Object shot down near Lake Huron

The North American Aerospace Defense Command felt that taking gunshots at the objects shot down Saturday and Sunday, in an attempt to better preserve them for examination on the ground, was “unachievable,” in part due to the relatively small size of those objects.

VanHerck was also concerned for the safety of the pilots and anyone on the ground or on water.

“We have taken extreme caution to ensure that we limit potential collateral damage, so today, we worked closely with the FAA to clear out the airspace. I gave direction specifically to the pilots to use their visual acuity to check for mariners on the ground, airplanes in the air to clear with their radars as well. And when they were comfortable, that we can minimize collateral damage, they selected the best weapon today that was the AIM 9x (missile). And they took the shot,” VanHerck said.

US fighter jets shot down an airborne object over Lake Huron on Sunday and an unidentified object over northern Canada a day earlier.

The US military has not recovered the object shot down over Alaska on Friday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told reporters Sunday.

A US F-22 fighter jet shot down a "high-altitude object" over frozen Arctic Ocean waters near the Canadian border, about 10 miles off the north coast of Alaska.

The US military does not have new information on the country of origin or the physical or mechanical properties of the three objects downed over North America in the past three days, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told reporters Sunday. 

“I'm not able to categorize how they stay aloft. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. But clearly, they're -- they're able to stay aloft,” he added. 

VanHerck stressed that officials do not know the country of origin of the objects downed in recent days, distinguishing it from the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that the US military shot down off the coast of South Carolina last week.

“I would be hesitant and urge you not to attribute it to any specific country. We don't know,” VanHerck said.

Military officials believe the object shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday is likely the same object that was spotted over Montana on Saturday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said on Sunday.

VanHerck told reporters that the object shot down Sunday was first spotted around 4:45 ET on Saturday afternoon. He scrambled F-15 fighters and a KC-135 tanker to go investigate, and the object crossed into US airspace a few hours later, he said.

“We monitored the track of interest as it passed over Lake Michigan. We assessed that it was no threat, physical threat, military threat … to critical infrastructure. That's my assessment and continues to be today,” he added.

The object was shot down on Sunday, and recovery efforts with the US Coast Guard are ongoing, VenHerck said.

The recent “objects” shot down in North American airspace since Friday were taken down out of an “abundance of caution,” Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, told reporters Sunday. 

An airborne object was shot down Sunday near Lake Huron, marking the fourth time in roughly a week that US aircraft have shot something down in North American airspace. Dalton said high-altitude objects can be used by a range of companies, countries and research organizations for “purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research.” 

That was not the case, however, for China’s surveillance balloon that was shot down on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina.

“Because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, we have acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and interests,” Dalton said. “The spy balloon from the PRC was, of course, different in that we knew precisely what [it] was. These most recent objects do not pose a kinetic military threat, but their path in proximity to sensitive DoD sites and the altitude that they were flying could be a hazard to civilian aviation and thus raised concerns.”

Federal and state lawmakers in Michigan on Sunday recognized the US military's role in the takedown of an airborne object over Lake Huron earlier in the day.

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that an F-16 fighter jet shot down the airborne object over Lake Huron in the afternoon. 

Michigan's Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, also addressed the operation Sunday, tweeting, “Our national security and safety is always a top priority. I’ve been in contact with the federal government and our partners who were tracking an object near our airspace. I’m glad to report it has been swiftly, safely, and securely taken down."

The downed object marks the third one shot over North American airspace by the US military in as many days, and the fourth in just over a week.

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.

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.

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."

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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