US shoots down unidentified high-altitude aerial object in Alaska

A US fighter jet Friday shot down an object the size of a small car flying with payloads at a height of about 40000 feet off the northern coast of Alaska on the direction of President Joe Biden officials saidAccording to Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder the object whose origin is not known so far was first detected inside American airspace on Thursday It posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic he saidUS Northern Command is beginning recovery operations now Ryder said adding the F22 fighter jet deployed an AIM9X missile to take down the objectThis came almost a week after the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean It had hovered over continental America for several days after entering the US airspace on January 30 in MontanaChina has acknowledged that the balloon was theirs but denied that it was for surveillance purposes rather for weather monitoring and that it had drifted off courseAbout the unidentified object over Alaska Ryder told reporters at a news conference At the direction of the President of the United States fighter aircraft assigned to US Northern Command successfully took down a highaltitude airborne object off the northern coast of Alaska at 145 pm Eastern Standard Time today within US sovereign airspace over US territorial waterWe have no further details about the object at this time including any description of its capabilities purpose or originAlso Read Chinese spy balloons have targeted several countries including India ReportThe object was about the size of a small car not similar in size or shape to the highaltitude surveillance balloon that was taken down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4 he saidThe news of shooting down the unidentified object was first announced by the White HouseOut of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon President Biden ordered the military to down the object They did and it came inside our territorial waters Those waters right now are frozen but inside territorial airspace and over territorial waters National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters at the White HouseRyder said the recovery of the debris is taking place in a mix of ice and snowThe object was travelling northeasterly across Alaska A twoship flight of F35s conducted identification of the object he saidAn F22 out of Joint Base ElmendorfRichardson assigned to US Northern Command shot down the object with an AIM9X missile near Deadhorse Alaska Ryder saidAccording to him since the unidentified object posed a threat to civilian air traffic a decision was taken to shoot it downIn terms of the spy balloon downed a week ago we have learnt a lot about the Chinese surveillance highaltitude balloon programme he saidWe gathered a lot of information over the last couple of years Based on that we were able to detect it at a very early stage as it approached US air space and we had a good understanding of what it was We were able to monitor that closely while it went over the continental United States learn a lot about it and take it down at the appropriate time the Pentagon Press Secretary saidAlaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said that the unidentified object shot down on Friday raises serious national security concernsThis latest intrusion into our airspace raises serious questions about the White Houses decision to not shoot down a Chinese spy balloon last week when it was above the Aleutian Chain and prevent it from flying over important military sites in the Lower48 he saidSenator Mark Warner Chairman of the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said Glad to see the President act swiftly on this new intrusion to our airspace Im looking forward to more details becoming public as the recovery and investigation continueMeanwhile the US Northern Command continued its operation to recover the remains of the Chinese highaltitude surveillance balloon that was down off the coast of South CarolinaRecovery teams have mapped the debris field and are in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor Debris thats been recovered so far is being loaded onto vessels taken ashore catalogued and then moved onwards to labs for subsequent analysis Ryder saidHe noted that a significant amount of debris has been located so far that will prove helpful in understanding the balloon and its surveillance capabilitiesDue to less than favourable sea right now teams will continue to conduct underwater surveys and recovery as conditions permit The department wants to thank our interagency partners from the US Coast Guard the FBI and state and local authorities for their continuing assistance and partnership the Pentagon press secretary addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday 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