US shoots down object in Alaska that posed threat to airlines, Pentagon says | LiveNOW from FOX
say this, All right, the White House briefing. going out to the Pentagon briefing, Getting an update there on the second object. that was a shot down over. Alaska. Let’s listen right Fox. at the direction of the president of the United States fighter, aircraft assigned to u.s. Northern command. successfully, took down a object off the northern coast of Alaska at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Standard time today. with in u.s. Sovereign airspace over us. territorial water. on February 9, North American Aerospace Defense command. detected an object on ground radar. further. Dated. and identified the aircraft. the object was
flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of Civilian flight. U.s. Northern command is beginning recovery. operations. Now, u.s. Northern commands, Alaska command coordinated, the operation with assistance from the Alaska Federal Aviation. Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We have no further details about the object at this time, including any description of origin. The object was about the size of a small car. So not similar in size. or shape. to the high-altitude surveillance balloon That was South Carolina. on February. 4. separately. U.s. Northern command. continues their recovery.
operations in support of the recent take down of the Chinese. balloon. recovery teams have mapped the debris field. and are in
Teams will continue to conduct Under Water Survey and Recovery is conditions permit. it the department wants to thank our interagency partners from the US Coast Guard. The FBI and state and local authorities for their continuing assistance and partnership. in other news. And I think this is important, that we remember, a lot of folks and people in turkey and Syria want to again express our to for the people of turkey. and Syria as they respond to the deadly earthquakes that struck their earlier this week. and assistance efforts, spearheaded by the US agency for International Development. us.
European command has positioned Personnel equipment in a range of assets to Aid, the its continued search and rescue efforts This includes the US Navy’s George h.w. Bush Meaning to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, to provide Logistics medical and rotary airlift support. if required. additionally US Army rotary-wing aircraft began Flying missions out of incirlik air base in Turkey on February 7 to transport. transport First Responders, to the most affected. populations. and on February 8th. Uh-60 Black Hawks transported medical facility. us. European command has designated u.s. Naval forces, Europe and Africa. as the lead component command overseeing assistance.
and disaster relief efforts within turkey. to Aid in that coordination. US Marine Corps, Brigadier General Andrew pretty u.s. Naval commander and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade Commanding General in Turkey. A February 9. 2011 military coordination. coordination. efforts. with US Agencies involved in the humanitarian Aid and disaster relief efforts. will continue to provide you with updates as we receive them. You Cam will be issuing, a press release again, we offer our thoughts and prayers to the people of turkey and Syria people this tragic. and difficult time. And finally secretary, Austin welcomed Canadian minister of national. Defense. And
on, for a bilateral meeting here in the Pentagon today. the secretary expressed his thanks and appreciation to minister and on for the cooperation, rendered by Canada and tracking the PRC high-altitude surveillance balloon. the violated the sovereignty of both of our countries, during the meeting both leaders reaffirmed the clothes defense relationship between the United States and Canada, and a readout will be available later today. They on defense.gov. And with that, I will take your questions We’ll start with sociated. Press star cup. Hi, thank you for doing this. A couple of questions on this latest shoot down.
First. What type of u.s. fighter aircraft were used? and what type of munition did they fire? and do you already have? Navy assets you Coast Guard assets out in involved in a recovery process? And then I have a few more thanks Tara. So, so the the aircraft that took down the object was an F-22. flying out of joint base Elmendorf in Alaska. and employed in aim-9x. to take down the object in terms of assets that are currently involved. in terms of recovery. we have hc-130 hh-60 and ch-47 aircraft participating in that recovery effort. okay? You
mentioned there was a reasonable threat was there. also a threat to potentially this object detecting some of our more sensitive radar capabilities that are based in capabilities and then what hasn’t been said is where this object has come from. Is there any indication that this was also a Chinese? surveillance? balloon object, whatever it is. Yeah, so at this point, we don’t know the origin. of the object. again, We will know more. once we are able to potentially recover some of those materials. but the primary concern again was the Anshel Hazard to civil flight. And so
again we’ll know more later. Thank you. perceived threat to any of the radar installations that we have based in Alaska. again, right now, we’ll know more once we assess it. we just leave it at that. Thank you. Liz. Thanks for taking my question. What made this threatening enough to shoot down? What is different about this object? than the last object? that was over Alaska. because it was chosen not to shoot the last one down over Alaska. Yeah. So you know the important thing to understand here is any time we detect anything, observe it. And then
make a decision and take appropriate action. So you You have to look at each individual case. on its own merits and this particular case. given the fact that it was operating at an altitude that posed a reasonable threat to civilian. air traffic. the determination was made in the president gave the order to take it down. Was there a specific? threat of specific civilian air traffic civilian air could have happened. again. as you well know, civilian aircraft operate, you know, at a variety of ranges up to 40 to 45,000 feet. So again, there was a reasonable
concern that this could present a present. a threat. to, or potential Hazard to civilian air traffic. So let me out to his Chinese counterpart or any other counterparts at all? since this has been tracked. since this? particular object know, Let me go here and then I’ll come over to learn In some previous balloon, had been recovered. What additional information? you have now about the capabilities of that balloon? Yes, we were continuing to assess that again. I’m not that to go into more detail other than in addition to learning a lot. about the balloon and the
capabilities that it has while it was over the continental United States. we have identified or located a significant amount of debris on the ocean floor that will be very beneficial to us Learning more about it. But at this point in time, I’m not going to have more details and packaging label on. these equipments or the balloons. indicate that they are all manufactured in. China outsourced from China. again. I’m not going to have details to provide it at this point I’m also say that I have indicated, They have seen balloons in there. in their territories. Are
you sharing those? information from from the Pentagon to these countries? or the capabilities? How you short shot them down? So short terms of what we’re learning about these department has talked to this in terms of our International Outreach certainly the department of Defense, plays a role in those relationships, and so we will continue to work with our allies and information. along with our state department colleagues, let me go to Orange two questions. First did this object show any signs of maneuver maneuverability or propulsion? and then you and other Pentagon officials made a big deal about
how much intelligence was gathered. By letting the other one. float across much of the United States and yet you shot this one down before entered the United States. Is that the Pentagon bowing the political pressure was there nothing to gain from this one. Yeah, so so again we’re going to judge each of these on its merits. No indication at this time. that it was maneuverable. But again we’ll know more. we’ll in terms of entering that it states it did enter us down. intelligence from this one as you did from the previous one, we’re going to
recover. What we can from this and more to follow. decision to shoot it down before it entered too far to the US airspace the Pentagon, bombing, the political pressure from the hill, Look, again, we’re going to judge each of these objects on its own merits. It entered into US airspace on February 9th. We set up Aircraft to assess what it was, The decision was made that it posed a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic. the president. gave the order to take it down and we took it down. Thank you. Laura, And then I’ll go to
Dan Thanks for taking my question. So a couple of questions. First of all, has anything like this? happened before with object this size, this shape, in this this particular height for the 40,000 foot range, has that hasn’t happened before and then second of all, how, why did you can you say more about why you knew the that last balloon? or object was from China? Where as this one you don’t know. So in terms of this particular object again, as I highlighted, we don’t know where it’s from. it posed, a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic.
into the determination was made to take it down in terms of the other balloon. as I mentioned in our previous, briefing, we have learned a lot. about the Chinese, surveillance high-altitude balloon program. We gathered a lot of information over a last couple of years. and so we were able to based on that information. detect at a very early stage. as it approached us airspace We had a good understanding of what it was. As I mentioned, we were able to monitor that closely. track it. Well, it went over the continental United States. learn a lot about
it and take it down at the appropriate time. So would you would you urge us to put this in a different bucket? Then that or should we I think I was pretty clear. this. was traveling at about, 40,000 feet, which posed a potential a reasonable threat to civilian air traffic. and the decision was made to take it down. So Dan when the pilot, when the pilots approached it, and they’ve determined I understand that it was not manned. how did they point wouldn’t it be possible to at least describe what they were looking at? Did it
resemble a balloon or an airplane or what? Again we’ll know more and have more information once we’ve recovered this I will give credit to our Pilots. that there. very capable in terms of looking at an object. assessing, whether or not this had the potential. Well, to beam and at that altitude. something that’s small. very very unlikely that it was manned. And so again no indication that it was manned. presented presented a potential reasonable threat to civilian air traffic and we took it down. what speed was a traveling at, by the way, I don’t have that
information. on the Chinese bun if we could go back. is it is it still in the pentagon’s View? plausible or maybe even likely that it was? not necessarily intentional when that balloon turned and blew? Eastward that that it seemed had not technical problems. Yeah. So Dan, what I would tell you is based on the information that we have it was Being maneuvered. And purposefully, driven. along its track. again, recognizing that. wins do play a role. because of the maneuverability of the balloon. It’s our assessment that this was a purposeful mission. in terms of the Chinese
motivations. Again, motivations. back to China to talk about that. ma’am. And then come to Nancy. We are emailed you. police body camera footage showing a National Guard general, in Ohio pushing my colleague, and having to be escorted away from him this week. we asked the Ohio National Guard for comment, but do you as a spokesperson for the Department of Defense? Condone such conduct by a commissioned officer of the an American journalist. Yeah, so let me be clear. The answer is no. that’s not acceptable. behavior. This Secretary of Defense. the department of Defense. absolutely supports. strongly
supports. a free and independent. a So Ohio National Guard for any comment about that particular incident, but I can assure you that. that is not acceptable. behavior. Unbecoming charged under the UCMJ I’d have to refer you to them. I’m not going to I’m not going to make those kind of policy comments here from the podium. in terms of. what they may or may not be doing to address it. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on that. Let me go to Nancy. I just had a couple. clarifying questions. You said that? that the pilots
are able to see it. that it wasn’t the same shape or size. Has the balloon. Can you say definitively It was not a balloon. I don’t at this balloon. I don’t at this point. considering the fact that we’re still assessing, the object, I don’t want to get into characterizing it. So just leave it at that. you mentioned. You know how fast was traveling. Can you say it was travelling faster or slower than the balloon? I don’t have that information from me, so I don’t want to make it up. within the administration. contact their Chinese counterparts.
before the decision was made to shoot it down. in terms of when you say the administration, if House had after free to them, the Department of Defense. to my knowledge did not again, we don’t know. the point of origin. of this object. Joe. was there any effort to jam or somehow disabled this object before? such that? It poses less of a I don’t tactics or techniques that we may or may not use. when observing these types of things. again, NORAD observe to see what it was. and then the ultimate decision was made based on the
reasonable threat to civilian civilian air traffic to take it down. So, Couple things you mentioned, you’ve recovered. recovered a significant or located a significant amount of debris. Is it fair to say you’ve? So you’ve located a significant amount of the payload you’re talking about the PRC high altitude balloon one today. so Tony at this point Tony, at this point, I’m not detail other than we’ve. what I would describe we’ve discovered or located a significant amount of the with the balloon. Again, we’ll have more details to follow but I’ll just leave it at that located, but
you haven’t recovered and took a pulls out of the ocean for forensic analysis. Is that right? Yeah, so great point. So the way that the way to understand how this is, is unfolding is as we map out the area the debris A field would be. it, enables us to figure out where the places that we need to prioritize the search recognizing that we’re talking a wide area. And so as that happens, divers are able to go down and depending on the size of the debris, they’re able to tag it. so to tag can be brought
up quickly is brought up put on a vessel taking ashore debris. That’s going to take more time. and again especially given the current see States, it may take a little longer we know where it is, so we tag it. and then we’ll go back and eventually recover up. the equivalence, you found the Titanic, but you don’t, you haven’t started pulling up. yet from it. When I asked you about the overall program. you said you’ve been, you’ve been balloon balloon program, over the last Last couple of years. yet the annual China report doesn’t have a peep
about balloons in there. You spend a lot of money and learned about Taiwan and China’s balance of power against them. and satellites and jets but no balloons, why not? So so Tony what I would say on the on the unclassified. China the, on right? If there’s going to be certain elements, intelligence aspects in the unclassified version that may not be included in that particular report. in terms of what’s in that report. and what’s not in that report. again. we can go back and look at that, but I can tell you, I can assure you that
there are a lot of activities that we continue to monitor. to include this balloon program. and we’ve learned a lot over the last couple back and look, I do not know the answer to that. Thanks. let me get a couple other folks here. Mike. then that the only reason the American people know because a couple of guys in Montana spotted it and it leaked out my question is if it is remain Secret. and did not become did spectacle and be embarrassment to the White House. Would you have shot it down, or allowed it to continue
on its way? you’re asking me to speculate? So, so my kind of just push back a little bit at the assertion there, So first of all again, what made this balloon, Different was the it was over the United, the continental United States, look, we track activities all over the globe on a daily basis. Some of which will remain classified. because again, we don’t want to reveal sources and methods and this particular case, I can tell you that there were Our efforts underway. to. to make that public. I know Montana journalists reporting notwithstanding. all that to
say, look, they’re that we’re monitoring. That we’re not going to go public especially if it doesn’t present. a particular. or pose a significant threat to the American public. But again, as we monitored that balloon, there was an effort underway to ensure that that folks, understood what this was it was. you know, just stop there. Thank you. Yes, ma’am. Thank you. General First a really quick question. At this point is the Pentagon reassessing the need for counter balloon or counter object capabilities at that altitude at this time, So what I would tell you is not you
know, in the Air Force. Sometimes we talk about, don’t get platform-specific right? So what we’re talking about is monitoring the domain and having domain awareness And again, as I highlighted like seems like a couple days ago probably last week. we’re continuing about this program, which enables us to identify and track. objects. And so, and, and thus ensure that our skies in our airspace. and then real quick. first, do you and Admiral Kirby know the shape of this new object? And if so, what is sort of the reason for why you can’t share its shape before
it was shot down. and then separately. how is there a recovery efforts of this new efforts downed over ice? different from the one down over the coast and water. And are you guys using unmanned systems for this new object as well? Yeah, thank you so. in terms I have not any imagery of it. I’m just telling you the verbal characteristics as it was this to me. in terms of the difference in the recovery effort. I mean, again, So this literally was what an hour and a half, two hours ago, So that’s that’s underway right now.
Now. so more to follow on that front. right now, I think they’re moving to the site will have more to follow. in the days ahead. Let me go to few other folks. here. Sorry. some new folks back here and then we’ll go over to Mike. Object was spotted yesterday Is that spotted first that you We saw it? Or did we see it coming in a couple days before now? It was spotted yesterday. and for follow-up. did what we have? what we learned about the first balloon last week, I did that help us detect this object,
I would say that again. we detect when we detect objects, let me just back up. So what you’re asking is did what we learned? from the PRC balloon. Help us track this kind of a little bit of apples and oranges, right in terms of NORAD and northcom maintains the ability to track objects. So again they track this as it approached and entered into US airspace again, we’re still assessing what this object still so I don’t know that we learned anything new as a result of that. Other than again, I think we’re all. to include the
media and the public very attuned. to balloons at the moment. So thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. And just to clarify. So this was first identified when they flew into US airspace. Is that correct? or was identified before it? It was detected yesterday. and then again, NORAD sent up aircraft to observe it, see what it was and then the decision was made to take it down. And do you have any information, whether this object flew over any other Sovereign Nations, or countries? I do not do not. okay. Time for a few, more me. Go
a Joe. question about the recovery effort. I think you mentioned at the outset that that it was going to involve rotary-wing aircraft that’s because it landed on ice as opposed to water that’s why there isn’t watercraft being used. is it? Yeah Joe will get you more information on that front. you know, again this happened just a short while ago. and so according to assets that were being used. to go out and do the initial initial recovery. He but we’ll have more information in terms of the various roles and responsibilities of those. get down in the
weeds for a second. Any idea of what what units are involved in the recovery effort or in the F-22 that or in it down, we can get you that information. Thanks. Phil Hey, there. Just a couple. clarification questions. First off when you were first identified. It was a traveling at the same altitude around 40,000 feet. Did you at that point? No, it’s velocity. And and secondly you know just doesn’t northcom have the authority on its own to shoot down. unidentified objects entering us airspace if they vote pose a threat to civilian air traffic and if
so then why was the president’s authorization? required in this case? Yeah, thanks. So my understanding is it was at feet. Eat when it was detected and, and ultimately, taken down. the NORAD northcom Commander does not have the authority necessarily to have down an object. If it’s not posing. a potential hostile, intent or actions, However given the fact that this aircraft was up, or excuse me, this object was operating at an altitude that posed a reasonable threat. to civilian air traffic. after consultation. with the secretary and the president. of course, the president, on our advice, Yeah.
gave the order to take it down and we took it down. to clarify, What is his authorization? required in a situation like this? again? it’s kind of a moot point at this point because the president gave the order, but he has the authorization to take. action against anything that take action against anything that percent presents a potential threat to the American public or people on the ground. In this particular case, it was determined that this post reasonable threat to air traffic again. Yeah, I’ll just leave it at that. Thanks, Sarah. Just a couple of clarifiers.
was it a single F-22 or a pair? that were up today for the shot and then, when the NORAD sent the initial, aircraft up to see, was there any sort of hailing or any type of warning given typically when an aircraft makes an incursion into protected airspace? There’s a whole lot of procedures that have to be followed before it would escalate to something like this. Okay. Well, this was an object, right? So was it an aircraft per se? and to answer your se and it was a to ship of f-22s but one aircraft took the
shot. got time for one more. Go to Liz. Really quick. when it was started to be tracked, last night, were you able to tell what direction it was coming from? this? This was traveling in a northeasterly Direction. when it was taken down. and then one more the aircraft’s that were observing it. What What type of aircrafts were those? I’ll have to come back to you. and I think I know but I don’t want to make it up on the podium. so we’ll come back to you on that one. Okay. thank you very much everybody. I
appreciate it. Alright, that was a big. update their from the Pentagon big news of made today Pentagon, we featured it all for you right here on live. Now from Fox. Department of
