Over the weekend, as US fighter jets shot down more suspicious objects flying above North America, officials tried to figure out what they were doing in the sky in the first place — and how far China has taken its aerial surveillance programme.
On Sunday, attack planes blasted an object flying over Lake Huron, which is located on the US-Canada border. An object was shot down over the Yukon on Saturday, and another was shot down off the coast of Alaska on Friday.
According to Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the strike was carried out by Air Force and National Guard pilots on Sunday (D-Mich.).
“Great work by all who carried out this mission, both in the air and at headquarters,” she said on Twitter. “We’re all curious about what this object was and what it served.”
The actions followed the United States’ downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month, prompting harsh words from Washington and denials from Beijing.
As of Sunday, officials had yet to link the latest flying objects to China, as workers attempted to recover debris from the blast sites.
“The military and… intelligence are laser-focused on, first, gathering and accumulating information, then coming up with a comprehensive analysis of what happened before, what’s happening now, and what could happen in the future,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The recent flood of balloon headlines has caught lawmakers off guard.
The discovery of Chinese balloons during the Trump administration was revealed in the aftermath of the first incident. Those incursions were not immediately detected, according to Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of the Pentagon’s Northern Command, last week.
“It’s unbelievable that we didn’t know,” Schumer said. “They’re learning a lot more now.”
Some Republicans initially chastised President Biden for taking several days to launch the first balloon. The White House said it had to wait until the object had flown across the country and the debris would not endanger people below.
“I’d rather they be trigger-happy than permissive,” said Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“But we’ll have to see if this is just the administration trying to change the headlines,” he added. “What I believe this demonstrates, and what is probably more important to our policy discussion here, is that we must declare that we will defend our airspace.”
The objects found on Friday and Saturday were smaller than the first, which was about the size of three school buses, according to Schumer. They also flew at lower altitudes than the first balloon, according to officials.
According to intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, both of the objects shot down on Friday and Saturday had some sort of payload. Details about the object that exploded on Sunday were not immediately available.
“The United States military has decommissioned another ‘object’ over Lake Huron,” Rep. Jack Bergman tweeted (R-Mich.). “I appreciate our fighter pilots’ decisive action. The American people are entitled to far more answers than we currently have.”
The balloon was shot down at a height of approximately 60,000 feet above ground level, and US officials were quick to blame China. As part of the response, Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to China indefinitely.
Beijing insisted the object was harmless and accused Washington of “overreacting.”
The perplexing balloons arrive at a time when tensions between the United States and China are rising. As China threatens Taiwan, Biden recently announced an increased military presence in the Philippines.
“In the absence of information, people will fill that void with anxiety and other things,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I wish the administration would be a little more prompt in informing us of everything they do know.”
