Object shot down over Lake Huron sets off effort to clear launch area for Coast Guard
by Richard Lamb–Advance Editor
The waters off the shores of Presque Isle County suddenly became national news over the weekend. After an unidentified object was spotted moving easterly at approximately 20,000 feet in altitude, the military shot the object down over northern Lake Huron. The precise location has not been revealed.
At the direction of President Joe Biden, an F-16 fired a heat-seeking AIM9x missile that successfully shot “an airborne object” at 2:42 p.m. Sunday, according to a release from the United States Department of Defense (DOD). The object was the third of three such shot down last weekend with the other two coming in Alaska and Yukon, Canada.
“Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation. The location chosen for this shoot down afforded us the opportunity to avoid impact to people on the ground while improving chances for debris recovery. There are no indications of any civilians hurt or otherwise affected,” the DOD stated Monday.
“Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites. 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.”
SHORTLY AFTER the object was shot down Sunday afternoon, Coast Guard officials indicated they might use the Rogers City boat harbor to launch its search vessels. So, harbormaster Wayne Saile Jr. went to work. He used a city payloader to clear off snow from the approach to the harbor and then went to work on breaking ice as far as the payloader could go into the launch area.
Finding ice as thick as 12 inches, Saile broke a path for the Coast Guard boats to access the harbor. City worker Scott Hardies came with a salt truck to melt the ice on the launch approach and city policeman Bruce Collins stood on hand, ready to assist. They made quick work of the process, as darkness fell on the harbor.
The men prepared the launch area, but later learned the Coast Guard planned a Monday arrival. Saile and Hardies were back at it Monday morning, clearing a path for the vessels expected to arrive sometime Monday, they were told. But the Coast Guard vessels did not arrive Monday and did not come to Rogers City at all.
Melissa Dalton assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs and Gen. Glen VanHerck, Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command made statements to the press Sunday evening in Washington, D.C.
“In light of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more closely scrutinizing our air space at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week. We also know that a range of entities, including countries, companies, research organizations operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research,” Dalton said.
“Because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, we have acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and interests. The spy balloon from the PRC was, of course, different in that we knew precisely what it was. These most recent objects do not pose a kinetic military threat, but their path in proximity to sensitive DOD sites and the altitude that they were flying could be a hazard to civilian aviation and — and thus raised concerns.”
If there is an unknown object entering either Canadian or U.S. airspace, airplanes will investigate to identify if it is a threat or has committed a hostile act.
“In that situation, I am clear directly to engage without further permission. In this case, there is no hostile act or hostile intent, but it is an unknown object and therefore we have a further discussion across the government, both the government of Canada in some cases, and the government of the United States to assess it is a risk to national security by passing over key covered facilities such as our missile fields and other structures,” he said.
They assessed if acting against the object would risk damage to boats and mariners in the water or infrastructures and people on the ground.
THE OBJECT shot down in Lake Huron first registered on radar at 4:45 p.m. EST Saturday 70 miles north of the U.S./Canada border. At that time, F-15 fighters from Portland, Oregon along with a KC-135 tanker were scrambled to investigate the radar contact. At 6 p.m. EST the radar track crossed into U.S. airspace.
“At sunset, we were unable to find the track. Also, our radar operators lost the track on radar. And the Federal Aviation Administration was never tracking the radar. Therefore, that is why we called it an anomaly because we weren’t able to identify it,” VanHerck explained.
Intermittent radar contact had the object traveling from Montana to Wisconsin overnight.
“It’s likely, but we have not confirmed that track that we saw in Wisconsin was likely the same track in Montana,” VanHerck said.
The object was tracked over the eastern portion of Wisconsin and monitored it as it passed over Lake Michigan, assessing
“It tracked across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were cleared to engage the target in Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan over land and, ultimately, down the object at this point about 15 nautical miles east of the Upper Peninsula in Lake Huron. What we saw was an object that began drifting, potentially most likely landed in Canadian waters in Lake Huron. And we have ongoing recovery operations with Coast Guard assets moving towards this area,” VanHerck said.
Fighters were scrambled from the Madison Wisconsin Air National Guard Unit. Ongoing efforts are underway to recover the debris.