BREAKING: U.S. Military Shoots Down Another ‘High-Altitude Object’ Over Alaska

• The U.S. military shot down a “high-altitude object” over Alaska airspace on Friday afternoon.

• The object was “roughly the size of a small car,” compared to the much bigger Chinese spy balloon that the U.S. shot down last weekend.

• The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet.

Updated 4:00 p.m. ET: On Friday afternoon, the U.S. military shot down another unauthorized “high-altitude object” that was flying over Alaska airspace, National Security Council official John Kirby told reporters at the White House.

It was the second time in six days that the U.S. military eliminated a mysterious object, after an F-22 shot down a Chinese spy balloon last Saturday.

Kirby said President Joe Biden gave the OK to shoot down the fast-moving object, which hasn’t yet been identified as a balloon, after the U.S. Department of Defense tracked it over the last 24 hours. “The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Kirby said. “Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object, and they did.”

Kirby said the high-altitude object, which officials confirmed was unmanned, “came inside our territorial waters and those waters right now are frozen.” According to Kirby, fighter aircraft from the U.S. Northern Command took down the mysterious object between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. ET.

Kirby said this object was “much, much smaller” than the Chinese spy balloon the U.S. military shot down last Saturday, but there are no indications as to whether or not it contained surveillance equipment. “The way it was described to me,” Kirby said, “was roughly the size of a small car as opposed to a payload that was two or three buses sizes.” He continued: “No significant payload.”

It’s unclear who owned or sent the object, U.S. officials said, via the New York Times.

We will continue to update this story as more information develops.

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