According to the Pentagon press secretary, the object was not assessed to be a military threat, but it was a flight hazard.
“We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground, but assess it was a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities. Our team will now work to recover the object in an effort to learn more,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said, CNN reported.
Melissa Dalton, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs echoed that sentiment Sunday night, telling reporters the objects were taken down out of an “abundance of caution.”
“In light of the People’s Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we detected over the past week,” Dalton said, referring to a Chinese surveillance balloon taken down by F-22s off the coast of South Carolina last weekend.
She added 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.”
RHM/PR