WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Sunday shot down an unidentifiable object over Lake Huron, the fourth object shot out of the sky by fighter jets in just eight days. As eyes are focused on the sky, questions remain.
"We continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it," said Gen. Glen Vanherck, a commander with North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD).
Senior administration officials said the octagon-shaped structure shot down Sunday was traveling above Michigan’s upper peninsula at only about 20,000 feet, which is much lower than other recent objects brought down.
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"It doesn't even mean that there are more of them. We're just looking for them. And so, we're finding more of them," said ABC News Contributor Col. Steve Ganyard.
Richard Harknett, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Cincinnati, said people have speculated that these objects are probes from another country, trying to gain information about U.S. radar capabilities.
"If this is about probing our national security capacity, if you announce what these things are, then again, you're telling your adversary, something about your capabilities," said Harknett. "Your ability to discern, you know, X from Y right, a weather balloon from a surveillance balloon from a drone to maybe some other new tech that we have in surveillance."
People want answers, but UC political science professor Gregory Winger said telling the public "also (tells) external actors as well."
“And you don't necessarily want to share that information with your adversaries," Winger said.
Winger said that can make situations like these extremely difficult to navigate.
"You don't want to give away the game plan," said Harknett. "And we don't need to tell our adversaries all of what we're capable of doing. Yeah, we want to know what these things are, but let's make sure that our national security is advanced, and not weakened by what we do."
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