President Biden "make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down"

President Joe Biden said the U.S. "acted out of an abundance of caution" when shooting down three unidentified aerial objects flying over North American airspace this past weekend.

While officials are still working to recover the objects and assess them, Biden said nothing currently suggests they were related to China's surveillance program or that they were surveillance objects from other countries.

"But make no mistake, if any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down," Biden said.

On the Chinese surveillance balloon, Biden added: "I make no apologies for taking down that balloon."

The president's remarks on Thursday were the first time he's commented extensively on the issue, coming more than two weeks after the Chinese spy balloon was spotted over Montana.

The balloon that traversed the continental U.S. between Jan. 28 and Feb. 4 added tension to the already fraught U.S.-China relationship. Biden was criticized by Republicans for not taking action to shoot the balloon down earlier, though he said he ordered it be taken down as soon as possible but his military advisers said it was too risky to do over land.

Since then, three unidentified aerial objects were downed by the U.S. military over three successive days -- one over Alaska, one over Canada and the third over Lake Huron in Michigan.

The administration has yet to confirm what those objects were or where they came from, though White House spokesperson John Kirby said earlier this week a "leading explanation" within the intelligence community is that the objects may have been for commercial or benign use.

Biden echoed that sentiment Thursday, saying while they still don't know for sure the objects were "most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions" for weather purposes or scientific research.

An interagency review has been underway to study broader policy implications for detecting and analyzing unidentified aerial objects that pose either safety or security risks.

BREAKING: U.S. SHOOTS DOWN HIGH ALTITUDE OBJECT OVER ALASKA

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Friday afternoon shot down a "high-altitude object" flying over Alaskan airspace that the Department of Defense was tracking over the last 24 hours, National Security Council official John Kirby confirmed at the White House.

"The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object and they did and it came inside our territorial waters and those waters right now are frozen," Kirby told reporters at the White House briefing.


Fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command took down the object "within the last hour," Kirby said around 2:30 p.m. ET.


The Pentagon will have more to say about the situation later in the afternoon, Kirby said. A press briefing is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.

Kirby made clear the U.S. does not know who owns the object and he would not call it a balloon, like the one allegedly owned by the Chinese government that the U.S. military shot down last weekend.

"We're calling this an object because that's the best description we have right now," Kirby said. "We do not know who owns it, whether it's state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned. We just don't know."

Officials did not understand the full purpose of the object, Kirby added, saying the U.S. expects that it will be able to recover the debris because it fell over what they believe is frozen water. "A recovery effort will be made and we're hopeful that it'll be successful and then we can learn a little bit more about it," he said.

The object was described as "roughly the size of a small car," Kirby said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

US NAVY photos of downed Chinese Spy Balloon recovery surface.

 SOURCE: US NAVY 

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China's spy balloon flying over U.S.

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The U.S. military has been monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. for the past few days, and military and defense leaders have discussed shooting it out of the sky, according to two U.S. officials and a senior defense official.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. “We continue to track and monitor it closely.”

“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said.

The high-altitude balloon was spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday. It flew over the Aleutian Islands, through Canada, and into Montana. A senior defense official said the balloon is still over the U.S. but declined to say where it is now.

On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of senior military and defense leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, NORTHCOM/NORAD Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck, and other combatant commanders.

Austin was traveling in the Philippines at the time.

The leaders reviewed the threat profile of the Chinese stratospheric balloon and possible response options, and ultimately decided not to recommend taking it out kinetically, because of the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field. Pentagon leaders presented the options to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

A senior administration official confirmed that Biden had been briefed and received a “strong recommendation” that the balloon not be shot down.

“Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration,” said the senior administration official. “We acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.”

Biden did not respond to a question from reporters about the balloon on Thursday afternoon at the White House.

“Currently we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective over and above what the PRC can do through other means,” the senior defense official said. “Nevertheless we are taking all necessary steps to protect against foreign intelligence collection of sensitive information.”

The official said the balloon does not pose a threat to civil aviation because of its altitude.

The official said the U.S. military will continue to monitor it closely and will keep the option of taking out the balloon on the table.

“We are tracking it in minute detail in real time and we will constantly update our assessment,” the official said. “We are in constant surveillance of this thing through a bunch of different means.”

The official said there was a window while the balloon was over Montana Wednesday when they could have taken it down. NORAD sent aircraft — including F-22 Raptors from Nellis Air Force Base and airborne early warning aircraft known as AWACs — but the official would not say whether one of the options was to shoot the balloon out of the sky with a U.S. aircraft.

The U.S. military flights prompted a ground stop at the airport in Billings, with air traffic controllers citing a “special military mission.”

The U.S. is confident the balloon belongs to China, the official said, and they have communicated to the Chinese government “through multiple channels both here in D.C. and in Beijing.” The official did not say whether the Chinese admitted the balloon was theirs.

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