‘Unidentified object’ shot down by Minnesota Air National Guard over Lake Huron Sunday
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An “unidentified object” was shot down over Lake Huron by a Minnesota Air National Guard fighter jet after President Biden ordered the strike on Sunday.
Governor Walz praised the 148th Fighter Wing in a Tweet shared Sunday night. He added that it was a federal mission, and that “federal partners” will share information when it’s available.
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Pentagon officials say the object shot down over Lake Huron was first detected over Montana Saturday evening, but it was originally thought to be an anomaly. Radar then detected the object again over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan before jets shot it down over Lake Huron.
This latest shootdown follows a series of events spurred by the detection of a suspected spy balloon from China that was found over United States airspace in late January. US fighter jets also downed other objects over Alaska and Canada in recent days.
Pentagon officials say they are still working to determine what exactly the objects were, adding that they considered using the jets’ guns instead of launching its missiles, but that this proved to be too difficult. At this time, it is unknown if the destroyed objects were balloons or something else.
Fighter jets from the Minnesota Air National Guard 148th Fighter Wing, the Bulldogs (Photo Courtesy: WDIO).
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An official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity described the object over Lake Huron as octagonal in shape, with strings hanging off of it but with no discernable payload. It was also flying low, at about 20,000 feet.
China’s Foreign Ministry is denying the spying allegations from the United States, saying that the balloon that was shot down was a meteorological airship that had blown off course and that the US “overreacted” by shooting it down.