Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House February 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday defended President Joe Biden’s decision to shoot down three low-flying, aerial objects over U.S. and Canadian airspace in the past three days, but said it had not determined yet exactly what the objects were, who owned them or their purpose.
“We have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said at a White House briefing.
“And while we have no specific reason to suspect that they were conducting surveillance of any kind, we couldn’t rule that out,” Kirby added.
Each of the three crafts was the size of a small car and was floating on prevailing winds.
The first of the three crafts was destroyed on Friday in U.S. airspace over Alaskan waters. It was cylindrical and had been floating at around 40,000 feet in altitude, Kirby said, posing a threat to civilian aircraft.
On Saturday, the U.S. and Canada coordinated the use of American military jets to shoot down a second object, this time overland in the remote Canadian Yukon.
That craft was similar in size, shape and flight altitude to the one that was shot down on Friday, Kirby said.
The third object was octagonal and was flying lower, at approximately 20,000 feet. That object was shot down Sunday over Lake Huron on the U.S.-Canadian border.
Kirby said the sharp increase in the number of objects shot down in recent days was partly a result of heightened radar sensitivity implemented in the wake of the discovery of a massive Chinese spy balloon in late January.
That balloon was 200 feet high and carried a payload of surveillance equipment. Defense officials opted to let it float over the continental U.S. for a week before shooting it down Feb. 4 above the waters off…
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