‘Unidentified’ object shot down over Canada with US help: Top points

A US fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Canada in a joint operation by the countries. This comes after US downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon a week ago.

Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau that said he ordered the takedown of the object, tweeting, “Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object.

Canadian forces in the Yukon “will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object”, he added saying that he spoke with US President Joe Biden over the latest unidentified object. Canada’s defense minister Anita Anand tweeted that she spoke with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the two “reaffirmed that we’ll always defend our sovereignty together.”

Here are top points on this story:

Last week US said that suspected Chinese spy balloons like the one it shot down were part of a “fleet” that spanned five continents.

US and Canadian planes flew together to take on the object, the US Department of Defense said.

“President Biden authorized US fighter aircraft assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to work with Canada to take down a high-altitude airborne object over northern Canada today,” Pentagon Spokesman Pat Ryder said.

One of two F-22 fighter jets fired an AIM 9X missile that brought it down, it added.

The White House said Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau “commended NORAD’s and US Northern Command’s strong and effective partnership and agreed to continue their close coordination to detect, track, and defend our airspace.”

The object was shot down over the Yukon, which borders Alaska, where fighter jets downed another object last week.

Search and recovery operations for the remains of that object continued.