The Pentagon reported in a statement to legislators Monday that the U.S. military shot down a "small, metallic balloon" above Canada on Saturday, providing one of the first descriptions of three mystery items shot down.
According to the document, the balloon, previously characterized as a "cylindrical object," passed near "U.S. sensitive sites" before being shot down, and then "slowly descended" into Canadian seas off the Yukon Territory, CNN said.
The claimed description is one of the first issued by the Defense Department following the destruction of three UFOs over the weekend. On Friday, the U.S. military shot down an unidentified object over Alaska; on Sunday, it shot down another over Lake Huron, Michigan.
According to Fox News, the Air Force F-16 fighter engaged in the shoot-down over Lake Huron missed its first shot.
"The first Sidewinder heat-seeking missile missed the target," according to a U.S. official.
A second Sidewinder struck the mysterious object. It is unknown where the first missile landed.
Each Sidewinder missile costs over $400,000.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the U.S. has "not recovered any debris from the three most recent shoot-downs."
Canada is leading the recovery of the metallic balloon. At the same time, the United States has begun "extensive efforts" in Alaska and Michigan to gather debris from the other two devices.
"In Alaska, the object landed on sea ice, and safety concerns are partially dictating recovery timelines due to wind chills and other weather impacts in the area," Austin told reporters in Brussels. "In Lake Huron, the United States Northern Command, the United States Coast Guard, and the FBI have begun operations to locate debris in close collaboration with the Canadians."
Austin said, "We don't know if they were actually gathering intelligence, but given the path they took, we want to make sure we have the ability to examine what these things are and potentially what they were doing," he added.
According to the Pentagon, the items were discovered when NORAD altered its radar settings to keep a closer check on high-altitude disturbances after a Chinese spy balloon spent a week traveling from Alaska to South Carolina before being shot down on February 4.
A "significant" chunk of the surveillance balloon's payload was recovered, including "the electronics they were looking for," a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News on Monday.
Austin acknowledged that the Navy retrieved "a fair amount" of wreckage from the Chinese surveillance balloon while weather and high seas hindered search operations over the weekend.
"Our priority is debris recovery so we can get a better sense of what these objects are," he explained. "We're working closely with the rest of the federal government, including the FAA, the FBI, NASA, and others, to figure out what we might be seeing."
Austin stressed that "the three objects taken down this weekend are very different" from the giant Chinese spy balloon observed the week before.
"We knew exactly what that was, a [Chinese] surveillance balloon," he explained. "As previously stated, we do not believe the recent objects pose a direct threat to people on the ground, and we will continue to focus on confirming their nature and purpose."
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