U.S. downs unidentified object over Lake Huron, third destroyed since Chinese spy balloon

The U.S. military shot down an unidentified object flying above Michigan on Sunday, making it the fourth airborne object downed by American forces in just over a week.

At 2:42 p.m., an F-16 fighter jet fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to shoot down an “airborne object” flying roughly 20,000 feet off the ground in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron, Mich. President Joe Biden gave the order to take out the object based on the recommendations of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and military leadership, according to a Defense Department statement.

Although military officials did not assess it to be a “kinetic military threat to anything on the ground,” the object’s path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could pose a risk to civil aviation, the department said.

“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,” it said.

North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object on Sunday morning and tracked it visually and by radar throughout the day. There are no indications that any civilians were hurt or otherwise affected by the mission, according to the Defense Department.

“Today, a high-altitude object was detected in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron. NORAD launched Canadian and U.S. aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in U.S. airspace by U.S. aircraft,” Canada’s defense minister, Anita Anand, said in a statement. “We unequivocally support this action, and we’ll continue to work with the U.S. and NORAD to protect North America.”

Sunday’s episode comes on the heels of the U.S. military shooting down two other objects, one on Friday and another on Saturday, and follows by a little more than a week the downing of a large Chinese surveillance balloon off the Atlantic coast after it had drifted across the continental U.S. The string of events has led to a diplomatic crisis with Beijing, as well as political recriminations between Republicans and Democrats.

Two U.S. House members from Michigan, Republican Rep. Jack Bergman and Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, confirmed earlier on Sunday that pilots from the Air Force and National Guard took out the object above Lake Huron.

“We’ll know more about what this was in the coming days, but for now, be assured that all parties have been laser-focused on it from the moment it traversed our waters,” Slotkin said on Twitter. She added in a later tweet: “We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and its purpose.”

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) tweeted: “I’m glad the object was neutralized over Lake Huron and I’ll continue pressing DoD for transparency.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking after receiving a briefing from national security adviser Jake Sullivan on the objects from Friday and Saturday, said on Sunday that U.S. national security officials believed them to be balloons.

“They believe they were, yes, but much smaller than the — than the one — the first one,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week.” Both objects shot down this week flew at 40,000 feet, so “immediately it was determined” they posed a threat to commercial aircraft, which fly at the same level, Schumer said.

A Pentagon spokesperson wouldn’t go as far as Schumer on Sunday.

“These objects shot down on Friday and Saturday were objects and did not closely resemble the [People’s Republic of China] balloon,” Sabrina Singh said. “When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you.”

It’s unclear whether the Sunday object was a balloon or something else.

“As long as these things keep traversing the US and Canada, I’ll continue to ask for Congress to get a full briefing based on our exploitation of the wreckage,” Slotkin said in her Twitter thread.

Following criticism for moving too slowly in taking down the Chinese spy balloon that floated over the U.S. this month, the Biden administration downed an unidentified cylindrical object over Alaskan airspace on Friday, and — after discussion with Canada — shot down a separate object violating Canadian airspace Saturday.

Schumer continued to defend the Biden administration’s timing on shooting down the first balloon as a different situation. That balloon crossed North America before an F-22 downed it off the coast of the Carolinas.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week that the first balloon “was above where flight operations happen, and so any debris would have passed through national airspace.”

“We got enormous intelligence information from surveilling the balloon as it went over the United States,” Schumer said Sunday, adding that the U.S. would “probably be able to piece together” the entire balloon to learn more.

Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether China gained intelligence regardless, Schumer said, “They could have been getting it anyway, but we have to know what they’re doing.”

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called for an aggressive stance on taking down airborne objects on Sunday.

“I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive,” Turner said of the Biden administration, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we’re going to have to see whether or not this is just the administration trying to change headlines.”

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he had “real concerns about why the administration is not more forthcoming.”

“My guess is there’s not a lot of information out there yet to share,” Himes said.

While such objects “at times” have gone through U.S. airspace, the current scale is unprecedented, Turner said.

“It’s certainly a new, recent development that you have China being so aggressive in entering other countries’ airspace and doing so for clear intentions to spy, with very sophisticated equipment,” he said.

U.S. radar sensors have primarily been concerned with threats that don’t look like balloons, but may find more now that they’re looking out for them, Himes said.

Turner said the episodes spoke to a larger issue of airspace defense for the U.S., including “inadequate” radar and a lack of an integrated missile defense system.

“This is a turning point where we need to discuss — this is a threat, and how do we respond to it?” he said.