An F-16 fighter jet used a missile to bring down an unidentified object over Michigan’s Lake Huron on Saturday. Here, a Belgian F-16 is pictured taking part in NATO’s nuclear deterrence exercise in Belgium in October.
Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
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Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
An F-16 fighter jet used a missile to bring down an unidentified object over Michigan’s Lake Huron on Saturday. Here, a Belgian F-16 is pictured taking part in NATO’s nuclear deterrence exercise in Belgium in October.
Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
According to the Department of Defense, an unidentified object was shot down by US forces over Lake Huron. The object appears to be similar to the one discovered in Montana one day earlierofficials said.
The aerial object — flying about 20,000 feet above the lake’s surface — was shot down by an F-16 fighter jet on Sunday afternoon, at the direction of President Biden and based on the recommendation of military leadership. team, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. General Pat Ryder said in a statement.
The object’s path and altitude – which flew near sensitive DOD sites and could pose a risk to commercial aircraft – raised concern, the press secretary said.
“We do not assess it as a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it as a hazard to flight safety and a potential surveillance threat. of it,” Ryder said.
On Saturday, North American Aerospace Defense Command said it detected a “radar anomaly” over Havre, Mont., after an investigation of the aircraft into radar hits. The object that matched the blows could not be identified.
But on Sunday, Ryder said, officials could “reasonably” link the object that crashed that afternoon to a radar signal picked up over Montana based on its flight path and data.
“Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more,” Ryder said in the statement.
Earlier in the day, politicians from Michigan said they had contacted the Department of Defense about the object.
“The American people deserve more answers than we do,” Representative Jack Bergman tweeted.
The downing occurred after the shooting down of a cylindrical object by the US military in the Canadian territory of Yukon on Saturday, and the downing of “a high-altitude object” went off of the northern coast of Alaska on Friday. America also defeated one Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February.
Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, tell NPR All things Considered on Sunday that he is “very confident” that no unidentified object “is a threat to the national security of the United States.”
“I believe they are very unlikely to have surveillance capabilities like the downed Chinese hot air balloon,” Himes said. “And the reason I say that is because if they’re a threat, if they’re a military action, if they’re potentially dangerous, I’m pretty sure I’ve been informed of that.”
