The recent string of unidentified objects in US airspace shows a “sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse,” a UK official has warned. It comes after President Joe Biden called on the Air Force to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana.
As well as the identified Chinese surveillance balloon, an F-22 fighter jet shot down an octagonal-shaped object over Lake Huron on the US-Canada border on Sunday.
Two separate objects were also shot down from the sky over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday.
Following the downing of unidentified objects, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security,” according to Reuters.
He added: “This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.”
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, was asked to comment on Mr Wallace’s remarks.
He said: “We have already stated our position on the incident in question.
“All parties should look at it objectively and stop playing up the issue.”
There have also been concerns that China could have flown similar spy balloons over Britain.
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“But to answer your question, we’ve not recovered any debris from the three most recent shootdowns.”
He said that crews have collected “a fair amount of debris” from a Chinese surveillance balloon shot down on February 4, but the weather has impacted the search for one object’s debris in Alaska.
The US Coast Guard, the FBI and US Northern Command are “beginning operations” to locate the debris shot down over Lake Huron, Austin said on Monday.
The Defence Secretary said: “I want to be clear the three objects taken down this weekend are very different from what we were talking about last week. We knew exactly what that was — a (People’s Republic of China) PRC surveillance balloon.”
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*This story has not been edited by The Infallible staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.
