Biden says there's no evidence of a "sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky"
President Joe Biden arrives to speak about the Chinese surveillance balloon and other unidentified objects on Thursday. (Evan Vucci/AP)
President Joe Biden said there is no evidence of a "sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky."
"We're now just seeing more of them partially because the steps we've taken to increase our radars," he said.
The president said he's directed his administration "to come back to me with sharper rules for how we will deal with these unidentified objects moving forward, distinguishing between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not."
3:02 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
Biden: Nothing suggests last 3 objects were related to China, likely tied to private companies
President Joe Biden arrives to speak about the administration's response to recent aerial objects at the White House House in Washington, DC, on February 16. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden said that while it is still unclear what the three unidentified objects were, "nothing right now suggests that they were related to China's spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from other — any other country."
"The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three ones were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research," Biden said during remarks from the White House Thursday.
Here's what else we know about the objects, according to US officials:
Over Lake Huron: CNN reported that the most recent object, shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday, was “octagonal” in shape with strings hanging off and no discernible payload, according to a senior administration official. It was traveling at 20,000 feet when it was shot down, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Over northern Canada: The object shot down over the Yukon territory in Canada on Saturday appeared to be a balloon with a metal payload hanging underneath, according to the officials. The object was also traveling at 40,000 feet, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand. She went on to describe the object as a “cylindrical object” smaller than the Chinese surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina one week earlier.
Off the coast of northern Alaska: The object shot down Friday was metallic, and it broke into several pieces when it hit the sea ice, according to multiple US officials. That suggests it may have had some sort of structure to it, but officials won't know for sure until the object is recovered.
Officials have taken pains to distinguish the three objects shot down over the weekend and the Chinese balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. The three later objects were all smaller in size and flying at a much lower altitude.
CNN's Oren Liebermann, MJ Lee, Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
2:34 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
US could not rule out surveillance risk of unidentified objects, Biden says
President Joe Biden arrives to speak about the administration's response to recent aerial objects at the White House House in Washington, DC, on February 16. (Evan Vucci/AP)
President Joe Biden said he ordered the military to take down three unidentified objects over the weekend because of their danger to commercial air traffic and because they could "not rule out the surveillance risk of sensitive facilities."
"We acted out of an abundance of caution" at an opportunity that allowed the US to take down the objects safely, the president said.
Biden said he spoke personally to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since one of the objects was shot down over Canada. The US and Canadian militaries are working to recover the objects, the president said.
2:11 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
NOW: Biden delivers remarks on downed objects
From CNN's Sam Fossum and Maegan Vazquez
President Joe Biden walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday. (Evan Vucci/AP)
President Joe Biden is speaking now from the White House on the United States’ response to the unidentified high-altitude objects over North American airspace in recent weeks, following the US military’s downing of a Chinese spy balloon.
Federal officials have said the initial Chinese surveillance balloon downed off the coast of South Carolina was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations and had a payload around the size of three buses. By comparison, the subsequent objects, which haven’t been attributed to a specific country or entity, are believed to be much smaller.
The US is now also increasingly confident that the three objects that were downed between Friday and Sunday were “benign” balloons.
It’s anticipated that new protocols on how the US will handle similar unidentified objects going forward will be released this week.
Administration officials from the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community have briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill on the initial Chinese spy balloon in recent days.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have criticized Biden for not approving the military to down the first balloon quickly enough, letting it sail eastward for days. They’ve also called on him to speak on the matter.
But administration officials argued that the US didn’t move earlier to shoot down the balloon in part over fears it could provoke an escalation of military tensions with China. They also told lawmakers the balloon was not first shot down when it entered Alaskan airspace because the waters there are cold and deep, making it less likely they could have recovered the balloon.
And officials had been wary of having the president speak publicly about the objects until more information was gathered about the three unidentified objects that were downed last weekend.
1:41 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
No more unidentified objects have been detected in US airspace since Sunday, defense secretary says
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand
The Pentagon is not aware of any additional unidentified objects appearing in United States airspace since the last one was shot down on Sunday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.
“I am not aware of any that have been reported operating in this space in the last 48 hours,” he said. “But in terms of whether or not the debris is important, it's absolutely important and we're going to do everything we can to recover debris if it's possible. That will help us learn a lot more about you know what these objects are.”
A sharper lens: One reason why additional “objects” have been detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in recent days could be because the command recently readjusted its filters to better spot slow-moving targets operating above a certain altitude, a source briefed on the matter told CNN.
In general, NORAD has tended to prioritize the detection of fast-moving targets below a certain altitude — at which threatening planes or certain missiles, for example, might fly.
The more narrow filters were meant to allow NORAD and defense officials to better make sense of the mass of data that was being collected on any particular day, the source said. If they didn’t filter out slow-moving objects, early warning air defense systems would pick up lots of noise, such as weather balloons and birds.
1:42 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
Biden administration under pressure from lawmakers to publicly address unidentified objects
From CNN's Jeremy Diamond, Phil Mattingly and Maegan Vazquez
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks about the country's debt ceiling outside his office at the Capitol on February 6 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Calls on Capitol Hill for President Joe Biden to publicly address the downing of a series of unidentified objects, as well as the Chinese spy balloon, have been mounting.
Officials from the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community have briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill on the initial Chinese spy balloon. Republicans on Capitol Hill have criticized Biden for not approving the military to down the first balloon quickly enough, letting it sail eastward for days.
But in the classified congressional briefings, administration officials argued that the US didn’t move earlier to shoot down the balloon in part over fears it could provoke an escalation of military tensions with China. The officials also told lawmakers the balloon was not first shot down when it entered Alaskan airspace because the waters there are cold and deep, making it less likely they could have recovered the balloon.
After being briefed last week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said it was wrong for the Biden administration to wait to shoot down the initial balloon
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn similarly told reporters on Wednesday that he believes the administration needs to be more transparent about the objects shot down in order to stop rampant speculation.
“It’s amazing what the human mind can imagine when confronted with the unknown, and I think people are conjuring up all sorts of imaginary and horrifying scenarios that a little transparency would dispel," he said.
Administration response: The White House has attempted to dispel the suggestion that Biden’s decisions to quickly take down three high-altitude objects between Friday and Sunday were the result of political pressure.
Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the Pentagon is not aware of any additional unidentified objects appearing in US airspace since the last one was shot down on Sunday.
1:50 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
Officials say two of the unidentified objects were carrying a payload
From CNN's Oren Liebermann, MJ Lee, Phil Mattingly, Natasha Bertrand and Kevin Liptak
United States officials are working to learn more about the three unidentified objects shot down over the weekend, giving new details in the last few days.
All three objects looked different, according to two US officials earlier this week. One official said they were approximately the same size.
Multiple officials said the objects shot down in Alaska and over Canada were believed to have payloads, meaning that something was being carried by the object. Two officials said none of the three objects were believed to have propulsion, though the wreckage still needs to be examined to be sure.
Here's what else we know about the objects:
Over Lake Huron: CNN reported that the most recent object, shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday, was “octagonal” in shape with strings hanging off and no discernible payload, according to a senior administration official. It was traveling at 20,000 feet when it was shot down, the Pentagon said Sunday.
Over northern Canada: The object shot down over the Yukon territory in Canada on Saturday appeared to be a balloon with a metal payload hanging underneath, according to the officials. The object was also traveling at 40,000 feet, Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand. She went on to describe the object as a “cylindrical object” smaller than the Chinese surveillance balloon that was downed off the coast of South Carolina one week earlier.
Off the coast of northern Alaska: The object shot down Friday was metallic, and it broke into several pieces when it hit the sea ice, according to multiple US officials. That suggests it may have had some sort of structure to it, but officials won't know for sure until the object is recovered.
Officials have taken pains to distinguish the three objects shot down over the weekend and the Chinese balloon shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. The three later objects were all smaller in size and flying at a much lower altitude.
1:29 p.m. ET, February 16, 2023
What we know — and still don't know — about the unidentified objects the US shot down
Analysis from CNN's Paul LeBlanc
On February 10, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. This photo from August 2022 shows a similar F-22 Raptor taking off from Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England. (Airman Seleena Muhammad-Ali/US Air Force)
The US military shot down another high altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, the Pentagon said.
Another unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace. Last Friday, an unidentified object was shot down in Alaska airspace by a US F-22. And on February 4, a Chinese surveillance balloon was taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina.
That marks the beginning and the end of what we know definitively.
Here’s everything we still don’t know, and some of the things we do:
Are the latest objects related to China’s spy balloon? There’s no indication at this point whether the unidentified objects have any connection to China’s surveillance balloon.
Canadian retired Maj. Gen. Scott Clancy, former director of operations at NORAD and former deputy commander of the Alaskan NORAD Region, said on Monday he does not believe China is behind the unidentified objects that have been shot down in recent days. He explained that it could be a “confluence of a distinctive activity by our adversaries to test the systems.”
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, Melissa Dalton told reporters on Sunday they were taken down out of an “abundance of caution.”
Dalton said that high-altitude objects can be used by a range of companies, countries, and research organizations for “purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research.”
No. They're not aliens. It’s still unclear, but we’re not dealing with aliens. During a midday briefing on Monday, the White House offered one detail of certainty: the objects did not originate from outer space.
“I just wanted to make sure we address this from the White House: I know there have been questions and concerns about this but there is no — again, no — indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent take-downs,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
A US official told CNN there has been caution inside the Biden administration on the pilot descriptions of the unidentified objects shot down over Alaska and Canada due to the circumstances in which the objects were viewed.
But at least two high-ranking officials have made reference to balloons.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC News that he was briefed on the object by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and that the object shot down over Canada was likely another balloon — as was the high-altitude object downed over Alaska on Friday.
Canada’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Wayne Eyre, also made mention of a “balloon” when describing instructions given to the team that worked to take down the object.
A Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers and obtained by CNN said the object shot down over Canada appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it.”
Why are these objects being spotted now? Notably, the US intelligence community’s method to track China’s fleet of surveillance balloons was only discovered within the last year, six people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The findings have allowed the US to develop a consistent technical method for the first time, which they have used to track the balloons in near-real time across the globe, the sources said.
