U.S. Shoots Down Three UFOs

The U.S. Air Force General overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts. “We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason,” he said, as the U.S. was unable to immediately determine the means by which they were kept aloft. The Telegraph has the story.

Asked whether he had ruled out an extraterrestrial origin for three airborne objects shot down by U.S. warplanes in as many days, General Glen VanHerck said: “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything.”

“At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it,” said Mr. VanHerck, head of U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command.

Mr. VanHerck’s comments came during a Pentagon briefing on Sunday after a U.S. F-16 fighter jet shot down an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the U.S.-Canada border.

The incidents over the past three days follow the February 4th downing of a Chinese balloon that put North American air defences on high alert. U.S. officials said that balloon was being used for surveillance.

Another U.S. defence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the military had seen no evidence suggesting any of the objects in question were of extraterrestrial origin.

Mr. VanHerck said the military was unable to immediately determine the means by which any of the three latest objects were kept aloft or where they were coming from.

“We’re calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason,” said Mr VanHerck.

The incidents come as the Pentagon has undertaken a new push in recent years to investigate military sightings of UFOs – rebranded in official Government parlance as “unidentified aerial phenomena,” or UAPs.

The Government’s effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects – whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater – has led to hundreds of documented reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said.

But the Pentagon says it has not found evidence to indicate Earthly visits from intelligent alien life.

William Kim writes in the Telegraph that the “most likely explanation is that they’re balloons – either civilian devices designed to monitor weather, or military technology from the People’s Republic of China similar to the one that made headlines the week before”.

Worth reading in full.