ALASKA: Just six days after the downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon, a US fighter jet shot down an unidentified object drifting high over Alaska on Friday, the White House said.
President Joe Biden ordered the shootdown, which was announced from the White House.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was unclear what the purpose or origin of the new object was, but said that it was taken down because, floating at 40,000 feet, it was a threat to civil aviation. “The president ordered the military to down the object,” Kirby said.
According to officials, the high altitude object did not have a satellite which would make it both smaller and likely less sophisticated than the suspected Chinese balloon shot down last weekend.
The Pentagon and the White House declined to give a detailed description of the latest object, saying only that it was far smaller than the Chinese balloon.
On Feb. 4, another U.S. F-22 fighter jet brought down what the U.S. government called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina following its week-long journey across the United States and portions of Canada. China’s government has said it was a civilian research vessel.