The White House has announced that President Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot down an object that was flying over Alaska’s airspace.
According to John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, the object was flying at a height of 40,000 feet and posed a threat to the safety of civilian flights.
The Department of Defense had been tracking the object for the past 24 hours and out of caution, the President ordered the military to take down the object.
The object was taken down by fighter aircraft assigned to the US Northern Command and it was brought down within the territorial waters and airspace of the US.
Although the object was described as being much smaller than a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down last Saturday, it is still unknown who owns the object or what its purpose was. The US is referring to the object as simply an “object” for the time being and has not yet attributed it to China or any other entity.
Kirby said that they expect to recover the debris of the object, which fell on what they believe is frozen water. He hopes that a recovery effort will be successful and that they will be able to learn more about the object. He also emphasized that President Biden was involved in the decision and that it was made at the recommendation of the Pentagon leaders.
