During today’s press briefing, John Kirby from the National Security Council announced that the Department of Defense has taken down another “high-altitude object” this afternoon.
Kirby insisted on simply calling the flying device an “object,” as its true nature remains unknown.
According to Kirby, the object was identified yesterday evening and landed today on frozen waters in the northeastern part of Alaska.
At the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden himself ordered the object to be taken down as it posed a “reasonable threat to civilian flights.”
“The President will always make decisions and act with the duty of protecting the nation and the American people,” stated Kirby.
Unlike the PRC balloon found last week surveilling sensitive American military sites, there is no indication that this object has maneuvering capabilities. The Chinese balloon could “slow down or speed up,” whereas the new object could not.
“We knew for a fact that last week’s balloon belongs to the PRC and is a surveillance asset,” reassured Kirby. That is not the case with the new object, as the purpose and owner of it remain unknown.
Kirby said that he had “no idea” who owned the object.
Moreover, today’s object is significantly smaller than the Chinese balloon. According to Kirby, the new object could be compared to a small car, whereas the PCR balloon had the size of three buses.
Biden’s administration hopes to learn more about the recently taken down object. It is expected that government officials will recover the material since it fell on American territorial space, more specifically on Alaska’s frozen waters.
“I can assure you that we will improve our knowledge with respect to these systems,” reassured Kirby.
When asked if the President believes the Chinese narrative that the balloon veered off its track and had no intentions of surveilling American territory, Kirby cooly answered, “No.”
As of right now, no connection has been drawn between today’s device and PCR’s balloon.
“We are going to remain vigilant about our airspace and the skies over the United States.” That was Kirby’s message to the owner of the object.
