The White House announced Friday that President Joe Biden has ordered the military to take down “high altitude object” hovering over the state of Alaska, CNN reported.
“The Department of Defense has been tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska airspace for the past 24 hours earlier today,” National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby told reporters when asked about rumors of another suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. .
The high-altitude object, Kirby said, poses a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. As a precaution and on the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to take down the site, and they did. And it came into our territorial waters – and those waters are currently frozen – but into territorial airspace and over territorial waters. Fighter jets assigned to the US Northern Command shot down the site in the last hour.
Biden does not consider the Chinese bubble over the US a serious security breach
The president does not regret that the balloon was not brought down earlier
The object, Kirby added, was shot down by a US Northern Command fighter jet.
Kirby also said the US is not calling the object a balloon and has not yet attributed it to China or any other country.
“We’re calling this a site because that’s the best description we have right now. We don’t know who owns it — whether it’s government, corporate or private, we just don’t know,” Kirby said.
We recall that the bubble strained relations between the US and China earlier this month.
Biden, under fire from some lawmakers, said that does not think that the Chinese spy balloon has flown over the United States before being shot down in the Atlantic Ocean was a major security breach.
The head of state, who is keen to preserve bilateral dialogue and prevent tensions with Beijing from spiraling out of control, said he had no regrets that the balloon had not been brought down earlier.
This is not a big breakthrough, Biden is convinced. “Look, this is completely … this is a violation of international law. This is our airspace. And once it enters our space, we can do whatever we want with it (the balloon),” he noted.
USA with evidence that the Chinese balloon was spy
His equipment was for reconnaissance, not meteorological purposes
Biden explained that the US military was concerned that if they brought the balloon down over land, parts of it could fall in a populated area.
On February 2, Biden ordered the balloon down after it passed over the northwestern United States. However, the president agreed to the US military’s request to not take action until the balloon reached the ocean.
The 61-meter balloon was shot down by a US fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on February 4.
However, some Republicans and Democrats criticized Biden for bringing down the balloon, which was first detected at high altitude over Alaska on January 28, earlier.
The US shot down the Chinese spy balloon
The decision is up to the authorities