National Security Council’s John Kirby said today that the three most recent unidentified flying objects shot down over the weekend by the U.S. military were flying at a much lower altitude than the China spy balloon, and posed an actual risk to aircraft. The reason the military detected them is that the Pentagon and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has changed the parameters of what they are looking for since the shooting down of the large spy balloon on Feb. 4.
“One of the reasons we think we’re seeing them is because we’re looking for them. If you set the parameters to look for a certain something it’s more likely you’re going to find a certain something,” said Kirby, who is the strategic communications coordinator for the NSC.
The three objects — shot down over Alaska, The Yukon, and Lake Huron, Michigan — could simply be academic or research vessels, Kirby speculated. They were not propelled or remotely maneuvered, but were being carried along on the wind, which makes them different from the China balloon that was knocked from the sky over the coast of South Carolina nine days ago.
“A range of entities including countries, companies research and academic organizations operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious at all,” Kirby said. “That said, because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are, we acted out of an abundance of caution.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said these items do not carry extra-terrestrial life.
“Again, there is no indication of aliens or [extra]terrestrial activity with these recent takedowns. Wanted to make sure that the American people knew that, all of you knew that. And it was important for us to say that from here because we’ve been hearing a lot about it,” Jean-Pierre said.
Kirby said recovery is underway for the items that were shot down above the Arctic Ocean, over The Yukon, and Lake Huron. The one shot down over Lake Huron is probably at the bottom of the lake by now, he said. Lake Huron averages about 200 feet in depth but is as deep at 750 feet. The item shot down was aloft near the U.S.-Canada border at about 20,000 feet, while the other two — over Yukon and Alaska — were at about 40,000 feet. For comparison, Mount Everest is about 29,000 feet high.
The China balloon was at about 60,000 feet. Kirby said the security agencies “were able to determine that China has a high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection that’s connected to the People’s Liberation Army. It was operating during the previous administration, but they did not detect it. We detected it. We tracked it. And we have been carefully studying it to learn as much as we can.”
Kirby said the slow-moving objects at high altitude with a small radar cross section are difficult to detect on radar.
“Even objects the size of the Chinese spy balloon — which had a payload the size of, roughly, three school busses — were not picked up by previous administrations or other countries,” he said.
“In Saturday’s case, we acted in consultation with the Canadian government, the President speaking personally with the — with Prime Minister Trudeau. The spy balloon was, of course, different, because we knew precisely where that was,” he said.
The security agencies are intensively searching for debris from the three other objects, which he said had posed no known threat to people on the ground. The objects were not sending communication signals and were not manned. But NORAD could not confirm the objects were not conducting surveillance, and so the president ordered them shot down, Kirby said.
Kirby said there were no similar objects detected today.
“The president has directed the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Director of National Intelligence to engage with their relevant counterparts to share information and to try to gain their perspectives as well. Again, this is an issue that affects everybody around the world,” Kirby said, adding, “we will continue to brief members of Congress and relevant state leadership on what we are doing and what we learn. The president has made this a very top priority. We have, over the course of just the last few days — and certainly over the course of last week — reached out to inform and brief members of Congress and relevant state governors of the operations that we were conducting and of the recovery operations that are underway.
“We’ve also kept Congress briefed generally on this issue of Chinese surveillance balloons, including classified briefings last August. And last week, administration officials provided classified briefings for all senators and all members of the House of Representatives on the PRC surveillance balloon. We fully expect and anticipate and support the ability to continue these briefings in the days ahead,” he said.
Biden, through his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, today directed an interagency team to study the broader policy implications for detection, analysis, and disposition of unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks, Kirby said.
Read the entire transcript of Kirby’s remarks here.
