OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday (local time) disclosed that an “unidentified object” had been shot down over Canadian airspace on his orders.
“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. North American Aerospace Defense Command shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled & a US F-22 successfully fired at the object,” tweeted Trudeau.
This comes one day after a “high altitude object” was shot down by the US military over Alaska, and exactly one week after a Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the military off the South Carolina coast.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said earlier that it was monitoring “a high altitude airborne object” over northern Canada, and military aircraft were operating in the area from Alaska and Canada, according to a news release from the agency.
It is not clear what the object is or whether it is related to the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down last week or another object shot down over Alaska on Friday.
In the light of sightings of “high altitude object”, Trudeau spoke with US President Joe Biden and vowed to “recover and analyze the wreckage of the object.”
“I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America,” tweeted Trudeau.
Meanwhile, the US intelligence community has linked the Chinese spy balloon to a vast surveillance program run by the People’s Liberation Army. US officials have begun to brief allies and partners who have been similarly targeted, The Washington Post reported.
According to The Washington Post, the surveillance balloon effort, which has operated for several years partly out of Hainan province off China’s south coast, has collected information on military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to China including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, according to several US officials.
According to officials, the surveillance airships, operated in part by the PLA air force, have been spotted over five continents.
An official said: “What the Chinese have done is taken an unbelievably old technology, and basically married it with modern communications and observation capabilities to try to glean intelligence on other nations’ militaries. It’s a massive effort.”
The New York Times recently reported that, as part of its response to a Chinese spy balloon that traversed US airspace last week, the Joe Biden administration on Friday (local time) clamped down on sales of some of its technology to several Chinese aviation and technology companies.
The Commerce Department added five Chinese companies and one research institute to its so-called entity list, which will prevent companies from selling them American parts and technologies without a special license. (ANI)