The airborne object that the US military shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday was "a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities," the US Department of Defense said in a statement, Trend reports citing TASS.
"Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites," the statement reads. "We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities," the Pentagon added.
According to the statement, the object was shot down by an F-16 aircraft "at the direction of President Biden, and based on the recommendations of Secretary [of Defense] Austin and military leadership."
"The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected," the Pentagon said, adding: "Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more."
Reuters reported earlier, citing a US official, that the US military had shot down an octagonal object over Lake Huron.
A Pentagon spokesperson said on Friday that a US F-22 fighter jet had shot down an unidentified object flying over Alaska. On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter that the North American Aerospace Defense Command had shot down an unidentified object over northern Canada. Pentagon Spokesperson Patrick Ryder specified that the object had been initially detected over Alaska.
The US authorities earlier identified a Chinese balloon at an altitude exceeding the norm for commercial flights, which posed no threat to people on the ground. On February 4, the US Air Force downed what the Pentagon said was a spy balloon collecting vital information in US airspace. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his visit to China over the incident.