The United States has been in a state of alarm since a huge white balloon from China was spotted tracking over a series of top secret nuclear weapons sites, before being shot down just off the east coast on February 4.
In the wake of the incident, the US military adjusted radar settings to detect smaller objects and promptly discovered three more unidentified craft that President Joe Biden ordered shot down -- one over Alaska, another over Canada and the third over Lake Huron off Michigan.
US authorities "haven't seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of (China's) spy balloon program or that they were definitely involved in external intelligence," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
With Congress, the media and the public speculating over everything from a coordinated Chinese spying offensive to aliens, officials are now stressing that the three new objects appear to be neither Chinese nor involved in spying.
Kirby said they "could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities and therefore benign."
That "could emerge as a leading explanation here," he said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged that the ownership of the three objects remains unknown but "we do want to make sure that the Americans, American people, understand that there's no need to panic."
Beijing denies it uses spy balloons and says the huge craft shot down off the coast February 4 was for weather research, while another spotted over South America was for pilot training.
On Monday, Chinese authorities upped the ante by accusing Washington of sending its own spy balloons over their territory -- something US officials deny.
The spat has already inflicted diplomatic damage between the rival superpowers, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceling a rare visit to Beijing.
- Complicated search -
Kirby stressed that China is running a "well funded, deliberate program" to use high-altitude, hard-to-detect balloons for spying on the United States and other countries.
But whether the three latest objects downed were part of that will not be definitively known until the debris is analyzed -- and that is taking more time than US authorities would like.
"It will certainly help us hone in on that if and when we can get the debris," Kirby said.
But due to "pretty tough" weather and geographical conditions in all three cases, "we're recognizing that it could be some time before we locate and recover the debris," Kirby said. "We haven't found them yet."
The next question will be how to calibrate the military's radar shield.
If the three destroyed objects turn out to have been private or otherwise non-hostile aircraft, then the Pentagon will have to decide whether it should be responding so aggressively after every sighting.
An inter-agency security review is underway, Kirby said, and in the meantime there's no reason to expect a similar rate of drama. "I never said there was some sort of blanket policy, that we're just going to shoot things out of the sky."
Asked if Biden had overreacted and should be embarrassed if the three objects shot down turn out to be something innocuous, like weather study balloons, Jean-Pierre said: "I don't think the president should be embarrassed by the fact that he took action to make sure that our airspace, civilian airspace, was safe."
US jets intercept Russian aircraft near Alaska
Washington (AFP) Feb 14, 2023 -
Two American F-16 warplanes intercepted four Russian aircraft near Alaska, the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said Tuesday.
The "routine" intercept of the Russian planes -- which included Tu-95 bomber and Su-35 fighter aircraft -- occurred Monday, NORAD said in a statement.
"Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace," it said, adding that such Russian activity "occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative."
While the intercept of the Russian aircraft was routine, US warplanes stationed in North America saw rare offensive action this month, shooting down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon and three unidentified objects.
Oops -- US jet pilot misses mystery object with first missile
Washington (AFP) Feb 14, 2023 -
It was more "oops" than "Top Gun" when a US fighter pilot roared up to fire a nearly half-million-dollar Sidewinder missile at a mysterious unarmed object in the sky over Lake Huron -- and missed.
US officials admit the would-be ace needed a second shot with one of the air-to-air missiles, which cost at least $400,000 a pop, when engaging the unidentified aerial object from an F-16 fighter Sunday above the sprawling lake on the US-Canada border.
"We're aware that the first missile fired, that the one on Sunday, missed and it has been reported to us that it went directly into the lake," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
Authorities are currently scouring the remote area for remnants of the eventually destroyed target, one of three unidentified aerial objects brought down in the space of three days.
That unprecedented spate of action followed an even higher profile downing of a large Chinese balloon over the Atlantic coast on February 4. Washington says that was part of a global Chinese spying program, but Beijing insists the craft was merely collecting weather data.
The AIM-9X Sidewinder is described by its manufacturer Raytheon as a "triple-threat missile that can be used for air-to-air engagements, surface-attack and surface-launch missions."
Top US commander, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, said the stray rocket "landed harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron."
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