Pentagon Shoots Down High-Altitude Object Over Alaska Airspace

The Pentagon, at the direction of President Biden, shot down a “high altitude object” over Alaska airspace on Friday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed during Friday’s White House briefing.

Kirby said the Department of Defense had been tracking the object, which was about 40,000 feet above Alaska, for the past 24 hours. The White House confirmed the action was taken out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon.

A fighter aircraft was dispatched to carry out the task, and the object fell on ice. Kirby said the object was the size of a […] and that it was not possible to provide further details about the object.

The incident comes several days after the Pentagon took down a Chinese spy balloon that crossed much of the continental U.S. Kirby, asked about the possibility of another object floating over U.S. airspace, said he “can confirm that the Department of Defense was tracking a high-altitude object over Alaska in the last 24 hours.”

The Pentagon has not released any further information about the object or its origin. It is unclear if the object was related to the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down earlier this week.