US shoots down another aerial object — this time over Lake Huron

The military shot down another aerial object on Sunday, this time over Lake Huron, marking the third day in a row the U.S. has taken down an unidentified aircraft over North American airspace, Michigan lawmakers said on Sunday.

Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) said he was in contact with the Department of Defense throughout the day, and confirmed in a tweet that the military “decommissioned” another aerial object. 

“I’ve been in contact with DOD regarding operations across the Great Lakes region today. The US military has decommissioned another ‘object’ over Lake Huron. I appreciate the decisive action by our fighter pilots. The American people deserve far more answers than we have,” Bergman tweeted.

Bergman told Fox News Sunday afternoon that he was told the object was octagonal and hovering at about 20,000 feet.

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) also said that he spoke with the Department of Defense and said in a tweet that the Air Force took down the aerial object. 

“The Air Force has shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron. Thank you to the U.S. military for their immediate action. I will keep seeking information about the incident in the coming days,” Kildee tweeted.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said in a tweet that an object had been “downed” by pilots from the U.S. Air Force and National Guard.

“As long as these things keep traversing the US and Canada, I’ll continue to ask for Congress to get a full briefing based on our exploitation of the wreckage,” she said.

The Federal Aviation Administration briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan earlier on Sunday “to support Department of Defense activities,” the agency said in a statement to The Hill. The airspace has since been reopened. 

In a press briefing, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Gen. Glen VanHerck, said it first detected the object Saturday evening in Canada airspace before it traveled into U.S. airspace that night.

He said NORAD scrambled F-16 fighter jets and a tanker to investigate the object, but identifying it was initially “unsuccessful. Then the command detected the object again moving toward Wisconsin on Sunday, at which point it put together a “gameplan.”

“We wanted to scramble with the best position to intercept if we needed to engage with the lowest collateral damage and that was in the eastern portion of Wisconsin just prior to Lake Michigan,” he said.

He said that the small size of the objects makes tracking them “hard.”

He confirmed that the military shot down the object over Lake Huron, where remnants of the object may be in Canada waters. He said recovery missions will be underway soon to determine what the object was.

He said as of Sunday that he is unaware of any other objects on the radar at this time.

The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton said that the object posed no threat to people on the ground, but posed a threat to “civilian aviation,” which is why they shot it down.

The third takedown in three days comes after President Biden just over a week ago ordered the downing of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that traversed much of the U.S.

On Friday, the U.S. shot down a “high-altitude object” over Alaska and then on Saturday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to take down an unidentified object over the territory of Yukon.

Updated at 8:03 p.m.