By Katabella Roberts
February 13, 2023 Updated: February 13, 2023
A high altitude balloon
floats over Billings, Mont., on Feb. 1, 2023. (Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette
via AP)
The rise in the number of
high-altitude objects recently identified flying in U.S. airspace is due in
part to the government enhancing its radar systems, a top Pentagon official said on Sunday.
Melissa Dalton, assistant
secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, told
reporters in a briefing
on Sunday that
officials have been closely scrutinizing U.S. airspace ever since the
first Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down on Feb. 4 after
making its way across the United States and approaching
the Atlantic coast.
“In light of the People’s
Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more
closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our
radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we
detected over the past week,” Dalton said.
She added that the
Pentagon is also aware that a number of high-altitude objects can be used by a
range of companies, countries, and research organizations for “purposes that
are not nefarious, including legitimate research.”
With that being
said, Dalton noted that officials had not been able to definitively assess
or verify what the recent objects that were discovered flying over U.S. airspace
were being used for, and thus the government acted out of an “abundance of
caution” to protect national security.
4 Objects Shot Down in Recent Days
The Pentagon said on
Sunday that a U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down another airborne object
flying at approximately 20,000 feet over Lake Huron, bordered by Michigan,
earlier in the day at the direction of President Joe Biden.
According to officials,
the object flew over sensitive Department of Defense sites. An assessment found
that it was not a “kinetic military threat to anything on the ground” but was
a flight safety hazard.
“Its path and altitude
raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation,” the
Pentagon statement said.
Sunday’s downing of the
object marked the fourth such object in recent days to be shot down
over North American airspace. On Feb. 10 and 11, unidentified flying objects were shot down by U.S. jets over
Alaska and northern Canada.
Dalton reiterated the
Pentagon’s comments during Sunday’s briefing with reporters, noting that the
objects had flown in close proximity to sensitive sites across the country but
were deemed to be more of a hazard to civilian aviation than anything
else.
The pentagon official
added that the government is now “laser-focused” on confirming what the objects
were being used for.
Rep. Jack Bergman
(R-Mich.) described the latest object as having an “octagonal structure” in a
Feb. 12 interview with Fox News.
More Objects Possibly Flying Over US
Gen. Glen D. VanHerck,
commander of the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense
Command, told reporters during Sunday’s briefing that he is not
categorizing the three most recent objects as balloons until further studies
are conducted.
VanHerck said the latest
object was initially spotted in Canadian airspace on Saturday before it crossed
into the United States and was spotted over Montana, then Wisconsin
and Michigan.
However, he stopped short
of providing details regarding the exact shape of the latest object, noting
that due to its speed and the speed at which U.S. forces shot it down, this was
difficult to assess.
“What we’re seeing is
very, very small objects that produce a very, very low radar cross-section,” he
said, adding that the object is not yet being attributed to any particular
country until it can be fully recovered and studied.
When asked if there are
potentially more objects flying over the Uinted States, VanHerck said “it’s
certainly possible” but that he couldn’t confirm that at the time.
The Pentagon added that
officials are continuing to work to recover the latest downed object and coast
guard officials are aiding in the recovery process. VanHerck said that
object is currently in Lake Huron and most likely drifted into Canadian waters.
Dalton, meanwhile, said
the United States may be able to look back at “prior instances that were
potentially overlooked” following an analysis of the characteristics of the
latest downed balloons.
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