Are they out there? US general refuses to rule out aliens after three bizarre UFOs shot down over North America
13 February 2023, 09:21 | Updated: 13 February 2023, 11:20
A US general has refused to rule out aliens as he spoke about a series of shoot downs of unidentified objects.
The US has downed three objects in the air since it took out the suspected surveillance balloon China sent out.
General Glen VanHerck, who is in charge of North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command, was asked on Sunday if the objects shot down since then could extra-terrestrial.
"I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything," he said.
"At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it."
The latest shoot down saw an F-16 blast an octagonal shaped object over Lake Huron at the border between Canada and the US on Sunday.
Ex-MoD official's take after US shooting down of flying objects
"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 [Department of Defense] sites," the Pentagon said.
"We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities."
Read more: US military shoots down another unidentified flying object in fourth incident within eight days
Officials are hoping to analyse the debris to assess what it was. The object was flying at a level that posed a risk to civilian aircraft.
It was described as octagonal with "strings handing off but no discernible payload".
Since the balloon, the air force shot down a car-sized object off the coast of northern Alaska, before Canada ordered aircraft to intercept an object flying over the Yukon territory.
The cylindrical object was flying at about 40,000 ft – posing a risk to civilian planes.
General VanHerck said it was unknown how the three objects were powered in the sky.
"We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason," he said.
Read more: US shoots down third unauthorised high-altitude object in seven days, Justin Trudeau confirms
The objects have been described as smaller than the Chinese balloon.
Britain is going to carry out a security review in the wake of the shoot downs.
"The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security. This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse," defence secretary Ben Wallace said.
