President Joe Biden ordered the US military to shoot down an object flying over Alaska, the White House said Friday, less than a week after fighter jets shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden ordered the US military to shoot down an object flying over Alaska, the White House said Friday, less than a week after fighter jets shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean.
“Out of an abundance of caution at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object and they did,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
The object was over US territorial waters, was flying at 40,000 feet, and “posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Kirby said.
The object was significantly smaller than the spy balloon downed last week – around the size of a small car, the White House said. The US does not know whether the object was state-owned or privately owned, but the Pentagon is hopeful it can recover the object because it fell onto waters that were frozen over.
There is no indication the object has self-propulsion or maneuver capabilities like the balloon downed last week, Kirby said.
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