UFO

U.S. military downs high-flying object over North American airspace for the fourth time in eight days.

[mammoth Chinese balloon](https://time.com/6253010/chinese-spy-balloon-shot-down/) over the Atlantic Ocean. 10, on Friday, an American fighter jet [shot down a small car-sized](https://time.com/6254743/us-shoots-down-object-alaska/) “object” off the Alaskan coast. And we will certainly keep you updated as we continue to learn more about these objects and the (People’s Republic of China’s) balloon and what that means for us going forward.” [ongoing review of hundreds](https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2023/item/2354-2022-annual-report-on-unidentified-aerial-phenomena) of UFO incidents documented in recent years without explanation. 4, the U.S. “It’s likely, but we have not confirmed that the track that we saw in Wisconsin was likely the same track in Montana,” VanHerck said. The aviators ultimately couldn’t identify and locate the object in the dark. Up until a week ago, the U.S. I’m not able to categorize how they stay aloft.” None of the flying objects have posed a threat to anything on the ground, VanHerck said, but they have been assessed to be safety hazards to civilian air traffic and potential surveillance threats. The flurry of incidents is due at least in part to an increase in military vigilance in the wake of the Chinese balloon. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told reporters late Sunday. VanHerck acknowledged the military is perplexed.

After a Chinese spy balloon was brought down this month, the U.S. has shot down at least three unidentified flying objects over the past few days.

[discounted the possibility](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/us/politics/us-shoots-down-object-michigan.html) that the objects shot down over the weekend might have extraterrestrial origins. [first appeared over Montana on Saturday](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/us/politics/us-shoots-down-object-michigan.html) reappeared on Sunday before being shot down over Lake Huron off Michigan. The object, which a Canadian official described as cylindrical and smaller than the spy balloon, was picked up on radar late Friday as it passed over Alaska. The object broke into pieces after being shot down and was most likely not a balloon, a Defense Department official said. A White House official said the object was the size of a small car. VanHerck, the commander of the Air Force’s Northern Command, said during a news conference, “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.” On Monday, a Chinese official said unauthorized balloons from the United States The object, which was flying at 20,000 feet, had an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but had no discernible payload, U.S. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has adjusted its radar system to become more sensitive, sharply raising the number of objects it detects. 4, setting off a diplomatic crisis. [brought down an unidentified object over](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/us/politics/unidentified-object-shot-down-alaska.html) the waters of Alaska. [shot down at least three unidentified flying objects](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/us/politics/us-shoots-down-object-michigan.html) over the weekend after a Chinese spy balloon that had invaded American airspace was downed on Feb.

Hours after Lake Michigan airspace was closed, Wisconsin-based fighter jets shot down a small object flying over Lake Huron. Here's what we know.

Sometime Sunday afternoon, as it was over Lake Huron, the object was shot down by an F-16 fighter jet. Information about the flying object from defense officials has been sparse. The object had been flying at about 20,000 feet over Lake Huron in a path and altitude that raised concerns about it being a hazard to civilian aviation, according to Air Force Brig. Purchase of replacement Large Power Transformers is a must to protect the nation’s electrical grid," he added. warplanes have shot down aircraft over or near the United States, VanHerck said. Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters," she said. The object was first detected by radar late Saturday afternoon about 70 miles north of the U.S. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary. The flying object was shot down Sunday over Lake Huron After the Lake Michigan airspace was reopened, the FAA and military closed airspace over Lake Huron to the east. What we know about the flying object that was shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday

Next steps are to recover the wreckage and figure out what the object was, and where it came from.

There's a time to talk, and a time not to talk." Keep a few secrets from the citizens and keep a few secrets from the news media. It reportedly came into the United States over Alaska in January, and then floated across the country over Idaho and then to the Carolinas. "When unknowns come up, we as human beings try to understand it and that's where a lot of conspiracy theories come from," Stamps said Monday. When the time is not ready, I'd say go ahead and keep a few secrets. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton — who said "we must continue to defend our airspace and investigate these incidents" — began wondering whether there might be a connection between the object being shot down, even though we don't know it's Chinese in origin, is related to Ford's plans to build a massive electric vehicle factory with a Chinese partner in Marshall. [Gerald Ford urged Congress to investigate](https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0054/4525586.pdf) a "rash of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects" in Michigan. The government, Kirby added, does not know who owns the three other objects that were shot down. Until we know for sure what was blasted out of the sky Sunday over Lake Huron, expect some theories — a lot of theories. Mark Rodeghier, the scientific director of the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. In those cases, he said, the aircraft sensors went haywire. "A rumor develops where there is inadequate information about an important topic.

Since last week, the U.S. government has shot down three unidentified flying objects—otherwise known as UFOs. This follows the government shooting down what ...

374](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB374)) "would allow licensed cannabis sellers in the state to also sell non-intoxicating foods and beverages to their adult customers," as well as to host live concerts, [reports](https://reason.com/2023/02/11/new-california-bill-proposes-legalizing-authentic-cannabis-cafes/) Baylen Linnekin. And city council members are [considering](https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/blowverbod-horeca-eerder-dicht/) a rule barring cannabis café customers from smoking on terraces too. [announced](https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1624527579116871681) on Saturday. "Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object," he [added](https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1624527581331554306). But it " [posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight](https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1624128453598380033)," Kirby explained, so "President Biden ordered the military to down the object. Lee (whose home city, Washington, D.C., is doing just that). "Indeed, in July, the Pentagon established a EST (1942 GMT) over Lake Huron appeared to have traveled near U.S. Saturday also saw the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) temporarily close down airspace over Montana. "Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to the radar hits. [said](https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1624130263428001793) on Friday that this "high-altitude object" was unmanned, had no significant surveillance equipment, and was "much smaller" than the Chinese balloon—"roughly the size of a small car, as opposed to…two or three buses' size." What in the name of The X Files is going on in the skies?

A new National Geographic docuseries by investigative journalist Leslie Kean aims to shed light on the modern UFO phenomenon.

"UFOs: Investigating the Unknown" premieres on National Geographic on Monday (Feb. "Information has been suppressed, and the series provides documentation of that fact." - Episode Two — "Giant UFO in Texas" revisits the mass sighting of the Stephenville, Texas, case with new interviews and perspectives. And that belief comes across in "UFOs: Investigating the Unknown," a new docuseries led by Kean. "Those who have witnessed the objects firsthand still grapple with these still-unanswered questions," Kean said. government formally ending its UFO-investigation program and examines a years-long mass sighting known as the "Hudson Valley Wave." - Episode One — "Secret Pentagon UFO Program" spotlights the behind-the-scenes work that led to the 2017 New York Times story and challenges what we thought we knew about UFOs. EST and will stream on Hulu the following day. but not all of it." military has recently rebranded as UAPs, and the government programs to investigate them. It focused on sightings of UFOs, which the U.S. Maybe 2023 is a turnaround year in assessing UAP and UFOs, shattering the stigma surrounding the topic.

As much as we want to believe that the truth is out there, what's actually going on behind the military's new campaign against unidentified flying objects ...

The main takeaway from America’s new war against UFOs is that the military is waking up to the urgency of a changed environment. The fact that the Pentagon is still grappling with the new aerial environment is evidenced by the inconsistent nature of the statements it has made over the past week. While the military might seem monolithic to outside observers, it has forever been riven by internal struggles as it struggles to adapt to the times. For a sense of just how much so, look to the war in Ukraine, where Russia rolled in with a massive advantage in old-school military firepower only to get chopped up for parts by a nimble, creative opponent using off-the-shelf commercial drones and inexpensive shoulder-launched missiles. In this context, the strange events of the past week are less about a new threat suddenly emerging than about the U.S. “While that may disappoint some who hope the origins of all these events are far more exotic in nature, the strategic implications of these bold operations, which have been happening for years, undeterred, are absolutely massive.” A standout has been Tyler Rogoway, editor of the War Zone, who over the past few years has painstakingly documented how the military’s publicly revealed UAP sightings are best explained not as extraterrestrial visitations but as efforts by a determined and resourceful rival to gather intelligence on U.S. But as much as we want to believe “the truth is out there,” what’s actually going on behind the military’s new campaign against unidentified flying objects is something quite different, though mysterious and scary in its own way. fighters had just shot down — the [third in three days](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/12/politics/unidentified-object-canada-alaska-military-latest/index.html) — had come from outer space. Suddenly a whole bunch of countries that couldn’t hope to afford a spy satellite or a hypersonic missile could build low-altitude military drones Long after the Cold War ended, Russia and the United States have continued on this path, pouring billions into things like But based on interviews with defense officials and military experts, that mysterious phenomenon has less to do with alien life-forms than with potential adversaries here on Earth and how they might take advantage of changing technology to erode long-standing U.S.

UK UFO expert Nick Pope explained that the recent UFO sightings following the Chinese spy balloon debacle make this an "exciting time" for alien hunters.

Glen VanHerck said: "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. Each of these was shot down by US fighter jets. Currently, there hasn't been any known evidence that aliens may have visited Earth. [three UFOs in North America](https://www.jpost.com/international/article-731351): One in Alaska, one in Michigan and another in Canada. [Chinese spy balloons](https://www.jpost.com/international/article-730602) in sovereign US territory. [unidentified flying objects (UFOs)](https://www.jpost.com/international/article-731351) recently shot down by US aircraft may be something for "alien hunters" to be excited about, British UFO expert Nick Pope told the Daily Star on Monday.

A White House spokesman, John F. Kirby, said the military had not identified the source of the objects shot down over the weekend or their purpose.

[working to gather debris](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/05/us/politics/chinese-spy-balloon-shot-down.html) of the balloon since Feb. Blinken said the entry of the balloon was a “clear violation of U.S. [downed another object over the Yukon Territory](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/11/us/politics/unidentified-object-canada-alaska-pentagon.html). The United States is doing aerial surveillance on the site of the object shot down over Alaska on Friday, and the Canadian government was monitoring the site of the object shot down over the Yukon on Saturday. American officials said that China had at least a limited ability to steer the balloon, and that it maneuvered on Feb. [shot down an unidentified flying object](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/10/us/politics/unidentified-object-shot-down-alaska.html) over the Arctic Ocean near Alaska. [discounted the possibility](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/us/politics/us-shoots-down-object-michigan.html) that the objects shot down over the weekend might have extraterrestrial origins. [the Chinese balloon](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/02/04/us/china-spy-balloon) that floated over the United States this month before being shot down was a civilian airship that had accidentally strayed into American airspace. The United States had said that the second balloon was another Chinese surveillance balloon. The three incidents came about a week after [the downing of a Chinese spy balloon](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/04/us/politics/chinese-spy-balloon-shot-down.html) in the waters off South Carolina. Kirby said the objects over the weekend flew lower than the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States before being shot down earlier this month so they posed a potential risk to civilian air traffic. The episodes came after the weeklong drama of what the Biden administration said was a Chinese spy balloon that floated over the United States for several days before being brought down.

What do these sky-high visitations mean, if anything, to the UFO/UAP community? Are there any lessons to be learned from these incidents?

A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades.Follow us on Twitter [@Spacedotcom](https://twitter.com/SPACEdotcom) (opens in new tab) or on [furor over the large Chinese balloon](https://www.space.com/china-surveillance-balloon-us-airspace) has prompted NORAD to modify or eliminate the filters to attempt to better capture similar incursions," West said. "That object is indeed 'going fast' with respect to the camera — perhaps 400 miles per hour [640 kph] — but relative to the ground, it is almost stationary," Sheaffer said. The fact that Navy pilots did not realize this suggests that they don't understand simple effects of perspective, Sheaffer said. Those pilots could not explain how the object was staying in the air, despite its cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,000 meters). Unfortunately, the perceived need to take rapid action will result in expensive and dangerous shoot-downs of a variety of objects based on limited information." The ongoing aerial excitement involving balloons likely means one of two things — that the Chinese have just now dramatically increased their balloon-launching activities, "or that such balloons are no longer being ignored," Sheaffer said. (NORAD is short for "North American Aerospace Defense Command," a joint effort of the U.S. "This has resulted in low-information objects being selected from the LIZ for investigation. military, as a [Chinese surveillance balloon](https://www.space.com/chinese-spy-balloon-destroyed-f-22-jet).) Recovery crews are working to find and study the resulting debris, to better understand where these intruders came from and what they were doing in our skies. Are there any lessons to be learned from these incidents, any takeaways from pilot descriptions of the objects? fighter jets](https://www.space.com/us-military-shoots-down-object-over-alaska).

UFOs buzzing around the nation's capital? The "Invasion of Washington" remains yet another mystery floating around Washington decades later.

Radar experts theorized that the culprit in DC might have been a temperature inversion, in which warm air sits atop cooler air, trapping it. Other experts challenged that explanation, according to the Post. In this atmosphere came the DC “invasion.” (Accompanying Luke Mullins’s article about This can invert radar, too, causing it to bounce off that ceiling and make objects on the ground appear to be in the sky. The first incident occurred before midnight on July 19, when an air-traffic controller at what was then Washington National Airport reported seven unexplained radar blips, including over the White House and Capitol. [“UFO lobbyist” Stephen Bassett](https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/08/25/ufo-lobbyist-believes-government-is-hiding-ufos-and-alien-life/) are recreations of a photo, shown below, that purported to show UFOs over the Capitol.)

'There is no, again no, indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,' the White House Press Secretary said.

But efforts to learn more about the Chinese balloon and its purpose have been slowed by bad weather off the coast of South Carolina. Kirby noted that when Biden came into office, Biden asked for “a broad assessment of Chinese intelligence capabilities.” That assessment found that China was using a “high-altitude” balloon operation to collect intelligence. Adding to the mystery, those three unknown objects were shot down within a week of a U.S. The remaining parts of the object shot off the coast of Alaska have been hard to find because of sea ice, he said, and the unidentified object over Canada fell in an area of remote wilderness. A few parts have been recovered from the bottom, Kirby said, but there’s more to retrieve. But the Pentagon and U.S. F-22 downing an alleged Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. The debris of the “object” shot while flying at 20,000 feet over Lake Huron on Sunday fell in deep water in the lake and U.S. Asked if the U.S. military hasn’t been able to examine the debris because the bits fell in hard to access places. fighter jet off the Alaskan coast on Friday, another shot over northern Canada on Saturday, and a third It was an unusual denial to hear from the podium in the White House press room.

Is the US military's decision to shoot down four objects that suddenly showed up in US airspace the beginning of the end of UFO speculation?

"What is true ... But others were daunting, such as a Navy pilot's video from 2014 of an oblong aerial object that appeared to move faster and with more maneuverability than the jet the pilot was flying. The central worry was that the sightings could be of unknown aerial surveillance technology China was using to collect intelligence on US defenses. In 2020, the Pentagon set up its Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force, using its own acronym for UFOs, to dig deeper into hundreds of cases with the support of the CIA and other agencies. But after a slew of inexplicable sightings from US Navy and Air Force pilots, several years ago the Pentagon decided to pay closer attention. Washington (AFP) – Is the US military's decision to shoot down four objects that suddenly showed up in US airspace the beginning of the end of UFO speculation?

Frustration on Capitol Hill is mounting after a string of aerial objects were shot down over U.S. and Canadian airspace in the last few days, raising a long ...

crews are in the midst of recovering the downed UFOs for closer inspection. The Biden administration on Monday also announced an interagency task force to investigate the UFOs. And the Lake Huron object was an octagonal shape. Tim Kaine (D-Va) added: “They’ve been doing a good job so far, but I do have a lot of questions.” “Are they benign science projects and wayward weather balloons, or something more nefarious that we’ve somehow been missing all this time?” is suddenly recognizing and shooting down a flurry of these objects. decided to take it down. “NORAD’s been around almost 65 years,” he said of the command in charge of patrolling U.S. “We’ve never shot anything down, and in eight days we’ve shot down four things. “I won’t speak for the President’s personal speaking schedule. Debbie Dingell (D) echoed requests for more information, as did Sen. Gary Peters (D) and Rep.

President Biden has been tight-lipped following the U.S. military shooting down three unidentified flying objects since Friday, raising speculation as to ...

[third object](https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-heightened-alert-increasing-scrutiny-airspace-downing-unidentified-object-lake-huron) was taken down over Lake Huron in the Great Lakes region on Sunday. [US MILITARY 'DECOMMISSIONS' UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT OVER GREAT LAKES REGION](https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-military-shoots-down-unidentified-flying-object-great-lakes-region) [Chinese spy balloon](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chinese-spy-craft-payload-located-off-waters-of-south-carolina-mostly-intact-us-official) off the coast of South Carolina. [LAWMAKERS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM BIDEN ADMIN AFTER 4TH FLYING OBJECT SHOT DOWN BY MILITARY: 'UNACCEPTABLE'](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lawmakers-demand-accountability-biden-admin-4th-flying-object-shot-down-military) "Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down," the readout said. Biden has no events on his public schedule Monday.

President Joe Biden talks a great deal about the importance of democratic accountability and good government. The public has a right to expect the federal ...

The military has suddenly become engaged in combat against flying objects the origin, engineering, and purpose of which are unknown to the public. But the president should tell us what he knows and how he intends to find out more. But it is inexcusable that Biden has not given the public an explanation. The UFOs have no obvious means of propulsion or of staying aloft. [stigma](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-does-stigma-still-soar-with-ufos) attached to the term "UFO" means news media and the military refer to the latest airborne targets merely as "objects" or "flying objects," so as not to trivialize them or turn them into a joke. [unconventional technical capabilities](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/patriotism-unity/ufos-go-to-congress-5-questions-which-need-answering), possibly beyond the know-how of any known Earth nation. While most UFOs are found to be weather balloons, spy balloons, drones, or other objects that can be conventionally explained, a small number defies conclusive description. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system." The public has a right to expect the federal government to provide timely and accurate information on important matters. [BAN CHINA FROM BUYING AMERICAN FARMLAND](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/ban-china-from-buying-american-farmland) He added, "I'm not able to categorize how they stay aloft. He noted on Sunday, "I'm not going to categorize [the three most recent objects] as balloons.