Object Shot Down Over Great Lakes Flew Near ‘Sensitive’ US Military Sites: Pentagon

The Pentagon is seen from a flight taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Nov. 29, 2022. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Pentagon on Sunday night said that President Joe Biden acted on guidance from military officials to shoot down an object flying near Lake Huron, Michigan, and also confirmed that it transited near sensitive military sites.

The object—likely the same one that was picked up on radar in Montana on Saturday—flew “in proximity to sensitive [Department of Defense] sites,” the DOD confirmed in a statement. It was taken down by an F-16 fighter jet that fired an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile at it, officials said, while providing few details about what it might be.

“We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities,” the statement continued. “Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.”

“Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation. The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery,” the Pentagon’s statement also said. “There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected.”

On Sunday evening, a House lawmaker told Fox News that the object was “octagonal” in shape, which triggered widespread speculation on social media about what it might be. Alleged unnamed U.S. officials also told Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and other outlets that it had that shape.

During a news conference on Sunday evening, U.S. military and Department of Defense officials did not make mention of the shape of the object. They did say, however, that it’s not clear how the object was being kept in flight or what it used as a means of propulsion.

In response to questions from The Epoch Times about the shape of the object, a Pentagon spokesperson said that “we do not have anything to offer beyond” a transcript of Sunday’s news conference.

Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, the commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, was asked by reporters on Sunday about whether the Lake Huron object was extraterrestrial in origin.

“I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything,” VanHerck replied. “At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America, with an attempt to identify it,” he added.

U.S. F-16 fighter jets are seen in a file photo. South Korea Defense Ministry via AP

But another alleged Defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the military had not seen any evidence that the objects were extraterrestrial in origin.

Other Objects

Sunday’s downing of the object comes after U.S. military planes shot down two other objects on Friday and Saturday. One object was shot down by an F-22 Raptor in northern Alaska, above the Arctic Circle, while the other was shot down by a similar jet in Yukon Territory, Canada, located adjacent to Alaska.

Like the Lake Huron incident, few details about those objects have been provided by the Pentagon so far. There have been no updates about the recovery efforts for either as of Monday morning.

About a week before, a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down by an F-22 off the coast of South Carolina, coming after it transited over much of the continental United States. It was first reported on in the press when it entered airspace near Billings, Montana.

Some Republicans have criticized the White House over its handling of the incursion by the alleged Chinese spy balloon. They’ve said it should have been shot down much earlier, or even after it was detected in U.S. airspace.

Before the Lake Huron incident, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told ABC News on Sunday that White House officials believe the objects were smaller balloons. But the administration, responding to Schumer’s claims to Reuters, asserted that they “did not closely resemble” the Chinese balloon.

“We will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on,” a spokesperson told the outlet.

Meanwhile, recovery efforts for the objects that were downed in Alaska and the Yukon Territory will face severe weather conditions. Both areas are sparsely populated, experience brutally cold weather conditions, and get little sunlight during this time of the year.