U.S. shoots down three more unidentified flying objects

To the growing questions surrounding the White House's decision to shoot down three more unidentified flying objects over the weekend less than a week after the U.S military brought down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina the skies were active again on Friday President Biden ordered the military to shoot down an.

Object flying near the northern coast of Alaska at least 40 000 feet according to NSC spokesperson John Kirby the object was roughly the size of a small car and was flying low enough that it posed a threat to civilian flights on Saturday at the request of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau U.S fighter jets shot down another object which was small.

And cylindrical flying over the country's Yukon Territory later on Saturday U.S aircraft were sent to Montana to investigate an anomaly picked up on radar but according to the defense department they were unable to find the source officials say the radar blip re-emerged overnight on Saturday and after floating over Lake.

Huron near Michigan President Biden made the call to bring it down it was described as an octagonal structure with strings hanging off of it with no discernible payload officials are now working to recover debris from the three sites to determine the object's Origins and makeup the winter conditions in Alaska and Canada are making that.

Difficult the objects are said to all resemble each other and not the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down earlier this month when asked yesterday about the possibility of the objects being extraterrestrial a defense attorney said there was no indication of that joining us now former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO retired.

Four-star Navy Admiral James defridas he's Chief International analyst for NBC News Admiral good morning we'll first ask you the call what was it was it holding or not I mean he we gotta I gotta ask Adam on that yes it was holding and it's a really unfortunate way to end the game I think everybody knows the actual highlight of.

The game was the U.S Navy flyover at halftime celebrating 50 years of women in the cockpit that was a pretty great moment for my Navy that was uh so so what what do you make of this a different object every day obviously you're paying closer attention there may have been this clutter.

Whatever it is up there all along but obviously they're paying closer attention to what's flying up there the only thing is if if even if these aren't spycraft they're they're they're at 20 000 feet they're at 30 40 000 feet you're suddenly talking about something that could take down a commercial airliner.

Oh yeah and you know Ian Fleming who wrote The Great James Bond novel said once that if someone shoots at you the first time is happenstance the second time is coincidence the third time it's enemy action we're on round four here this is starting to look a little campaign-like and I'm not a big believer in coincidence and international.

Relations so when you look at how China's reacting to the Philippine basing agreement to the stand-up of a new Marine Corps Base in Guam to Kevin McCarthy's talk of going to Taipei I think there's a bit of campaigning going on here but yes Joe you're right we're also more situationally aware that's what happened as a result of the first.

Incident I think you're going to see more of this because technology is changing and it's providing new means and by the way we we tend to focus on China this could be Russia the Arctic is becoming a real zone of interaction in that high North as well so um I think we're going to see more of.

This and I know we'll be talking to John Kirby a little later on ask him about how integrated our radar systems are that is a significant point we ought to focus on here yeah Jonathan Amir what's the White House saying they haven't said much to this point uh Joe we expect to get a more substantial briefing today and will certainly as just noted we'll.

Hear from John Kirby in an hour or so this of course you know Friday is when they announced I was in The Briefing room at the White House on Friday when Kirby did announce that the shot the shooting down of that object over Alaska and then we've had a couple more over the weekend frankly uh that Navy flyover at the Super Bowl surprising they didn't.

Shoot one down while they were at it considering such a such a trend Richard Haas um my question for you is that we just heard this morning a couple hours ago foreign Ministry in Beijing has said hey the US has flown 10 balloons over our skies since 2022. we know they spy on us we spy on them uh do what's the sense here is this something that it's.

Always been happening and just now there's more attention to it and part two this only is inflaming or tensions between Washington and Beijing what can be done about that well in part one my guess is this was not an area that either side was focusing a lot out on now we're focusing a lot more on it it's quite possible some Chinese agencies.

Some Russian agency had decided this was almost an area you could go in the same way that we do with satellite so my guess is it's been going on for some time we're noticing it a lot more now I think the question is does it continue to go on we don't know who may have authorized it in China or Russia or wherever the real question is do.

Political authorities step in and say and it gets to your second question we've got to stop this or slow this down whatever intelligence gain we're getting from from this is not worth it really this has now become highly controversial if not unacceptable and if we want to get the relationship back on track we want to get the Secretary of State say.

To Beijing we've got to cool it on this but my guess is this was an area that there was a lot of activity in wasn't noticed now it's being noticed and now the rules of the game are going to change wide role chances are very good if the Chinese are doing it we're doing it and probably doing it better and they're not.

Being able to detect art are our objects that are floating over their country I mean I I don't I mean if you know anything classified please don't reveal it here but you know it's kind of like what people are talking about oh the Russians are able to hack into our computers they said yeah just please please just wait and then of course in.

The molo report we found out that as they were hacking we knew what base was doing it what building was doing it what person sitting at what desk was doing it what keystroke they used to to do the things that they were doing so that's what I'm saying I mean we can protest and beat our chests and scream and yell and say this is the worst thing ever.

Chances are good we're probably doing it and doing it better aren't we um well let's just say we are pretty damn good at listening all around the world from space every other place yeah um yeah I'll give you I'll give you three things that are net positives here one is uh we're learning a lot we are soaking up intelligence we are going to.

Recover every nut and bolt of these things that come out of the sky we're also very good at that in our intelligence Community is going to reverse engineer this and learn a great deal number two little noticed I think but really terrific cooperation between the United States and Canada here this is the absolute idea of NORAD North.

American air defense that's what NORAD stands for you see it going back and forth if you're going to stand and operate with another Nation having a big capable one like candid on our border is a very good thing that cooperation has gone very well and then thirdly uh to Richard haas's point I think both sides are going to say look the candle isn't.

Worked the game here in terms of ratcheting up creating challenges um let's let cooler heads prevail I think that'll happen signal to watch Tony blanken when does that trip get reconstituted let's hope it's soon and let's hope the tension goes out of the system here thank you.

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