Washington, Beijing, Taipei The US military shot down another unidentified flying object on Sunday. The incident happened on Sunday over Lake Huron in the state of Michigan, the US Department of Defense said in Washington. President Joe Biden gave the order to shoot it down.
The object was traveling at an altitude of about six kilometers. The trajectory and altitude gave cause for concern that the object could pose a threat to civil aviation. Potential monitoring options for the property would also have posed a risk.
The Pentagon initially did not provide any information about where the missile came from and what it was aiming for. Mysterious flying objects over North America have been puzzling the United States and the world for days.
An F-16 fighter jet took the flying object out of the sky, the Pentagon said. The launch over the lake made it possible to avoid impacts on people on the ground and at the same time improve the chances of debris recovery. The North American Air Defense Command Norad discovered the flying object on Sunday morning and tracked it visually and by radar. The remains should now be recovered to learn more.
Fighter jets had already shot down two unidentified flying objects on Friday and Saturday: one off the coast of the US state of Alaska, the other over northern Canada. So far it is unclear what kind of objects they were, where they came from and what their goal was. The salvage of debris should also provide answers about the background in these cases.
A week earlier, the US Air Force had brought down a Chinese balloon suspected of being used for espionage purposes off the coast of the state of South Carolina. It was initially unclear whether there could be a connection between the incidents.
Reports of numerous Chinese balloons over Taiwan
According to a media report, dozens of Chinese military balloons have also entered Taiwanese airspace in recent years – far more than previously known. “They come very frequently, the last one just a few weeks ago,” said a senior Taiwanese official, according to the Financial Times on Monday. Another person said there were such overflights on average once a month.
So far, the Defense Ministry in Taipei had only confirmed one such incident a year ago involving a string of balloons over the north of the island. According to the US military, China has deployed a fleet of observation balloons. The monitoring program extends to more than 40 countries on five continents. After the launch of a suspected spy balloon from China a week ago, the US military destroyed three more unidentified flying objects over the US and Canada.
According to the Financial Times, the balloons over Taiwan normally only fly at an altitude of around six kilometers – much lower than the alleged Chinese spy balloon over the USA, which flew at 18 to 20 kilometers and thus above commercial air traffic. They are also made from a different material. However, based on their size and the equipment on board, they are not weather balloons that are allowed to fly into the airspace of other countries without prior approval.
Some would be operated by the Air Force, others by China’s Missile Forces. Taiwan keeps sending military planes into the air to watch them. The balloons collected atmospheric data for use in radar and missile systems, the Financial Times reported.
China and USA accuse each other of balloon overflights
The US government accuses China of wanting to spy on military installations with the observation balloon over the US. Beijing, on the other hand, spoke of a civilian research balloon that had gone off course and described the launch as an “overreaction”. The incident caused further tension in the already strained relationship between the two countries – also because the USA accuses China of operating a large international surveillance program with balloons of this type, with which they have targeted more than 40 countries on five continents.
China, in turn, accuses the United States of having flown at least ten US balloons over Chinese airspace since the beginning of 2022. This is reported by the Bloomberg news agency. Beijing initially did not provide any evidence for this.
According to official information, the flying objects over Alaska and Canada were traveling at an altitude of around twelve kilometers. Both are said to have been unmanned and had a “cylindrical shape”. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC on Sunday, citing the National Security Council, that the two objects shot down on Friday and Saturday are also believed to be balloons, “but much smaller than the first.” who came from China.
Missing information
The fact that the US military had to use force to take flying objects out of the sky for the fourth time in just a few days is causing increasing unrest. Republican Congressman Jack Bergmann of Michigan wrote on Twitter: “I applaud the decisive action taken by our fighter pilots.” But he also warned: “The American people deserve far more answers than we have.”
The lack of reliable information on the origin and background of the flying objects gives room for all kinds of conjectures. Democratic MP Jim Himes told NBC on Sunday that social media was wildly speculating about an alien invasion or further actions by the Chinese. That’s not helpful. Himes also demanded that more information was urgently needed.
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