AGI – The US military has shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron. It is the fourth object shot down in less than two weeks in North American airspace. The Congressional Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees have been Report another high-altitude object shot down.
The object flew about six thousand meters high and “appeared as an octagonal structure” with “floating strings”, Edward Wong, a longtime diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times, reports on Twitter, quoting US government representatives. The same “object”, shot down over Lake Huron, between Michigan and Canada, would have been intercepted while flying over Montana, a state where the ‘Chinese spy balloon’ was identified in early February, then shot down by an American fighter over the Atlantic
It’s the third day in a row that military jets have had to bring down something flying over US airspace. One was shot down in northern Alaska on Friday. On Saturday, it happened in Canada.
In the morning, the Democratic representative of the state, Elissa Slotkin, said she had received an alert from the Department of Defense. “I just received a call – she wrote on Twitter – our military forces are closely following an object located above Lake Huron”.
The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard. Great work by all who carried out this mission both in the air and back at headquarters. We’re all interested in exactly what this object was and it’s purpose. 1/
— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) February 12, 2023
Larger than Lombardy and Piedmont combined, Lake Huron is one of the Great Lakes of North America and is located between the United States and Canada. To the north, it bathes Ontario. To the west, Michigan. With an area of almost 60,000 square kilometers and an average depth of 230 meters, it represented a safe area for the American and Canadian aviation to shoot down the object
The name comes from ‘Huron’, that of the Native American tribe of the Hurons. Inside is the largest lake island in the world, Manitoulin, which belongs to the Canadian province of Ontario.
Contacts between the Pentagon and Beijing
The US has officially announced that it had contacts with Beijing regarding the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down on February 4, after requests from the Pentagon had been rejected for days.
“There have been contacts with the People’s Republic of China over the high-altitude balloon,” Deputy Defense Secretary Melissa Dalton said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin he had asked to speak to his Chinese counterpart immediately after the balloon was shot down off the east coast of the United States, which had criss-crossed the entire country for days. But he had gotten no response, even though the incident had prompted the Secretary of State Antony Blink to cancel a long-planned diplomatic mission to Beijing.
China had rejected the offer of a phone call with the US defense chief, judging Washington’s initiative to shoot down the balloon “irresponsible”. Dalton did not provide any details on who was involved in the China contacts and the content.
China raises the charges against the sender
China accuses the United States of having used more than ten spy balloons to fly over Chinese airspace without Beijing’s approval since the beginning of 2022.
“Since last year alone, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over Chinese airspace more than ten times without the approval of relevant Chinese authorities,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Wang Wenbin. “The first thing the United States should do is self-reflection and change course, rather than slander, discredit or incite confrontation,” she added.
China then assures that it has maintained the “necessary communication” with the United States after the incident of the Chinese balloon shot down off the US coast on February 4 last year. The key, Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, “is to “properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure in a calm, professional and sober manner,” he added, without going into further detail.
