< p _ngcontent-sc148="" class="news-annotation">The US Department of Defense shot down an unidentified flying object over Alaskan waters on February 10th. It was moving at an altitude that posed a potential threat to civilian aircraft.

The incident occurred on February 10, 2023. The flying object was moving over the frozen waters around Alaska at an altitude of about 12 kilometers.

Now experts are looking for the wreckage

White House National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said the unmanned object was “the size of a small car” and was heading northeast. It was spotted over a sparsely populated area of ​​Alaska as early as February 9th. According to Kirby, President Joe Biden ordered the downing of an object of unknown origin “for security reasons” because it threatened civilian aircraft at a height of 12 meters.

Before shooting down the object, 2 fighter jets approached it to check if there was anyone on board. It turned out to be a drone. After making sure that no one was on board, the object was shot down by an F-22 fighter that fired a Sidewinder missile.

So far, the White House and the Department of Defense do not know who it belonged to: the state, corporations or the private sector. It is also not yet known whether this drone was reconnaissance. However, experts have already found a significant amount of debris and delivered them to the laboratory for analysis.

Kirby added that the drone did not have the maneuverability of a Chinese balloon and was “virtually subject to the whims of the wind.”

A Chinese balloon was recently shot down in the US

• February 4 US shot down a Chinese reconnaissance balloon over their territory. She was “landed” off the coast of South Carolina with the help of an F-22 fighter that fired an Aim-9X Sidewinder missile. The so-called spy exploded, and the contents of the ball fell.
• The situation provoked a new wave of tension between Washington and Beijing. In particular, Beijing expressed indignation at the actions of Washington. The Chinese Foreign Ministry assured that the airship was intended for meteorological research, and the bullet hit the United States due to “force majeure”.
• At the same time, officials rejected attempts by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to talk about the incident.
• US intelligence is convinced that the Chinese balloon is part of a massive surveillance program that the PRC has been using for a long time to collect information on military resources in several countries. Such balloons were fixed over the USA back in 2019.