Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin just spoke from Brussels, Belgium on the issue of the three “objects” that have been shot down by the U.S. in the past three days over the U.S. and Canada.

Austin was asked if there was now a new policy to shoot down these “objects” whenever they are spotted.

Austin said they were going to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis and evaluate based on the recommendation of the NORAD/Northcom Commander and the chair of the Joint Chiefs. He said they were shot down because there was a risk to civilian flight.

Austin said that they had not recovered any debris from the three most recent shoot-downs.

He also said they weren’t identifying them as balloons yet because they didn’t know yet. He said they were trying to recover the material.

Austin made clear this was different from the Chinese spy ballon the prior week. He said, “We do not assess that the recent objects pose any direct threat to people on the ground.”

He said they would continue to focus on figuring out their nature and purpose.

So how can they assess they don’t pose any direct threat if they don’t know what they are and they don’t know their purpose? As I just noted, this is the highest Biden official to comment so far, as Joe Biden has failed to comment.