Washington: On the orders of President Joe Biden, a US fighter jet shot down an "unidentified object" over Lake Huron on Sunday. According to Pentagon officials, it was the latest military strike in an extraordinary series of incidents on US airspace that have no precedent in peacetime. This was the fourth such decline in eight days.

According to General Glenn VanHerk, head of NORAD and US Northern Command, the reason for the repeated firing is an "increased alert" after a Chinese spy balloon appeared over US airspace in late January.

Since then, fighters have also destroyed objects over Alaska and Canada in the past week. Pentagon officials claimed they posed no threat, but because little information was available, they were not ruling out anything, not even UFOs.

Also Read: 'Bird flu increased tension in America...', will it be a disaster for humans too?

According to Melissa Dalton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense, "We are scrutinizing our airspace more closely at these altitudes, including increasing our radar, which may at least partially explain the increase."

The US government has made it clear that they continually scan for unidentified radar blips, and it is common practice to close airspace as a security measure while investigating them.

However, given that administration officials claimed the targets posed little threat to national security and that the downings were done only as a precaution, questions were being raised about whether an unusually forceful response was justified.

According to VanHerk, the US modified its radar to be able to track slow-moving objects. He explained that after making some changes, "we are now able to get a better classification of the radar tracks," which is why he believed you were seeing this information in addition to the enhanced alerts. .

"I believe this is the first time NORAD or United States Northern Command has taken kinetic action against an aerial object within United States or US airspace," he continued. When asked if officials have ruled out extraterrestrial life, VanHyrk replied, "I haven't ruled anything out at this point."

Pentagon officials said they were still trying to identify the exact nature of the objects and had considered using jet guns instead of missiles, but the task proved too challenging. He made a clear distinction between the Chinese balloon and the three shot down over the weekend.

In late January, a white sphere believed by officials to be from China appeared over the US and hovered there for several days before being shot down by fighter jets off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

This is when the extraordinary air defense activity began. Livestreaming was used to broadcast that event. Since that time, many Americans have been enthralled by the drama in the skies as fighter jets race to shoot down targets.

The most recent one brought down was initially thought to be an anomaly when it was discovered Saturday night over Montana. According to Pentagon officials, radar caught it again on Sunday while it was passing over Lake Huron and hovering over Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

As planes raced to intercept and attempt to identify the object on Sunday, US and Canadian authorities restricted some airspace over the lake.

Also Read:  Xiaomi India launches its Student Plus initiative

According to a senior administration official, the object was octagonal and had dangling wires, but no apparent payload. It was flying at an altitude of about 20,000 feet, according to the official who spoke to The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation.

As concerns grew over what Washington claimed was Beijing's extensive aerial surveillance program, US officials continued to investigate and try to precisely identify two other objects shot down by F-22 fighter jets. Were whether China was to blame.

US officials claimed the object dropped over Canada's Yukon on Saturday was a balloon much smaller than the one dropped by a missile on February 4 and the size of three school buses.

A more cylinder-shaped flying object that was described as a type of airship was brought down on the isolated North Shore of Alaska on Friday.

According to officials who spoke to The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, both had a payload either attached or suspended from them. Officials were trying to determine the origin of the objects but were unable to determine who launched them.

The three objects differed in appearance, flew at lower altitudes, and were significantly smaller than the alleged spy balloon that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean following the US missile strike.

The other three objects, according to the officials, were inconsistent with the fleet of Chinese aerial surveillance balloons that had been tracking more than 40 nations at least as far back as the Trump administration.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader in the Senate, said that the US government was moving quickly to recover debris. He said US military and intelligence officials were "focused like a laser" on gathering and accumulating the information before compiling a thorough analysis. He used shorthand to describe the objects as balloons.

The spy program, which the administration has linked to China's military's People's Liberation Army, was unknown to the United States until a few months ago, according to Schumer, a Democrat from New York. It is incredible that we were unaware.

The large white balloon that had been circling the US for days at an altitude of about 60,000 feet was brought down by F-22 jets eight days ago. 

US officials immediately placed the blame on China, claiming that the balloon could independently maneuver and was outfitted to detect and gather intelligence signals. Improved surveillance capabilities, according to White House officials, helped identify it.

The unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had veered off course, according to China's Foreign Ministry. Beijing claimed that by shooting it down, the US "overreacted."

Then, on Friday, the US-Canada organization known as North American Aerospace Defense Command—which is responsible for jointly defending the airspace over the two countries—detected and shot down an object close to the sparsely populated Deadhorse, Alaska.

Later that evening, US authorities reported that NORAD had discovered a second object flying very high over Alaska. On Saturday, it entered Canadian airspace and was over the remote territory of the Yukon when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave the order to shoot it down.

Also Read:  Kristalina Georgieva: 2023 will mark a turning point for the global economy

The objects in both of those incidents were traveling at a height of about 40,000 feet. On Sunday, the object was traveling at 20,000 feet. The cases have heightened diplomatic tensions between the United States and China, sparked concerns about the scope of American surveillance of Beijing, and led to days of criticism of the administration's response from Republican lawmakers.