WASHINGTON/OTTAWA – A United States F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Canada on Saturday, the second such-shoot down in as many days, as North America appeared to be on heightened alert following a week-long Chinese spying balloon saga that drew global spotlight.
Separately, the US military also scrambled fighter jets in Montana to investigate a radar anomaly that triggered a brief federal closure of airspace.
Those aircraft did not identify any object to correlate the radar hits, said the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) in a statement.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced Saturdays shoot-down over the Yukon territory in the countrys north on Twitter, and said Canadian forces would recover and analyse the wreckage from the object.
Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand declined to speculate about the origin of the object, which she said was cylindrical in shape.
She stopped short of describing it as a balloon, saying that it was smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down off South Carolinas coast a week ago, but similar in appearance.
She said it was flying at 40,000 feet (about 12km) and posed a risk to civilian air traffic when it was shot down at 3.41pm Eastern Standard Time (4.41am on Sunday, Singapore time).
There is no reason to believe that the impact of the object in Canadian territory is of any public concern, Ms Anand told a news conference.
The Pentagon said Norad detected the object over Alaska late on Friday evening.
US fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation.
A US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile, following close coordination between US and Canadian authorities, said Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier-GeneralPatrick Ryder, in a statement.
US President Joe Biden authorised the US military to work with Canada to take down the high-altitude craft after a call between Mr Biden and Mr Trudeau, the Pentagon said.
The White House said both leaders agreed to continue close coordination to defend our airspace.
The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin, the White House said in a statement. Embed Twitter Tweet URL A day earlier, Mr Biden ordered a shoot-down of an unidentified flying object over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska.
The US military on Saturday was still tight-lipped about what, if anything, it had learnt as recovery efforts were under way.
The Pentagon on Friday offered only a few details, including that the object was the size of a small car, it was flying at about 40,000 feet, and could not manoeuvre and appeared to be unmanned.
US pilots and intelligence officials have been trying to learn about the object since it was first spotted last Thursday.
We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose or origin, the Northern Command said on Saturday.
It noted difficult arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow and limited daylight, that hinder search-and-recovery efforts.
Personnel will adjust recovery operations to maintain safety, the Northern Command said. More On This Topic Radar anomaly prompts US FAA to briefly close some Montana airspace Has a balloon made the world a more dangerous place? On Feb 4, a US F-22 fighter jet brought down what the US government called a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina following its week-long journey across the US and portions of Canada.
Chinas government has said it was a civilian research vessel.
Some US lawmakers criticised Mr Biden for not shooting down the 60m-tall high-altitude surveillance balloon sooner. The US military had recommended waiting until it was over the ocean out of fear of injuries from falling debris.
US officials have been scouring the ocean to recover debris and the undercarriage of electronic gadgetry since the shoot-down of the balloon.
The Pentagon has said that a significant amount of the balloon had already been recovered or located, suggesting that American officials may soon have more information about any Chinese espionage capabilities aboard the vessel.
Sea conditions on Friday permitted dive and underwater unmanned vehicle activities and the retrieval of additional debris from the sea floor, the Northern Command said.The public may see US Navy vessels moving to and from the site as they conduct offload and resupply activities. REUTERS More On This Topic US adds 6 Chinese entities tied to balloon programme to export blacklist US shoots down car-size unidentified object flying above Alaska