News that he was briefed on the object by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and that the object shot down over Canada was likely another balloon – as was the high-altitude object downed over Alaska on Friday.
On Saturday, Canada’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre, also made mention of a “balloon” when describing instructions given to the team that worked to take down the object.
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35 min agoFourth object shot down in a weekFrom Haley Britzky,. CNN
An unidentified object was shot down near Lake Huron Sunday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace.
An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. On Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22, and last weekend, a Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.
There’s no indication at this point that the unidentified objects have any connection to China’s surveillance balloon but it seems that national security officials across the continent remain on edge.
On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly restricted some airspace over Lake Michigan near Wisconsin for “national defense airspace.” The FAA made similar flight restrictions ahead of the operations to shoot down the spy balloon and the unidentified object over Alaska.
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