Ex-Trump official on what the unidentified objects could be
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What we covered here
The US military shot down three unidentified aerial objects in North American airspace this weekend — one over Alaska, another over northern Canada and one over the Great Lakes region.
The objects were taken down out of an “abundance of caution,” and did not pose a threat to people on the ground, were not sending communication signals and were not manned, the White House said.
Our live coverage for the day has ended. Follow the latest news on the unidentified aerial objects here or read through the updates below.
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First missile shot at object Sunday over Lake Huron missed, sources say
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand, Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky
General Glen VanHerck, Commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images/FILE)
The first missile launched by an F-16 fighter jet at the object near Lake Huron, Michigan, on Sunday did not hit the target, three people briefed on the matter told CNN.
The Pentagon and White House had not previously disclosed that the first missile did not strike the target. But NORTHCOM and NORAD Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters on Sunday that acquiring and targeting the object was difficult because of its small size.
A radar-guided missile would have a “lower probability of success” because of the small size of the object, which also made it difficult to use the aircraft’s gun to shoot it down. “The pilots in each situation felt that that was really unachievable because of the size,” VanHerck said.
The pilots opted to use short-range AIM-9X Sidewinders, which are capable of seeing the heat contrast between an object and the surrounding area. But even so, the first missile failed to hit its target, sources said. It is not clear what happened to the missile.
CNN has reached out to the Pentagon for comment
Fox News was the first to report that the first missile missed.
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“Significant” portion of Chinese spy balloon wreckage has been recovered, defense official says
From CNN's Oren Liebermann
Sailors prepare material recovered in the Atlantic Ocean from a high-altitude balloon for transport to federal agents at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek on February 10.
(Petty Officer 1st Class Kris Lin/US Navy)
A “significant” portion of the wreckage of the Chinese spy balloon has been recovered in about 50 feet of water off the coast of South Carolina, according to a defense official.
A salvage ship equipped with a crane arrived in the area on Friday and began raising debris from the sea floor as weather permitted, including some of the structure of the payload carried under the balloon and the electronics.
The payload carried by the balloon weighed approximately 2,000 pounds and was the size of three school buses. The sensitive components will be handed over to the FBI for further investigation, according to the official.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Monday that crews have collected “a fair amount of debris” from the Chinese surveillance balloon. It was shot down last weekend on February 4.
The White House declined to place a timeline on further recovery efforts, especially given the variable weather conditions that have limited the ability of Navy divers to get in the water.
ABC was first to report on the progress of the balloon recovery efforts.
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Lawmakers frustrated over lack of information from Biden administration on unidentified objects
From CNN's Manu Raju, Jessica Dean, Nicky Robertson
Lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to divulge more information about the downed objects, saying they have received little so far.
“I think there ought to be more transparency — and I believe it can be offered in a way that protects national security and sources and methods,” Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday.
Sen. Gary Peters, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he spoke three times with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the weekend along with Pentagon officials. He said he learned nothing more than what has already been reported by the news media.
“We still have questions outstanding as to what we know,” he said. “We’ll be asking probing questions tomorrow when they come in a classified setting,” Peters added, noting his calls over the weekend were unclassified.
Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said he doesn’t believe there’s a protocol for how the US handles these objects and he plans to use the appropriations process to find out “what they knew, when they knew it and what the plan is.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Marco Rubio, a Republican, said he thinks “the communication disclosure has been poor” and called for President Joe Biden to address the unidentified objects.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney warned against getting “too excited” about balloons and unidentified objects when there are still so many questions about what they are.
“I think we get a little hyped up over objects that don’t quite understand what they are — balloons, weather balloons — and let’s find out what they are before we get too excited,” he said.
Another Republican, Sen. Todd Young, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said there’s “a lot more to learn” before assessing if the shooting down of the objects was handled properly.
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Virginia senators request more information on unidentified objects and say public should not be concerned
From CNN's Nicky Robertson and Ali Zaslav
Sens. Tim Kaine, left, and Mark Warner talk while departing from an intelligence briefing on the Chinese spy balloon on February 9.
(Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats from Virginia, have each given their take on the unidentified objects shot down over North American air space this week.
Warner, the Senate Intelligence Committee chair, said he is hopeful he will get more information in Tuesday’s classified briefing on objects.
Warner said he has questions about how objects are identified.
“I’m trying to get an answer about whether there is an appropriate notification system,” Warner said about the unidentified objects,” he said.
When asked if President Joe Biden should address the public on the unidentified objects, Warner said, “let’s get through tomorrow.”
Kaine, who sits on the armed services and foreign relations committees, said he doesn’t think Americans should be worried in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon and unknown flying objects.
Asked how concerned should Americans be in terms of the threat level, Kaine said, “these are not posing dangers to civilians. Now they would have posed dangers to civilian aircraft, and that’s why they were taken down … We got to get answers, but I mean, I’m not frightened for America.”
Kaine said he is supportive, so far, of the Biden administration’s response: “They’ve been doing a good job so far, but I do have a lot of questions.”
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Pentagon memo says object shot down over Canada was a "small, metallic balloon"
From CNN's Zachary Cohen and Jeremy Herb
The unidentified flying object shot down in Canadian airspace on Saturday appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” according to a Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Monday and obtained by CNN.
The memo offers the first official details of one of the three objects shot down in recent days that was previously described as a “cylindrical object.” The object crossed near “US sensitive sites” before it was shot down, the memo said.
Defense officials also wrote that the object shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday, “subsequently slowly descended” into the water after impact.
The new details in the memo come as lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pressing to gain a better understanding of why the Biden administration shot down three unidentified objects in three days following the takedown of the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the US the previous weekend.
A US official told CNN this past weekend there has been caution inside the administration on the pilot descriptions of the unidentified objects due to the circumstances in which the objects were viewed.
The memo said the object shot down over Alaska on Friday was the “size of a small car” and not similar to the Chinese balloon shot off the coast of South Carolina.
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John Bolton, national security adviser under Trump, will be briefed on China surveillance Wednesday
From CNN's Kaitlan Collins
In this August 2022 photo, former National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks at a panel hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran – U.S. Representative Office (NCRI-US) at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, DC.
(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
John Bolton, who served as former President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, will be briefed by the Biden administration about Chinese surveillance balloons on Wednesday, CNN is told. The briefing is expected to be conducted by the office of the director of national intelligence.
Former Trump Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and Trump’s other former national security adviser Robert O’Brien were also offered to be briefed Wednesday, but it remains to be seen if they will accept, according to a source.
Former Pentagon chief Mark Esper was also offered a briefing that day but is working on scheduling one for a different date.
This comes after Biden officials said that they would contact some former Trump officials about briefings after the US downed a Chinese surveillance balloon and had learned that China had also sent spy balloons into US airspace while they were in office.
Some context: On Monday, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said the asset was part of the People’s Republic of China high-altitude balloon program for intelligence gathering.
Kirby said the Chinese balloon program was operating during the Trump administration, but the objects were not detected then.
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Schumer says senators only have "preliminary details" on unidentified objects
From CNN's Ali Zaslav
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
(Senate TV)
Senators “only have preliminary details” about the unidentified objects shot down over North American airspace over the weekend, according to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but more information is expected to be shared with lawmakers at a briefing Tuesday.
Schumer, in remarks on the Senate floor Monday, commended President Joe Biden and the service members “who acted quickly to shoot these objects down before they dangered American aircraft or civilians.”
The New York Democrat added that Congress plans to conduct a “bipartisan examination” into the objects, including the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down last week. He also said he hopes to also figure out why the US didn’t detect these assets sooner.
The Tuesday briefing is in addition to the scheduled full-Senate classified briefing on China on Wednesday, Schumer said.
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House intelligence chairman says lack of briefing on unidentified objects is "absolutely frustrating"
From CNN's Nicky Robertson
House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner called the lack of an administration briefing on the unidentified objects shot down last week over North American airspace “absolutely frustrating.”
“We’re the committee that is supposed to be receiving the intelligence that’s being generated, the notifications from the administration to Congress that are official about these types of threats, and we’re not hearing anything,” Turner said in an interview on Fox News.
There was a classified briefing for all House members last week on the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over US waters the previous weekend.
Since then, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace on Friday. Another object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, and a third over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, the Pentagon said.
Turner said he feels that the “administration is not being forthcoming with Congress,” claiming that members on both sides of the aisle feel that way.
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US still working to recover debris from unidentified objects that were shot down, defense secretary says
From CNN's Haley Britzky
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that the US is still working to recover debris from three unidentified objects shot down in North American airspace over the weekend.
Recovery efforts so far: Austin said Monday that crews have collected “a fair amount of debris” from a Chinese surveillance balloon shot down on Feb. 4, but weather has impacted the search for one object’s debris in Alaska.
Near Lake Huron, Austin said, US Northern Command, the US Coast Guard, and the FBI are ”beginning operations to locate debris in close partnership with the Canadians.”
Austin emphasized that the three objects shot down over the weekend “are very different” from what the US saw traverse the country last week.
“I want to be clear the three objects taken down this weekend are very different from what we were talking about last week,” he said. “We knew exactly what that was — a (People’s Republic of China) PRC surveillance balloon.”
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Defending Canada's sovereignty "has rarely been as important as it is now," prime minister says
From CNN’s Paula Newton and Tanika Gray
Defending Canada’s territorial integrity and sovereignty “has rarely been as important as it is now,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday, speaking about the aerial objects appearing in North American airspace over the last week.
An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects.
“I think obviously there is some sort of pattern in there,” Trudeau added. “The fact that we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest and close attention, which is exactly what we’re doing”
The prime minister said Canada has sent resources to help recover the object and is working with other countries to get more information and solutions.
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State Department official denies US has flown surveillance balloons over China: "None. Zero. Period."
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman speaks during a trilateral press availability with Japanese Vice Minister Mori Takeo and Republic of Korea First Vice Minister Cho Hyundong at the Department of the State in Washington, DC, on February 13.
(Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman denied claims from Beijing that the United States has flown surveillance balloons over China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday that the US has “illegally” flown high-altitude balloons into China’s sovereign airspace without Beijing’s consent “more than ten times” since Jan. 2022.
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Blinken and China's top diplomat expected to attend security conference this weekend
From CNN's Jennifer Hansler
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi are both expected to attend the Munich Security Conference this weekend, presenting the opportunity for the two to meet for the first time since the US downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that entered American airspace.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Monday she was aware of a report of a potential meeting in Munich, Germany, “but I have nothing to announce today.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Monday that there are no current plans for Blinken to meet with any Chinese officials in Munich, but he did not explicitly rule out the possibility and said the US is “always assessing options for diplomacy.”
US secretaries of state typically attend the annual meeting, Price did not explicitly confirm that Blinken will travel to the annual summit, saying, “We’ll have an opportunity to speak to Secretary Blinken’s potential travel” at a later date.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin confirmed Wang’s attendance at the conference but did not mention any potential meeting with Blinken.
US-China tensions: Blinken called off a planned trip to Beijing at the beginning of February due to the presence of the surveillance balloon in US airspace.
Blinken said he spoke to Wang the day the trip was postponed — and the day before the balloon was shot down — to inform him of the trip’s postponement and tell him that the presence of the balloon was “a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law,” “an irresponsible act, and that the PRC’s decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”
There have been some conversations between US and Chinese officials since the surveillance balloon was shot down. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Washington both lodged “stern representations” with US officials, which US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson described as Beijing “scrambling to do damage control, rather than credibly address their intrusion into our airspace.”
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White House: Biden wasn't motivated by political pressures when he ordered downing of high-altitude objects
From CNN's Maegan Vazquez
The White House on Monday denied that President Joe Biden’s recent swift actions to take down high-altitude objects hovering over the American and North American airspace were the result of political pressure, following earlier critiques that he waited too long to make the call to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
The US, Kirby argued, is “using established protocols to engage… aircraft in the air that can be legitimately brought down.”
While other options were considered to take down the objects, including gunfire, the use of air-to-air missiles was determined to be “the safest, most effective” way.
Kirby, however, did not rule out changes to the threshold for escalation in the future, saying that is something officials are still evaluating as they learn more about the objects.
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National security adviser will lead new "interagency team" to study unidentified aerial objects
From CNN's DJ Judd
In this September 2022 photo, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan talks to reporters during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden has tapped National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to lead “an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks,” national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday.
The group — which includes Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines — is tasked with engaging “their relevant counterparts to share information and to try to gain their perspectives as well,” while the administration will brief members of Congress and local officials in the meantime, Kirby said.
Kirby, who is the White House national security coordinator for strategic communications, also said none of the three most recent objects shot down posed a threat to people on the ground, were not sending communications signals, showed no signs of “maneuvering or had any propulsion capabilities,” and were not manned.
All three missions to shoot them down were completed “successfully and safely” and recovery efforts are underway, though the administration acknowledged all three objects were shot down “in pretty remote terrain — ice and wilderness,” which have complicated reconnaissance efforts.
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US officials provide new details on downed objects, including that 2 of them may have some sort of payload
From CNN's Oren Liebermann, MJ Lee, Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand and Kevin Liptak
United States officials are revealing new details about the objects that were shot down in the last few days.
The US military shot down a high-altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, the Pentagon said. Another unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, and on Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace.
All three objects looked different, according to two US officials. One official said they were approximately the same size.
Multiple officials said the objects shot down in Alaska and over Canada were believed to have had payloads, meaning that something is being carried by the object. Two officials said none of the three objects were believed to have had propulsion, though the wreckage still needs to be examined to be sure.
Here’s what we now know about the objects:
Off the coast of northern Alaska: It was described as a metallic object that broke into several pieces when it impacted the sea ice, according to multiple US officials. That suggests it may have had some sort of structure to it, but officials won’t know for sure until the object is recovered.
Over Lake Huron: CNN reported on Sunday that the most recent object shot down over Lake Huron was “octagonal” in shape with strings hanging off and no discernible payload, according to a senior administration official. It was traveling at 20,000 feet when it was shot down, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Over northern Canada: The object shot down over the Yukon territory in Canada appeared to be a balloon with a metal payload hanging underneath, according to the officials. The object was also traveling at 40,000 feet, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand said on Saturday. She went on to describe the object as a “cylindrical object” smaller than the Chinese surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina one week earlier.
The preliminary descriptions of the objects’ appearances underscore the difficulty for administration officials in identifying their purpose or origin. Officials have been at a loss to say what the objects could be, and the preliminary descriptions have not lent any more clarity.
Officials have taken pains to distinguish the three objects shot down over the last three days and the Chinese balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. The three later objects were all smaller in size and flying at a much lower altitude.
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White House: Enhanced radar capabilities may partially explain increase of detected objects in US airspace
National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby.
(Pool)
The White House said Monday that recent “enhanced radar capabilities” may partially explain why more objects have been detected in the US airspace.
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, explained during a White House press briefing that since the Chinese balloon program’s “recent incursion into our airspace the United States and Canada — through (North American Aerospace Command) NORAD — have been more closely scrutinizing that airspace, including enhancing our radar capabilities.”
The White House official said that it’s difficult for radar to pick up small objects, including one the size of the Chinese balloon on radar and that there are also non-military objects that are used in US airspace for scientific purposes.
On the objects that were shot down over the weekend Kirby added, “Because we have not been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are, we acted out of an abundance of caution to protect the security, our security, our interests, and flight safety.”
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White House makes clear there's no indication downed objects are "of aliens or extraterrestrial activity"
From CNN's Betsy Klein
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
(Pool)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre kicked off Monday’s press briefing by clarifying that the US is not concerned about alien or extraterrestrial life as it pertains to the takedown of multiple airborne objects in recent days.
She added, “I wanted to make sure that the American people knew that all of you knew that. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it,” prompting laughter from reporters in the briefing room.
She joked that she “loved ET, the movie,” before handing the podium to National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby.
The US is still working to determine the nature and purpose of flying objects that have recently been downed.
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Chinese spy balloon was part of larger intelligence-gathering program, White House says
A jet flies by a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floats off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina on February 4, 2023.
(Randall Hill/Reuters)
National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over United States airspace last week provided “limited” intelligence to China.
He said the craft was part of the People’s Republic of China high-altitude balloon program for intelligence gathering.
“But in the future, if the PRC continues to advance this technology, it certainly could become more valuable to them,” he added.
Kirby said the Chinese balloon program was operating during the Trump administration, but the objects were not detected then. Moving forward, the US is working to better understand and track these intelligence assets.
Kirby said efforts are underway to recover debris from the trio of smaller, lower high-altitude objects shot down off the coast of Alaska, over Canada, and over Lake Huron over the weekend, which, in contrast with last weekend’s Chinese surveillance balloon, were flying low enough to pose a threat to civilian air traffic.
“We are laser focused on confirming their nature and purpose, including through intensive efforts to collect debris in the remote locations where they have fallen,” Kirby said.
“In each instance, we have followed the same basic course — we assessed whether they posed any kinetic threat to people on the ground– they did not. We assessed whether they were sending any communication signals — we detected none. We looked to see whether they were maneuvering or had any propulsion capabilities —we saw no signs of that. And we made sure to determine whether or not they were manned or not.”
All three missions were completed “successfully and safely,” and recovery efforts are underway, though the administration acknowledged all three objects were shot down “in pretty remote terrain—ice and wilderness,” which have complicated reconnaissance efforts.
CNN’s DJ Judd contributed reporting to this post.
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NOW: White House holds press briefing
From CNN staff
National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby.
(Pool)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is holding a press briefing alongside John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications.
Kirby’s appearance during the briefing comes a day after the Pentagon said a US F-16 fighter jet shot down another airborne object overLake Huron at the direction of President Joe Biden, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have urged the Biden administration to provide more details about the objects. All senators will get a classified briefing Wednesday on China, according to a Senate aide.
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Sen. Schumer says intelligence agencies are "getting new evidence every hour" on suspected spy balloon
From CNN's Ali Zaslav
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that intelligence agencies are “getting new evidence every hour” on the suspected Chinese spy balloon as they examine pieces of it that were collected.
In an interview on “The View” on Monday morning, he added that senators will learn a lot more information at their all-Senate briefing on Wednesday.
Schumer said the US military and intelligence agencies are “focused like a laser” on figuring out what happened and coming up with a plan to deal with this particular balloon and any other assets in the future.
Schumer reiterated he’s supportive of a bipartisan Senate investigation into “why we didn’t know” about the balloons sooner.
