The Coordinator for Strategic Communications of the National Security Council John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House February 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Anger | Getty Images News | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – The White House on Monday defended its decision to shoot down three low-flying, aerial objects in the airspace of the US and Canada over the past three days, but said it had not yet determined what the objects were, who they were. own it or what they are. did.
Each of the three crafts was about the size of a small car, and was noticed floating in the air.
“We haven’t looked into what the latest stuff is,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said at a White House briefing.
“And although we have no specific reason to suspect that they are conducting any kind of surveillance, we cannot rule that out,” he added.
The first of the three crafts went down on Friday in US airspace off the coast of Alaska. It is cylindrical, the size of a small car and floats at about 40,000 feet in altitude, Kirby said, threatening civilian aircraft.
On Saturday, the US and Canada coordinated the use of American military jets to shoot down a second object, this time on land in the remote Canadian Yukon.
The craft is similar in size, shape and flight altitude to the one that was destroyed on Friday, Kirby said.
The third object was also about the size of a car, but it was octagonal and flew low, at approximately 20,000 feet. The object was shot on Sunday over Lake Huron, on the US-Canadian border.
Kirby said the sharp increase in the number of objects shot down in recent days is partly a result of increased radar sensitivity, which was implemented after the discovery of a large Chinese spy balloon. in late January.
The balloon was 200 feet tall and carried a cargo of surveillance equipment. Defense officials chose to let it float over the continental US for a week, before shooting it down on February 4 over waters off South Carolina.
“One of the reasons we’re seeing more, is because we’re looking for more,” Kirby said Monday, taking pains not to call the three latest floating objects “balloons.”
“We have to separate [the three recent objects] from the Chinese spy balloon,” he said. In the spy balloon situation, “we know what it is, we know where it’s going, we know what it’s doing.” This time, there are many questions, he said.
Efforts to salvage debris from these latest incidents have been hampered for now, Kirby said, by the terrain and freezing temperatures on the ground and in the deep waters of Lake Huron and the Arctic Ocean.
“We know that [Chinese] Surveillance balloons have crossed many countries on many continents around the world, including some of our closest allies and partners,” Kirby said.
“We also know that a variety of entities, including countries, companies, research and academic organizations operate objects at these heights for purposes that are not at all evil, including research in science,” he said.