(Washington) Washington announced on Sunday that it had shot down a new “object” at altitude, this time over Lake Huron, the latest in mysterious flying objects that have placed authorities in the United States and Canada on high alert. .
It is the third “object” to be shot down in three days by the Americans in their country and in Canada, and the fourth in less than ten days, counting the Chinese balloon described by Washington as a spy device and targeted by a missile on February 4 after flying over part of the United States.
With this news, the pressure is growing even more on the Biden administration, from whom elected officials, Republicans and Democrats alike, are demanding more information.
This time it is an “octagonal” object with no visible nacelle, which flew at an altitude of about 6000 meters in the state of Michigan, according to a senior administration official.
Although it was not considered a “military threat” to the ground, it was shot down by an F-16 because its course and altitude could have posed a risk to civil aviation, the report said. Pentagon.
“We have no indication that he has spy abilities, but we cannot rule it out,” the administration official said, adding that authorities will attempt to recover him. ” to know more “.
Airspace
This new object appears to be the reason why airspace over Montana and then part of Lake Michigan was closed on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, for “national defense” reasons.
A fighter plane, dispatched to Montana to investigate a “radar anomaly”, had initially not identified a flying “object” according to the army.
But US forces “detected an unmanned object [venant du] montana today [dimanche] over Wisconsin and Michigan,” the administration official said.
“The place chosen to shoot it down allowed us to avoid any impact for people on the ground and to improve the chances of a recovery of the debris”, according to the Pentagon.
The United States believes that the first object officially detected, a balloon, was controlled by the Chinese military and was part of a fleet sent by Beijing over more than 40 countries on five continents, for the purpose of espionage .
The Chinese government assures that it was a civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological.
Two other flying objects were then shot down by American forces, one Friday over Alaska, the other Saturday in Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is also visiting the Yukon province on Sunday evening, where the third was shot dead.
Washington and Ottawa were still busy collecting the remains of the devices on Sunday.
Transparency
These events have added to the tension between China and the United States, and a visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been postponed.
Republican elected official Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of the United States Congress, accused China on Sunday of an “act of belligerence” in connection with the balloon shot down on February 4.
The sending of this object “was done provocatively to gather intelligence and collect elements on our three major nuclear sites,” he said on CBS.
Republicans have strongly criticized Democratic President Joe Biden for letting the balloon hover over the country for days before shooting it down.
The Pentagon explained that it had “continuously monitored and evaluated”, which allowed it to learn “more about the capabilities and techniques” of China’s espionage.
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer defended Biden’s handling of the case, telling the ABC on Sunday that an analysis of the debris would be “a big blow to the United States.”
The president, however, faces calls for more transparency from both parties.
“I have real concerns about why the administration isn’t communicating more,” Democrat Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC.
“The American people deserve a lot more answers than we have,” Republican lawmaker Jack Bergman tweeted.