US Shot Down Unidentified Flying Object over Alaska

In the evening of February 9, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the appearance of an unidentified, unmanned “high-altitude airborne object” over Alaska by ground radar and identified it using military aircraft. Subsequently, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration closed some airspace around Deadhorse, Alaska to cooperate with the Department of Defense. Authorities pointed out that the object was flying at approximately 40,000 feet and presented a potential threat to the safety of civil aviation. Under the direction of President Joe Biden, the U.S. military dispatched a U.S. F-22 raptor equipped an AIM 9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, shooting down an unknown flying object over the northern coast of Alaska near Canada. It was reported that the U.S. President authorized the military to shot down the “high-altitude object” over Alaska, less than a week after U.S. warplanes shot down a CCP spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. When asked if he had any comment on the object shot down over Alaska, President Biden briefly said, “it was a success.” Regarding this incident, National Security Council (NSC) Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said, “we’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now.” He also indicated U.S. officials do not know which nation or group was responsible for the object. It was reported that the wreckage of the object crashed into frozen U.S. waters, and the Pentagon is trying to recover it in the U.S. territorial waters off Alaska. Compared with days of salvaging the wreckage after the U.S. military shot down a CCP spy balloon craft off the coast of South Carolina on the previous Saturday, some U.S. officials expect the time to collect the debris of the unknown object to be shorter. The Pentagon will provide further briefings on the shooting down of a flying object in northern Alaska near the Canadian border on February 9. Meanwhile, A recovery operation to secure debris from the CCP spy balloon is ongoing with analysis continuing at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia for further intelligence data collection.