US military shoots 4th unidentified object, not ruling out aliens

Right on the heels of the U.S. and Canada jointly shooting down a "high-altitude airborne object" close to Canadian airspace on Saturday, the U.S. has shot down another unidentified flying object over Lake Huron in Michigan on orders from U.S. President Joe Biden.

In just over a week, it marked the fourth time the U.S. military has taken down objects in North American airspace. The first incident took place on February 4 - when a giant Chinese balloon, alleged to be a surveillance balloon, was shot down by an F-22 jet off the South Carolina coast.

The second incident took place on February 10 when U.S. fighter jets downed an object off northern Alaska. The military said it was "within U.S. sovereign airspace over U.S. territorial water".

Unmanned octagonal structure with strings spotted

Defense officials have described the object as an unmanned "octagonal structure" with strings attached. It was downed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT). It has not been deemed a military threat yet. A Pentagon statement revealed that the latest object could have hindered commercial air traffic as it was traveling at 20,000ft (6,100m).

U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command, told reporters that the military has not been able to identify the three most recent objects and how they stay aloft or their whereabouts, Reuters reported.

When asked if the airborne objects could have an extraterrestrial origin, VanHerck said: "I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything."

"At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it," he said during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday.

Extraterrestrial life has not been ruled out yet

Last year, hundreds of new reports of UFO sightings were investigated. However, none produced solid evidence of aliens visiting Earth or crash-landing on the planet.

Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, told reporters in December 2022 that he had not seen anything in the files to indicate intelligent alien life, Reuters reported.

"I have not seen anything in those holdings to date that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash, or anything like that," Moultrie said.

"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," VanHerck said.

Debris recovery operations ongoing

The debris of the Chinese balloon was scattered over an area of seven miles (11 km) in the Atlantic Ocean, and military images showed the recovery of a large piece. Operations to recover the second object on sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, and the third object in the Yukon are underway.

Meanwhile, U.S. military personnel with specialist diving gear for the extremely cold waters of Michigan’s Lake Huron are expected to be deployed soon to search for pieces of the destroyed fourth object. The recent sightings have raised security concerns and worsened relations with China.