An unidentified object was shot down near Lake Huron Sunday, marking the third time in a week that US fighter jets have taken down objects in North American airspace. File photo of a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 555th Fighter Squadron takes off during exercise Thracian Star 21 at Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Bulgaria, July 12, 2021. This causes paralysis in policy making, because when you have policy makers, ostensibly of the same nation and I am not just speaking of the U.S. here when you have this level of disagreement as to what are truly the facts, it paralyzes consensus building that leads to policy implementation.. In addition, the jets are carrying Sniper targeting pods as discussed in the last update. No US military or media reports mention suspicion of Chinese involvement. It said: Canada and China signed a treaty that allows the Peoples Liberation Army of China to station Chinese troops in Canada, beginning in 2020., Daniel Le Bouthillier, a spokesman for Canadas Department of National Defense, said by email, Not much to say except that it isnt true.. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. 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. Brig. This is a developing story. Durwood Hawk Jones, 37, of the 115th Fighter Wing was identified as the pilot who lost his life in the crash. The DoD has held an off-camera press conference with Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton and the Commander of NORAD and USNORTHCOM Gen. Glen VanHerck that The War Zone attended. An unidentified object was shot down over northern Canada on Saturday. A review of the [F-16Cs] active and historical maintenance records revealed two unscheduled maintenance events during the 90 days preceding the mishap, including replacements of three coaxial connector and the embedded GPS, the report added. The engagement marks the fourth time an object was shot down over North America since a (supected) Chinese spy balloon was shot down on Feb. 2 over the Atlantic Ocean, after crossing CONUS from west to east. As you can see, one of the jets, 91-0405 "AESIR11," is landing with its underwing station that would carry an AIM-9X empty. The US military has decommissioned another object over Lake Huron. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called for an aggressive stance on taking down airborne objects on Sunday. Selfridge was immortalized as the first combat death of the new air battles following the initiation of WWI military battles. Because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, we have acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and interests, Dalton said. The video is not from 2020 and does not show a Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) battalion training less than 100 miles from the US border. A U.S. F-16 has shot down another unidentified object in the Canadian airspace above Lake Huron on Feb. 12, 2023. While such objects at times have gone through U.S. airspace, the current scale is unprecedented, Turner said. I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots. It looks like both the KC-135 and the E-3 are now returning to base based on tracking information from ADSBExchange.com: Let's get caught up on some of the issues surrounding the last few days of events as well. We reached out to NORAD for more details and will update this story with any information they provide. The issue was amplified after popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson discussed the topic with Ezra Levant, the editor-in-chief of the Rebel News website. Contents of this blog/website may not be used without author's prior written permission. But much smaller than the first one.. They could be out there, but they need to look back at old data to see if they were missing these recently. All rights reserved. An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the Wisconsin Air National Guards 115th Fighter Wing from Truax Field Air National Guard Base outside Madison, Wisconsin, crashed Tuesday night at approximately 20.00 Local Time near Stevens Lake close to the border of Delta County in the center of Michigans upper peninsula. Its foreign ministry said that the decision has seriously impacted and damaged relations between the two nations. Analysis revealed the nose and right wing tip both struck the ground, leaving recognizable cratering and shearing off nearby trees. Combat Aircraft Over Syria, Falcon 50 In Special Color Scheme Celebrates 150K Hours Of Italian Air Force Dassault Falcon Fleet, Incredible Footage Shows Two F-117 Nighthawks Flying Low Level Over Eastern California, Two Italian Air Force C-130Js Have Evacuated Italian Citizens From Sudan, BAE Systems And Leonardo Join Forces For New Self-Protection System, A-10 Thunderbolt II Attack Aircrafts Bomb Markings Explained, A-10Cs Refueled And Rearmed For The First Time On A U.S. Highway During Northern Agility Exercise, Wisconsin ANG Identifies Pilot Killed in F-16 Crash in Michigans Upper Peninsula, Grounds Flights Pending Investigation. Most probably, ROE (Rules of Engagement) have also been changed, leading to early decommission of the unidentified object. I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive, Turner said of the Biden administration, speaking on CNNs State of the Union. But were going to have to see whether or not this is just the administration trying to change headlines., Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press that he had real concerns about why the administration is not more forthcoming.. A DoD press conference was delayed an hour but should start soon, which we will report back on. In terms of the Chinese balloon, said Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, we had a basis and intelligence to know definitively that its point of origin was the Peoples Republic of China. No such certainty exists with the subsequent three objects. These most recent objects do not pose a kinetic military threat, but their path in proximity to sensitive DoD sites and the altitude that they were flying could be a hazard to civilian aviation and thus raised concerns.. -Canadian CF-18s and a tanker were involved in today's investigation of the object over Lake Huron. Military officials believe the object shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday is likely the same object that was spotted over Montana on Saturday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the US Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), said on Sunday. Some posts claim that an F-16 jet was shot down by Chinese troops in Michigans Upper Peninsula and that Peoples Liberation Army battalions were trained in Canadas British Columbia. -They had extra intelligence that the large balloon taken down off South Carolina was from China. The latest: Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, told reporters the Defense Department had yet to identify what the three most recent flying objects were or where they're from, per Reuters. This retired three-star falsely claims US soldiers died attacking a CIA facility in Germany tied to election fraud, Interior designers remodel Jack Teixeiras camo bedroom monstrosity, Drop and give me a Guinness World Record! Based on an agreement signed in 2013, there has been the occasional, reciprocal granting of observer-status for non-sensitive activities, including winter survival exercises. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said Sunday he prefers how the USshot down unidentified objectsover North American airspace in recent days to allowing them to traverse the country. Michigan's governor said Friday that the object was taken down "swiftly, safely and securely. These objects did not closely resemble and were much smaller than the PRC balloon and we will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on, a National Security Council spokesperson said, referring to the suspected Chinese spy balloon. WebOn 27 March 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav Army unit (the 3rd Battalion of the 250th Air Defense Missile Brigade, which was under the leadership of Colonel Zoltn Dani) shot down an F-117 Nighthawk stealth aircraft of the United States Air Force by firing a S-125 Neva/Pechora surface-to-air missile. Bizarre F-16s ground-to-ground kill injures two. On Mar. The conversion to the fifth-generation jet fighter is scheduled for 2023. A Canadian Army delegation visited China in January 2018, while a PLA delegation visited Canada in February of that same year, Le Bouthillier said. Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) February 11, 2023. The apparent shootdown follows the closing on Sunday of some airspace over the Great Lakes and Canada for U.S. Defense Department and Canadian Defense Ministry purposes. A Russian warplane has been shot down by Turkish F-16 fighter jets, purportedly after it violated Turkish air space. Rep. Jack Bergman (@RepJackBergman) February 12, 2023, The one decommissioned on Sunday, was the same unidentified object that NORAD had tracked on Saturday above Montana and Lake Michigan. Clemente said the women in the video were staying at the Mineral Springs Resort, on the northern part of the island. That's my assessment and continues to be today, he added. WebThe F-16s nose dropped to 90 degrees low, at 135 degrees of right bank, and at a speed of 600 knots that terminated with controlled flight into terrain, according to the report. The fourth flying object was shot with an air-to-air missile over Lake Huron. Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, arrives for a closed-door briefing for Senators about the Chinese spy balloon at the U.S. Capitol Feb. 9, 2023 in Washington, D.C. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images, By Paul McLeary, Olivia Olander, Lara Seligman and Alexander Ward. WebAn F-16 Fighting Falcon from the Wisconsin Air National Guards 115th Fighter Wing from Truax Field Air National Guard Base outside Madison, Wisconsin, crashed Tuesday night The second one was a high altitude object described as cylindrical and silver-ish gray and appeared to be floating, that was shot down by F-22 launched from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson on Feb. 10 over Alaska. Are you able to keep track of me? the wingman radioed to Jones, according to the report. Schumer continued to defend the Biden administrations timing on shooting down the first balloon as a different situation. This shows some of the problems and gaps that we have. I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots, he said. (FlightRadar24 image), An E-3 Sentry AWACS from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma was also flying over the area Sunday. Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether China gained intelligence regardless, Schumer said, They could have been getting it anyway, but we have to know what theyre doing.. Some of this may be generated by our adversaries.. Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, said he was certain that the initial episode, the downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon off the U.S. East Coast on Feb. 4, was clearly a balloon. US fighter jets shot down an airborne object over Lake Huron on Sunday and an unidentified object over northern Canada a day earlier. On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly restricted some airspace over Lake Michigan near Wisconsinfor national defense airspace. The FAA made similar flight restrictions ahead of the operations to shoot down the spy balloon and the unidentified object over Alaska. Gen. David Smith, head of Joness accident investigation board, added that the pilot was distracted by focusing a significant amount of attention on recovering a minor system degradation., A pilots instrument flying priorities in the simplest of terms can be broken down to: aviate, navigate, and communicate, in that order, Smith wrote. They say the timing in the intel after the Chinese balloon incident caused this to occur, before they didn't see a need then. Jones did not try to eject from the jet, the report said. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you.. Loaded 0%. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. "The object has been downed by pilots from the US Air Force and National Guard," Slotkin tweeted Sunday afternoon. AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard. Eight of the jets suffered accidents in fiscal 2020, including four that were destroyed or severely damaged. Dealing with the asset used to shoot down the objects, the F-22s were used for very high altitude objects: as the altitude of the zombie (as an unidentified aircraft is called in the fighter pilot lingo) has decreased, more traditional fighters, namely the F-16s, could be used to destroy the intruder. If they didnt filter out slow-moving objects, early warning air defense systems would pick up lots of noise, such as weather balloons and birds. WebCapt. The US military shot downanother high-altitude objectover Lake Huron on Sunday afternoon, according to a US official and a congressional source briefed on the matter. A Warrior for GOD and Christ, #VETERAN, #WWG1WGAWORLDWIDE, #MAGA, #TRUMP2020, #Conservative has nearly 50,000 followers, with more than a mere few believing this post. Those are the abbreviated notes, please take them as such. -They won't officially categorize them as balloons or as having some type of a propulsion system, although there could be a gaseous envelope inside. It could be a gaseous type of balloon inside a structure or it could be some type of a propulsion system. A US official said Sunday there has been caution inside the Biden administration on the pilot descriptions of the unidentified objects shot down over the United States and Canada due to the circumstances in which the objects were viewed. U.S. radar sensors have primarily been concerned with threats that dont look like balloons, but may find more now that theyre looking out for them, Himes said. These images come to us from our friend @Badger_wings, who you can follow on Instagram here. Following criticism for moving too slowly in taking down the Chinese spy balloon that floated over the U.S. this month, the Biden administration downed an unidentified cylindrical object over Alaskan airspace on Friday, and after discussion with Canada shot down a separate object violating Canadian airspace Saturday. Rachel Cohen joined Air Force Times as senior reporter in March 2021. Ahead of the flight, ANG had deemed the mission that night as an elevated risk based on the maneuvers, environment and pilots, the report said. Location of the crash site was in a section of Iraq that the US Marines had occupied. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more.". -They are small and produce a very low radar cross-section, going at the speed of the wind. An airborne object was shot down Sunday near Lake Huron, marking the fourth time in roughly a week that US aircraft have shot something down in North American airspace. Theres no indication at this point that the unidentified objects have any connection to Chinas surveillance balloon but it seems that national security officials across the continent remain on edge. The first one was the famous Chinese high altitude balloon shot down on February 4, 2023, at 2:39 p.m. by an F-22 Raptor, belonging to the 1st Fighter Wing from Langley Air Force Base, shot down with an AIM-9X infrared-guided air-to-air missile off the coast of South Carolina and within U.S. territorial airspace. The Air Forces safety review found no overdue inspections or incomplete maintenance that would have affected Joness flight that night. The plane was destroyed and its pilot killed when it crashed into the ground possibly because of an illusion known as the graveyard spiral.. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere that the mysterious Lake Huron balloon was passing very,very near the Selfridge Air Force base in the area just south of Port Huron, MI. And they took the shot, VanHerck said. WebRemains of F-16C #87-0257 from the 614th Tactical Fighter Squadron 'Lucky Devils', shot down over Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. UPDATE (WKOW) -- The search for the pilot from the Madison-based F-16 Fighter that crashed in Michigan's Upper Peninsula continues Wednesday morning. MMA was contracted to deliver the equipment to Presque Isle for transport by rail to their final destination. The object was first detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the US Northern Command over Montana on Saturday night, and fighter aircraft were sent to investigate, the senior administration official said. President Joe Biden gave the order to take out the WebF-16 jet based in Madison crashes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula Channel 3000 / News 3 Now 42.1K subscribers 7.5K views 2 years ago An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the Amid ongoing disagreements between Canada and China after the 2018 arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on behalf of the US, and the subsequent arrest of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by Beijing, Canadian Armed Forces have been reviewing engagement with China. Even if our adversaries didnt start these rumors, I am sure they are joyfully watching things like that spread to create division and conflict.. Washington County Maine has a population of a little over 30,000 people. WebThe pilot of an F-16 Fighting Falcon that crashed earlier this week in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has been found dead, the Air National Guard announced Thursday. When we can recover the debris, we will have more for you, she said Sunday. Recently, the federal government decided to move the howitzers out of Maine, said Lamb. Another high-altitude object was shot down Sunday afternoon, this one over Lake Huron in Michigan, three U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News, marking the latest in a string of such incidents. Would not elaborate on the shapes they are seeing. They were supported by a KC-135 tanker. 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On Jan. 30, 2020, the first of two [], The10-mile long Holloman High Speed Test Track (HHSTT) is a United States Air Force aerospace ground test facility used to perform a various variety of tests, including simulated ejections. Witnesses in proximity to the crash site posted pictures on social media. For the third time in three days, an unknown object has been shot down, a U.S. Rep. from Michigan said Sunday. The path of the object and its altitude raised concerns that it could pose a threat to civilian aircraft, but it did not pose a military threat to anyone on the ground, the official said. -Each object of interest is taken on a case-by-case basis as far as to shoot them down or not. David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. The article included a YouTube video showing dozens of Asian individuals in military fatigues walking along a road in British Columbias Salt Spring Island, on Canadas West Coast. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said Sunday he prefers how the USshot down unidentified objectsover North American airspace in recent days to allowing them to traverse the country. This is a common arrangement. Others posts shared a satellite image of the forested area where the earthquake hit, claiming that it appeared to have been cleared. We will update this story with any information they provide. For sure something is happening and after the criticism caused by the response to the Chinas spy balloon (that flew over the U.S. for days before being shot down over the Atlantic Ocean), NORAD has engaged the intruders earlier (off the coast of Alaska, over territorial waters on Feb. 10; most probably over an unpopulated area in Canada, on Feb. 11).. "NORAD launched Canadian and US aircraft to investigate and the object was taken down in US. They could get so close to the object you could fly into the debris or hit it. Tom Demerly served in an intelligence gathering unit as a member of the U.S. Army and Michigan National Guard. On December 8, 2020, an F-16 plane belonging to the Wisconsin Air National Guard crashed during a routine training exercise over Michigans Hiawatha National Forest, across Lake Superior from Canada. Durwood Hawk Jones. They use extreme caution to limit collateral damage. The object shot down Sunday by US fighter jets was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigans Upper Peninsula and about to go over Lake Huron when it was neutralized, a senior administration official told CNN. WebAn F-16 fighter jet on a routine training mission crashed in Michigan's Upper Peninsula Tuesday night, the Wisconsin National Guard said. Who do they belong to? Web(TNS) Dec. 11WASHINGTON The Air National Guard pilot killed in an F-16 crash Tuesday in a remote area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula was a 37-year-old combat CNN initially reported that the object was shot down over Lake Huron based on what sources said to CNN and a public tweet by Rep. Jack Bergman. But, 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. pic.twitter.com/F1mor3bbg6, Tim McMillan (@LtTimMcMillan) February 12, 2023. We need to fill those as soon as possible because we certainly now ascertain there is a threat.. This cannot be confirmed that this was the final target engaged, but it is worth noting as it was the initial call. The object was flying at 20,000 feet over Michigans Upper Peninsula when it was shot down. Jones and his F-16C went into a series of heading, altitude and attitude changes that continued in a right-hand turn up to 135 degrees bank, a maximum dive angle of approximately 90 degrees nose low, and a maximum airspeed of over 600 knots, investigators found. Representative Bergman tells Fox News that the object was 'octagonal' and was shot down by F-16s using an AIM-9 missile at around 20,000 feet. There is also no evidence that Chinese troopsmassing at the Canadian border. Although the United States has no indication that the object has surveillance capabilities, that has not been ruled out as yet. -Shape could make them hard to detect. Contents of this blog/website may not be used without author's prior written permission. On Monday, the Twitter handle @stormis_us posted that The F-16 in Michigan was shot down and I now believe that 50,000 Chinese troops were in fact bombed and killed by anti-personnel bombs. -Will not say if they will release targeting pod video, as it is a policy decision. -The object likely landed in Canadian waters. The operation marks the third day in a row that an unidentified object was shot down over North American airspace. The object was shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it and did not appear to be carrying anything. Our live coverage has ended. #StrongSecureEngaged #StrongProudReady pic.twitter.com/eARdeIXggz. The aircraft may have been taking part in a series of nighttime training missions scheduled for this week from Monday, December 7 until Thursday, December 10. WebThe first one was the famous Chinese high altitude balloon shot down on February 4, 2023, at 2:39 p.m. by an F-22 Raptor, belonging to the 1st Fighter Wing from Langley Air Force These are objects. If this information is not generated by them, it is at least amplified, said Lapan, adding that nations like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran use social media to generate unrest in the U.S. The gallery of adversaries are all involved in information warfare against us, said Lapan, now vice president of communications for the Bipartisan Policy Center. -They are still searching for an object that was taken off Alaska's north coast. -They don't pose a kinetic threat according to their analysis. 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. North American Aerospace Defense Command detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it. When asked about aliens, officials said they just won't rule anything out at this point. The Chinese PLA accepted a reciprocal invitation from the CA to observe winter survival training in Petawawa. He scrambled F-15 fighters and a KC-135 tanker to go investigate, and the object crossed into US airspace a few hours later, he said. Capt. Its the second accidental aerial weapon discharge in Europe this year. The operation marks the third day in a row that an unidentified object was shot down over North American airspace. Are they Russians? The US Air F-16, which crashed at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, on April 24, 2018. Follow more news here. Looked at using gun shots yesterday and today, but size of the target was an issue, as was altitude for the one from yesterday. That balloon crossed North America before an F-22 downed it off the coast of the Carolinas. The jet crashed But beyond dragging a decorated combat veteran pilot into this mess, the danger in these kinds of conspiracy theories lies in the mistrust these posts sow, Lapan said. This is how this Author commented the third object being shot down yesterday. Her work has appeared in Air Force Magazine, Inside Defense, Inside Health Policy, the Frederick News-Post (Md. (Cristina J. The F-16C Fighting Falcon pilot who died in a crash in Michigans Upper Peninsula last December was disoriented and distracted before his plane pitched into the woods, safety investigators said in a new report out Wednesday. -NORAD began scrutinizing airspace more deeply since the Chinese balloon saga last week and 'enhancing our radar.'. Both of the objects also appeared to feature a balloon, with a small metal cylinder underneath, officials said. Tom Demerly is a feature writer, journalist, photographer and editorialist who has written articles that are published around the world on TheAviationist.com, TACAIRNET.com, Outside magazine, Business Insider, We Are The Mighty, The Dearborn Press & Guide, National Interest, Russias government media outlet Sputnik, and many other publications. -They don't know exactly what these objects are, but they made enhancements to radars out of an abundance of caution and at the direction of President Biden. The spy balloon from the PRC was, of course, different in that we knew precisely what [it] was. -F-16s out of Wisconsin, a KC-135 tanker out of Pittsburgh, and a E-3 AWACS out of Oklahoma all were involved in today's operation. I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive, but were going to have to see whether or not this is just the administration trying to change headlines, Turner, an Ohio Republican, said of the Biden administration in an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper on State of the Union" before Sunday's shoot-down took place. This is in a sense information warfare, Dave Lapan a retired Marine colonel who served in several public affairs roles, including at the departments of defense and homeland security told Military Times. airspace by US aircraft.". The American people deserve far more answers than we have.. Ukrainian dissidents?