Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that the US is still recovering debris from three objects that were shot down in North American airspace over the weekend.
Confirmation Pending on Object Identity
"We're going to confirm what they are once we've collected the debris," Austin said. "But to answer your question, we've not recovered any debris from the three most recent shootdowns."
US Military Shoots Down Three Objects
The US military shot down three unidentified objects in as many days over the weekend, two in US airspace and one in Canadian airspace.
Recovery Efforts Underway
Austin said Monday that crews have collected "a fair amount of debris" from a Chinese surveillance balloon shot down on Feb. 4, but the weather has impacted the search for one object's debris in Alaska. Near Lake Huron, Austin said, US Northern Command, the US Coast Guard, and the FBI are" beginning operations to locate debris in close partnership with the Canadians."
Object Characteristics Different Than Last Week
Austin emphasized that the three objects shot down over the weekend "are very different" from what the US saw traverse the country last week. "I want to be clear the three objects taken down this weekend are very different from what we were talking about last week," he said. "We knew exactly what that was — a (People's Republic of China) PRC surveillance balloon."
