US on ‘high alert’ tightens airspace control after ‘unidentified object’ shot down over Lake Huron

The Department of Defense (DOD) on Sunday attributed the rise in sightings and downings of unidentified flying objects to increased monitoring of US airspace and the strengthening of its radar systems.

Melissa Dalton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for the US Department of Defense, and General Glen VanHerke, head of the US Northern Command, held a press conference on Sunday evening, hours after a US fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron.

FILE: Air Force General Glen VanHerke, commander of US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, attends a hearing held by the House Armed Services Committee on March 1, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Vin McNamee/Getty Images)

The object, believed to be the same one monitored over Montana and controlled by the government the night before, was the fourth object shot down from the sky by US fighters in eight days, along with objects over Alaska and Canada and a suspected Chinese spy balloon. .

“In light of the People’s Republic of China balloon we filmed last Saturday, we took a closer look at our space at these altitudes, including beefing up our radar, which may at least partially explain the increase in the number of objects we detected above last week,” Dalton said.

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She said officials could not “conclusively assess” what the objects were, so they “acted out of great care to protect [U.S.] security and interest.

“These most recent objects did not pose a kinetic military threat, but their path and proximity to important US Department of Defense installations, as well as the altitude at which they flew, could pose a danger to civil aviation and, thus, caused concern,” Dalton said. .

US authorities have made it clear that they are constantly monitoring unknown radar signals and it is not unusual to close airspace as a precaution to assess them. But the unusually assertive response raised questions about whether such use of force was justified, especially as administration officials said the facilities posed little national security risk and the downings were purely precautionary.

Late evening moon over Lake Huron, Lake Huron, Michigan. (Getty images)

General VanHerck said NORAD detected a “radar contact” in Canada, about 70 miles north of the US border, around 4:45 pm ET Saturday.

When it became clear that it was an unknown object, NORAD took off F-15 fighter jets from Portland, Oregon, and a KC-135 tanker from Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington to investigate the object.

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The object crossed United States sovereign space around 6 p.m. EST, VanHerck said, but as the evening wore on, officials lost track. NORAD recorded “intermittent radar contact” in Montana a few hours later as it approached Wisconsin.

“Probably, but we haven’t confirmed that the trail we saw in Wisconsin was the same trail in Montana,” VanHerk said.

(Washington, DC) — FBI Special Agents assigned to the Evidence Response Team are processing materials recovered from a high-altitude balloon found off the coast of South Carolina. The material was processed and delivered to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. – FBI Photo (FBI)

The object was observed as it flew over the Great Lakes region of Michigan. When NORAD assessed that it was not a physical or military threat, officials shot down the object about 15 nautical miles east of the Upper Peninsula over Lake Huron.

Operations are underway with several agencies, including the Coast Guard, to collect the object’s remains and determine where it came from.

VanHerke said the US has tuned its radar so it can track slower targets. “With some adjustments, we were able to better classify the radar tracks,” he said, “and so I think you see them, plus there is increased anxiety to look for this information.”

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VenHerck has refused to classify recent downed objects as balloons.

“We call them objects for a reason. Of course, the event off the coast of South Carolina with a Chinese spy balloon, it was clearly a balloon,” he said. “These are objects. I can’t classify how they stay in the air. It could be a gas balloon inside a structure, or it could be some sort of propulsion system. But it is clear that they can stay in the air.”

In this photo provided by Chad Fish, a large hot air balloon drifts over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina, showing a fighter jet and its contrail below on Saturday, February 4th. (Chad Fish via AP)

He warned reporters not to attribute the objects to any particular country as officials wait to get their hands on the remains and conduct further evaluation and analysis of what they are.

VanHerk said that to his recollection, this was the first time in US history that NORAD or US Northern Command “took kinetic action against an airborne object.”

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When asked by a reporter if he ruled out the existence of aliens, VanHerke replied, “At this point, I’m not ruling anything out.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.