United States: In yet another such incident, the US fighter jets on Saturday (February 11) shot down an unidentified, unmanned high-altitude airborne object over northern Canada that had entered its airspace from Alaska. This comes a day after the US fighter jets had destroyed an "unknown object" flying off the remote northern coast of Alaska.
According to the White House, Saturday's development comes after a telephonic conversation between US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig Gen Pat Ryder said that the object was detected by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) over Alaska late Friday, February 10.
According to the White House, NORAD closely watched and monitored the object throughout the course of the last 24 hours, and the President's national security staff had been continuously updating him on its status.
President Biden ordered to shoot down the object
"Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down," the White House said, adding that Biden authorised US fighter aircraft assigned to NORAD to conduct the operation and a US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory in close coordination with Canadian authorities.
"The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin. President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau commended NORAD’s and US Northern Command's strong and effective partnership and agreed to continue their close coordination to detect, track, and defend our airspace," the White House added.
Following the Biden-Trudeau phone call, two F-22 aircraft from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska monitored the object over US airspace with the assistance of Alaska Air National Guard refuelling aircraft, tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object, Ryder said.
ALSO READ: After Chinese balloon, US military fighter jet shoots down 'unknown object' flying off Alaska coast
Canadian aircraft assess the object
Monitoring continued on Saturday as the object crossed into Canadian airspace, with Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joining the formation to further assess the object.
"A US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between US and Canadian authorities, to include a call today between Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III and Minister of Defence Anita Anand,” Ryder said.
ALSO READ: Balloon row: US blacklists 6 Chinese entities linked to Beijing's aerospace programmes
US shot down Chinese 'spy' balloon
Last week, the United States shot down a Chinese "spy balloon", around the size of "three buses", which was seen hovering over America's airspace.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman briefed diplomats from about 40 friendly nations, including India, Japan and Australia, over the surveillance balloon. The balloon was shot down on Saturday (February 4) off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. It had hovered over continental America for several days after entering the US airspace on January 30 in Montana.
China has acknowledged that the ballon was theirs but denied that it was for surveillance purposes rather for weather monitoring and that it had drifted off course. The US, however, has asserted that it has enough evidence to prove that this was a surveillance balloon. It accused China of intruding on its sovereignty and violating international laws.
(With inputs from AP)
