US shoots down 4th flying object: F-16 fighter jet fires AIM9x missile at UAV over Lake Huron, Michigan

The United States of America continued a purge of its skies, with a fourth object being shot down on 12 February 2023.

The flying object was shot down at an altitude of around 20,000 feet over Lake Huron in the state of Michigan. An F-16 fighter jet fired an AIM9x missile to bring down the aerial object.

On 11 February, US forced destroyed an object in Alaska, and a day earlier, a cylindrical object was brought down in Canadian airspace. The spree began with American shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean on 4 February.

Biden ordered the shooting down of the airborne object on Sunday at the recommendation of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation. The location chosen for this shootdown afforded the opportunity to avoid impact on people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery, the Pentagon official said.

"There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected," he noted. North American Aerospace Defense Command maintained a visual and radar track on the object after detecting it Sunday morning.

"Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites. We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more," Ryder said.

(With agency inputs)

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