Lawmakers are demanding answers after the United States military shot down another unidentified aerial object on Sunday, the third in three days.
Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene took to Twitter after the latest object was shot down over Lake Huron Sunday afternoon.
"There's been space junk, weather balloons, spy balloons, and military advancements for years. All of sudden world superpowers are shooting unidentified objects down," she said. "This looks like a testing of military prowess. Lack of evidence and briefings are extremely noticeable."
"We have not been briefed on any of the air defense actions being taken in response to unidentified flying objects," Greene added. "Congress should be informed and so should the American people."
Montana GOP Sen. Steve Daines called the lack of transparency from the Biden administration "unacceptable."
"The top priority of the administration should be the safety and security of the people of the United States and keeping the American people informed is a key part of fulfilling that duty," Daines tweeted. "Without information, the public and media are left to rely on leaks, speculation and worst of all disinformation from foreign governments."
Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell called the increasing incidents of unidentified objects "disturbing."
"We need the facts about where they are originating from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing," she tweeted. "Our national security is of the utmost importance & we must work in a bipartisan way with the Administration & relevant partners for answers and the appropriate reaction."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said unidentified aircraft have been routinely operating over restricted U.S. airspace for years.
"The last 72 hours revealed to the public what has happening for years," he tweeted. "In its 65 year history [NORAD] never shot down an aircraft over U.S. airspace. Over the 10 days they have shot down 1 balloon & 3 'objects.' Americans need to hear directly about this from their President."
The latest object was the fourth downed in just eight days, with the Pentagon telling the Associated Press that there is no peacetime precedent for this "extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace." Officials said the objects were not of great national security concern and the downings were just out of caution. At the same time, authorities are still trying to determine what exactly the objects were and said they haven't ruled anything out — not even UFOs.
U.S. officials confirmed in a press briefing Sunday that the military took down the unidentified aerial object over Lake Huron in Michigan because it posed a threat to civilian aviation, flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in U.S. airspace. Pentagon officials believe it was the same object observed over Montana on Saturday. It was first detected as a "radar anomaly," but fighter jets sent to investigate could not locate the object, reportedly shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it.
"The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery," officials said. "Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites."
Defense officials added that they "did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat" but that it was "a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities."
It was the third such incident since President Joe Biden ordered a suspected Chinese spy balloon to be taken down off the Carolina coast February 4.
On Friday, the military took down a "high-altitude object" over Alaska that was "flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight," John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said during a press briefing.
"This was the size of a small car," Kirby said. "This thing did not appear to be self-maneuvering. And, therefore, at the mercy of prevailing winds, it was much less predictable. And so, the President just wasn't willing to take that risk."
While officials are still trying to determine the object's intentions, Kirby said the situation provided an opportunity to "learn more about our own processes and our own systems for detection and tracking."
"I don't want to get into exactly how this one was detected, but I can assure you that — that we're going to continue to try to improve our own knowledge base with respect to these systems," he said.
On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the North American Aerospace Defense Command to shoot down an unidentified object over the territory of Yukon.
Officials said NORAD detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening, and then two U.S. fighter aircraft monitored the object over U.S. airspace, "tracking it closely and taking time to characterize the nature of the object."
"Out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of their militaries, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau authorized it to be taken down," the White House said in a statement. "A US F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory."
The Pentagon said the FBI will be working closely with Canadian authorities as they conduct recovery operations "to help our countries learn more about the object."
The origins and intentions of the latest three objects, along with the Chinese surveillance balloon, remain under investigation.
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