Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Saturday that, on his orders, a US warplane had shot down an “unidentified object” flying high over the Yukon. The claim comes days after the US government said it had shot down a Chinese spy balloon.
The news also comes just a day after White House spokesman John Kirby reported a similar incident on Friday. Kirby had mentioned that the United States shot down an unidentified object the size of a car over Alaska.
Kirby said he was shot down because he was flying at about 40,000 feet (13,000 meters) and posed a “reasonable threat” to the safety of civilian flights, not because he knew he was conducting surveillance.
Trudeau had posted about the joint operation on Twitter. “Ordered the shoot down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US planes were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired on the object.” he wrote.
These are the main points of this story.
– The North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined U.S.-Canada organization that provides shared defense of the two nations’ airspace, detected the high-flying object Friday night over Alaska, U.S. officials said. It crossed Canadian airspace on Saturday.
-Trudeau spoke with President Joe Biden, who also ordered the object to be torn down. Canadian and US aircraft operating as part of NORAD were scrambled and it was a US aircraft that shot down the object.
– “President Biden authorized US warplanes assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to work with Canada to shoot down a high-altitude aerial object over northern Canada today,” the Pentagon spokesman said. , Pat Ryder, in a statement.
One of two F-22 fighter jets monitoring the object fired an AIM 9X missile that shot it down, he said.
-This is the third unidentified flying object that F-22 fighter jets have taken out in a span of seven days. This also calls into question the growing threat to US airspace.
Trudeau said Canadian forces would recover the remains for study. The Yukon is the westernmost Canadian territory and one of the least populated parts of Canada.
-US Northern Command, recovery operations continued Saturday in the sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska.
-Northern Command said there were no new details about what the object was. He said Alaska Command and the Alaska National Guard, along with the FBI and local law enforcement, were conducting a search and recovery.
-On February 4, US officials shot down a large white balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
The balloon was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for “several years,” the Pentagon said.
The United States has said Chinese balloons have flown over dozens of countries on five continents in recent years, and it learned more about the balloon program after closely monitoring the downing near South Carolina.