The United States shot down a 'high-altitude object' over Alaska yesterday (Friday, February 10), the White House has announced.
The BBC reported that presidential spokesman John Kirby said the unmanned craft was "the size of a small car" - much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon downed last Saturday - and was over a sparsely populated area at the time.
President Joe Biden took the decision to shot down the object, which was of unknown origin, Mr Kirby said. He added that it was travelling at 40,000ft (12,000m) and posed a "reasonable threat" to civilian aircraft.
He said the object had fallen into US waters that are frozen, adding that its debris field was "much, much smaller" than the balloon shot down last week off the coast of South Carolina. "We do not know who owns it, whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned," Mr Kirby said.
The object was first spotted on Thursday night, and two fighter jets had approached the object and assessed there was nobody on board before Mr Biden made his decision. An F-22 jet based in Anchorage shot down the object with a sidewinder missile.
"We're going to remain vigilant about our airspace," Mr Kirby said. "The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests as paramount."
Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder confirmed that the object was downed at 1.45pm (6.45pm GMT). He said a significant amount of debris had been recovered so far. It was being loaded on to vessels and taken to "labs for subsequent analysis", he added.
Officials have not yet determined whether the object, which was travelling north-east, was involved in surveillance, and Mr Kirby corrected a reporter who referred to it as a balloon. He did not give an exact location but the Federal Aviation Administration said it had closed about 10 square miles of US airspace above Deadhorse, northern Alaska, before the F-22 fired.
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No other objects of a threatening nature have been identified above the US at this time, according to the White House. Mr Kirby said the object did not appear to have the same manoeuvrable capability as the Chinese balloon and seemed to be "virtually at the whim of the wind".
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