After the overflight of the Chinese surveillance balloon and the appearance of a cylindrical object over the territorial waters of Alaska, the US Air Force (USAF) again shot down two other flying objects over the weekend.
On Saturday, an F-22 Raptor fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at an unmanned vehicle over Yukon, Canada.
The action was authorized by the country’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau. “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. NORAD shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” said the Canadian leader at the Twitter.
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Like the vehicle hit on Friday in Alaska, the flying object that invaded Canadian airspace was cylindrical in shape and was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet, endangering civilian air traffic.
Octagonal object
Northern Command radars again detected anomalies over Montana, which prompted the deployment of fighters, but there was no identification of any object correlated with the radar hits.
On Sunday, NORAD closed the airspace over Lake Michigan around 12:00 pm EST, but shortly after the restrictions were lifted.
Some time later, information emerged that USAF fighters had shot down another unidentified object over Lake Huron, which is on the border with Canada.
It was later learned that the new object flew at a lower altitude of 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) and would have an octagonal shape. He was hit by a missile fired by an F-16 fighter.
Tensions with China
Balloon sightings over North America intensified after an object the size of three buses crossed North America in early February.
It would be a surveillance balloon from China, according to US authorities, but the Chinese government denies it, saying it is a weather balloon that deviated from its course.
The balloon was shot down on Saturday, February 4th, by an F-22 fighter while flying at about 60,000 feet. The wreckage washed up on the coast of South Carolina and a mission was launched to retrieve it.
The overflight heightened tensions between the US and China. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspended a visit that was scheduled to the Asian country in an attempt to restore ties with the government of Xi Jinping.
