Unidentified object shot down over Alaska penetrated US airspace BEFORE it was detected

Officials confirmed the unidentified flying object shot down over Alaska was able to penetrate US airspace before detection as military helicopters recover it from frozen waters. 

A source told Fox News that it was discovered ‘over Alaska not far from the northern coast.’ The object was first spotted north of Anchorage, Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson tweeted.  

It comes after sources told CNN that the military had developed a method to track spy balloons last year, but this object wasn’t picked up on radar until after it was over Alaska. 

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby announced on Friday that it was shot down on President Joe Biden’s orders. It was taken down within an hour of the order. 

It was shot down by an F-22 using an A9X missile out of Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage. It was taken down over frozen waters so officials could avoid the object drifting. 

It is unclear who owns the object and it is said to be much smaller than the Chinese balloon shot off the coast of South Carolina, but was still the size of a small car. 

Officials have not been able to confirm if it was a balloon, but it was traveling at an altitude that was potentially harmful for civilian aircrafts, The New York Times reported. 

Several officials also said the object shattered into pieces after being struck by the missile, adding to the mystery of what the object truly is. 

The unidentified flying object shot down over Alaska was able to penetrate US airspace before detection

A US official revealed the pilots who intercepted the object said it had a cylindrical shape and no observable surveillance equipment attached.

The Pentagon has now launched a recovery operation to collect the debris from the surface of the frozen waters off Alaska.

Biden called the second operation a ‘success’ when asked by reporters at the White House – but Republicans were quick to ask why the US didn’t shoot down the Beijing surveillance balloon earlier.

The US began developing a system to detect spy balloons shortly after Biden took office in 2021 after a Chinese spy balloon briefly flew over the US. They use the balloon’s signals to run test to see where other balloons might have popped up in the past. 

What they found allowed them to create a consistent technical method to track balloons around the world. They began using the method in 2022 and has not revealed how it was ultimately developed or how signals are detected, according to CNN.