(CNSNews.com) – Three high-altitude flying objects shot down by the U.S. Air Force in recent days were not a “military threat to anyone on the ground” but did pose a risk to civil aviation “and potentially an intelligence collection threat,” Defense Secretary Gen. Lloyd Austin said on Monday.
“We don’t know if they were actually collecting intelligence,” he told reporters after arriving in Brussels. “But because of the route that they took, out of an abundance of caution, we want to make sure that we have the ability to examine what these things are and potentially what they were doing.”
Efforts to recover the remains of the objects, shot down by F-22 Raptors over northern Alaska on Friday and Canada’s Yukon on Saturday, and by an F-16 Flying Falcon over Lake Huron on Sunday, are underway. Austin said each recovery poses unique challenges, and he confirmed that no debris has been collected yet.
Austin read out an administration talking point delivered several hours earlier by National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby at the White House.
“We, of course, know that a range of entities, including countries, companies, research organizations, operate in these altitudes – or at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research,” he said.
“That said, because we’ve not been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, we’ve acted out of an abundance of caution to protect the – our security and interests. That’s why we have teams working hard to track down the debris from over the weekend.”
Austin drew a distinction between the three downed objects and the Chinese spy balloon, shot down off the coast of South Carolina on February 4 after it had floated through U.S. and Canadian airspace for a week.
“We knew exactly what that was – a PRC surveillance balloon,” he said. “And as we have said, we do not assess that the recent objects pose any direct threat to the people on the ground and we will continue to focus on confirming their nature and purpose.”
Asked if it was now U.S. policy to shoot down such unidentified objects on sight, Austin said policy had not changed.
“We will evaluate each and every event on its own merits and we’ll make decisions based upon the recommendations of the NORTHCOM/NORAD commander, the chairman of the joint chiefs, and they'll make recommendations to me and I'll evaluate and make recommendations to the president.”
‘Where is the president?’
Some Republican lawmakers have been critical of President Biden’s silence on the shooting down of the unidentified objects.
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines, whose state was evidently overflown by the object that was later shot down over Lake Huron, noted that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had spoken publicly about the issue.
“Where is the president?” he asked on Fox News. “He is the commander in chief. He needs to show authority, command of the facts, and if he doesn’t know exactly all the facts yet, at least assure the American people the current state of play.”
“This calls for an address to the nation,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) tweeted, citing the four shootdowns since February 4.
“Americans need to hear directly about this from their President today,” said Intelligence Committee vice chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), while Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Biden “owes the American people an explanation, direct and on camera, of what we know about these ‘objects’ and what steps he’s taking to protect America’s sovereign airspace.”
Fielding questions at the White House on Monday, Kirby was asked why Biden hasn’t yet spoken directly about the incidents.
“We have been, I think, as transparent as we can be,” he said. “I won’t speak for the president’s personal speaking schedule but, I mean, he has been deeply engaged in every one of these decisions.”
A reporter asked about a possible perception that the White House, reacting to pressure from congressional Republicans over the Chinese spy balloon affair, was now “going to act quickly to take down any objects over our airspace.”
“This was – these were decisions based purely and simply on what was in the best interests of the American people,” Kirby replied.
A Chinese state newspaper in an editorial Monday suggested the objects had been shot down quickly to counter any impression of hesitation or weakness on the part of the administration and Pentagon.
“In periods of non-war, it is difficult for people to imagine a superpower repeatedly using advanced fighter jets to shoot down UFOs preemptively,” said Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece. “But against the atmosphere of high tension with China, this absurd and expensive large-scale political behavioral art just took place.”