Interesting developments are taking place after the US hit a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic on February 4th. The US first announced on Friday that it had hit an unidentified object over Alaska. A day later, another unidentified object was hit over the Yukon, this time in Canadian airspace.
WHAT WAS KNOWN ABOUT THE FIRST BODY?
It was stated that the first unidentified object was the size of a car. An official told ABC News that the object was “cylindrical and silvery gray”, giving it a “balloon-like” floating appearance without “any thrust.”
Another Department of Defense official told the New York Times that the object disintegrated when it hit the frozen sea. According to CNN, the source stated that the pilots gave different reports of what they observed. Some pilots said the object “interfered with their sensors” on the planes, but not all pilots reported experiencing it. Some pilots also claimed that they saw no identifiable thrust on the object and could not explain how the object remained in the air despite cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet. A source briefed on the matter said the Pentagon’s inability to fully explain what the object was was partly due to contradictory eyewitness testimonies.
The objects were shot down by the US warplane F-22 with the AIM-9X Sidewinder.
WAS A BALLOON?
According to the BBC’s report, US Senator Chuck Schumer thinks that the objects hit were probably balloons. A spokesperson for the US Department of Defense said that the latter two objects “do not look like much” to the original balloon and are much smaller.
Now it’s 3
The US military dropped another high-altitude object over Lake Huron Sunday afternoon, CNN reported, citing a US official and a congressional source briefed on the matter.
The operation marks the third day in a row that an unidentified object was hit over North American airspace, as we mentioned above.
Earlier Sunday, Democratic Representative Elissa Slotkin of Michigan tweeted that she received a call from the Department of Defense saying that the US military was “extremely closely watching” an object above Lake Huron.
“I just got a call from @DeptofDefense – our military is watching the object over Lake Huron extremely closely,” Slotkin wrote in a tweet Sunday. “We’ll learn more about what that is in the coming days.”
In a recent tweet, Slotkin confirmed that the object was dropped.
The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and 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. 1/ https://t.co/LsjwtjntCv
— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) February 12, 2023
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE FIRST OBJECT SHOOTED:
The U.S. Northern Command said on Saturday that the commander had no new information to share about the object’s “capabilities, purpose or origin”, but noted that rescue efforts were affected by Arctic weather conditions “including cold wind, snow and limited daylight.” ”
Rescue operations for the object’s remains continued on Saturday in coordination with the FBI and local law enforcement, it said.
No visible link with the Chinese bubble
– Authorities have so far not shared any information that the object is related to the Chinese surveillance balloon, which was dropped last week and still has debris on the Atlantic Ocean floor.
– According to a US official, the object did not appear to have any surveillance equipment
SMALL THAN A CHINA BALLOON
Kirby said the object was “much, much smaller” than the Chinese spy balloon suspected to have been dropped off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday, describing it as “roughly the size of a small car”. The balloon, which was dropped last Saturday, was described by US officials as about the size of three buses.
DON’T KNOW WHO IT BELONGS TO
The US did not initially refer to the high-altitude object dropped near Alaska as a balloon and did not attribute it to China or any other entity.
“We call it an object because that’s the best definition we have at the moment. We don’t know who it belongs to. We don’t know if it belongs to a government or companies or private sector,” the statement said.
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