The Biden administration downed a high-altitude “object” hovering at 40,000 feet over Alaska on Friday, the White House National Security Council said.
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) first detected the object on Thursday, according to the Pentagon. President Joe Biden was briefed Thursday evening on the “object” and gave the order to shoot it down Friday morning, officials said. Fighter jets subsequently took it down at about 1:45 p.m. ET.
The “predominant concern by the president was the safety of flight issue at that altitude,” as it could’ve “posed a threat to civilian aircraft,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said Friday afternoon.
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A couple of fighter aircraft surveilled the object on at least two different occasions on Thursday night and on Friday morning to obtain information such as whether the object was manned or unmanned, Kirby said. The object was about the size of a small car, did not appear to have any ability to maneuver itself, and flew at about 40,000 feet the entire time.
But the Pentagon declined Friday to definitively state that the latest “object” was not a balloon or a spying device. There’s no indication yet who is responsible for it, whether China or another nation.
Kirby said they “worked really hard to try to get as much information as they could” about the latest object given it was smaller in size than the spy balloon. “The capabilities on the fighter aircraft themselves, the speed at which they were flying—it was difficult for the pilots to glean a whole lot of information,” he said.
Recovery updates are underway for the “object” as of Friday afternoon, according to the Pentagon.
“We’re going to remain vigilant about our airspace, we’re going to remain vigilant about the skies over the United States,” Kirby said. “The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests and the safety and security of the American people as paramount.”
The takedown comes as the Biden administration is facing increasing pressure from lawmakers to secure American skies from potential foreign threats and surveillance. Just days ago, a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas after it was spotted drifting over Montana.
Tensions flared last week when the Pentagon first revealed that the spy balloon was flying over the continental United States. For days, it floated eastward, raising the ire of lawmakers who questioned whether the Biden administration should have shot it down immediately rather than let it collect any intelligence.
However, if it was shot down over land, there was a risk it could have caused “civilian injuries or deaths,” Department of Defense press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said last week.
Revelations have since emerged that China has been conducting a sweeping aerial surveillance program targeting 40 countries. It’s not the first time the U.S. has been a target of the program; three Chinese spy balloons flew over the U.S. during the Trump administration as well, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD, said last week.
The flights during the Trump administration were only recently discovered due to a “gap” in U.S. monitoring capabilities, VanHerck said.
The fiasco has brought China-U.S. relations to a low, the National Security Council said this week. It “has done nothing to help improve U.S.-China bilateral relationship,” Kirby acknowledged.
The Chinese government had claimed that the balloon was a civilian weather research device, and urged the Biden administration to respond calmly, calling the downing “unacceptable and irresponsible.”
The Biden administration canceled Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to China last weekend in response, and efforts by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to discuss the incident on a phone call with his Chinese counterpart were declined, according to Reuters.
