The US military continues to puzzle over the mysterious flying objects in the US sky. US General Glen VanHerck comments on this. Image: IMAGO/piemags / Joshua Armstrong
International
02/13/2023, 12:11 p.m02/13/2023, 12:13 p.m
What’s going on in the North American skies? Report after report follows about unidentified flying objects being shot down by the US military. At first it was probably a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was sighted over Montana in January and finally shot down.
Since then, at least three other objects have been eliminated from the sky. There is now wild speculation about their origin. The US military is not ruling out one option: aliens.
US general does not rule out aliens
Heated discussions about a possible alien invasion have long been circulating on social media. What sounds more like conspiracy theories and science fiction to many could have a real background. At least if it’s after Opinion of the US military. It does not completely exclude this option.
High-ranking US General Glen VanHerck is fueling speculation about the unidentified flying objects.Credit: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire / Michael Brochstein
When asked by a reporter whether the US Department of Defense could rule out the possibility that aliens were behind the ominous missiles, US Northern Command commander Glen VanHerck replied: “I’ll leave it to the intelligence and counterintelligence agencies to find out. I haven’t ruled anything out at this point.“
With this answer he probably won’t necessarily curb the speculation about aliens.
VanHerck heads the North American air defense command “Norad”, which tracked down and eliminated the youngest flying objects. Referring to the objects shot down, he emphasizes that it is his duty to defend the country. Does the high-ranking US general expect further shooting down of flying objects that nobody knows how to classify?
His answer is: Anything approaching North America, if it is unknown, he will identify – and assess whether it poses a threat. “If it’s a threat, I shoot it down.”
Norad is currently not tracking any other objects. “That’s not to say there won’t be more at some point in the future, but right now we’re not seeing anything,” says VanHerck.
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The US military had previously shot down a flying object for the fourth time in a few days. The latest incident happened on Sunday over Lake Huron in the state of Michigan. US fighter jets had already brought down two unidentified flying objects from the sky on Friday and Saturday: one off the coast of the US state of Alaska, the other over northern Canada.
So far it is unclear what kind of objects they were, where they came from and what their goal was. The salvage of debris should provide information about the background.
A week earlier, the US Air Force had brought down a Chinese balloon suspected of being used for espionage purposes off the coast of the state of South Carolina. It was initially unclear whether there could be a connection between the incidents.
(With material from the dpa)
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