US military fighter jets shot down an octagonal object over Lake Huron on Sunday, the Pentagon said, the latest incident since a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon put North American security forces on high alert.
It was the fourth flying object to be shot down over North America by a US missile in just over a week.
US Air Force General Glenn VanHerk, who is tasked with protecting US airspace, told reporters that the military has not been able to identify what the three most recent objects are, how they stay up, or where they are. Coming from
“We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason,” said VanHerck, head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command.
When asked if he has ruled out outer space, VanHerck said that he has not ruled out anything yet.
“I’ll let the Intel community and the counterintelligence community figure it out,” he said.
Another defense official later said on condition of anonymity that the military had seen no evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial.
Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said in an official statement that a US F-16 fighter jet on the orders of President Joe Biden shot down the object over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border at 2:42 pm local time.
Although it was not a military threat, the object could potentially interfere with domestic air traffic because it was traveling at 20,000 feet (6,100 m), and could have surveillance capabilities, Ryder said.