A Chinese balloon flies above Billings, Montana on Feb. 1, 2023. (Photo by Chase Doak, Special to States Newsroom).

NC’s Congressman Jeff Jackson says three objects “fundamentally different” than balloon downed earlier this month

WASHINGTON — In his first address since the U.S. military shot down three unidentified flying objects last weekend, just days after taking down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the actions and said the skies above the U.S. will now be more closely scrutinized.

Biden, who was under increasing pressure from lawmakers to address the unprecedented situation, also said nothing so far suggests the mystery objects were related to Chinese surveillance or spying by any other nation. 

“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions, studying weather, or conducting other scientific research,” Biden said.

Biden said during his brief remarks that he has “no apologies” for ordering American forces to shoot down the sizable Chinese balloon suspected of surveillance capabilities and said that he expects to speak with China’s President Xi Jinping “to get to the bottom of this.”

China denies the balloon was used for espionage, saying it was collecting weather data.

The U.S. maintains that China operates a vast surveillance balloon program over the U.S. and nearly 40 other countries.

Biden said there is no evidence of increasing numbers of unidentified objects in the skies. “We’re now just seeing more of them, partially because the steps we’ve taken to increase our radars, to narrow our radars, and we have to keep adapting our approach to dealing with these challenges,” Biden said.

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

Debris in deep waters

Fighter jets from bases in Alaska and Wisconsin were ordered Friday, Saturday and Sunday to take the objects down over Alaska sea ice, Canada’s Yukon wilderness and Lake Huron, respectively.

As of Tuesday, White House officials said that none of the debris had yet been found in the difficult terrain with temperatures well below zero, and in waters of up to a couple hundred feet.

Some lawmakers have been urging Biden for days to address the nation about why he ordered the objects to be shot down, what the objects were, and what the protocol will be going forward.

Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC-14)

“Americans are worried, they’re concerned, and they’re interested, and they have a right to know why President Biden directed the actions that he did over the last week,” Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said after senators received a classified briefing Tuesday.

The White House and Pentagon offered little detail about the objects that were each taken down with a nearly 200-pound air-to-air missile.

The first AIM-9X Sidewinder missile fired from two F-16 jets over Lake Huron missed and landed in the water, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. The second missile hit the object, and debris crashed into the Canadian side of the lake, according to the administration.

The administration promised Tuesday to update the public by week’s end about a new interagency policy plan for deciding when to take action against unidentified aerial objects.

Senators who were privately briefed said they were told the objects were “very, very small,” according to Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

‘Size of an A.T.V. or four-wheeler’

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson, of North Carolina, wrote in a Substack post Wednesday that the three objects shot down over the weekend were “fundamentally different” than the high-altitude suspected Chinese spy balloon because they were flying lower and moving with the wind, according to what he learned in a congressional briefing from Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. Read more