Schumer says latest high-altitude ‘objects’ shot down over Alaska and Canada believed to be balloons

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that members of the US military and intelligence community believe two objects shot down over Alaska and Canada in recent days were balloons. Mr Schumer said the objects were smaller than the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina last weekend.

Mr. Schumer confirmed the news on ABC This week during an interview with George Stephanopoulos.

“Were these balloons [shot down] Friday, Saturday night?” asked the ABC host.

“They think they did it,” Mr. Schumer replied, referring to the US military. “But smaller than the first.”

It was a confirmation coupled with another revelation from Mr. Schumer: that US intelligence has confirmed that it only recently learned about this Chinese surveillance program.

“Until a few months ago, we didn’t know about these balloons. Our intelligence and military didn’t know. That was at least three times as far back as President Trump,” he said.

Mr Schumer agreed with Mr Stephanopoulos during the interview that such an admission by the intelligence community was “wild”. US officials have confirmed over the past two weeks that a number of Chinese surveillance balloons have previously breached US airspace, including during the Trump administration.

Norad announced over the weekend that a vehicle was shot down on Saturday night; President Joe Biden had ordered another shooting down a day earlier. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was leading recovery efforts for the third vehicle while the second was shot down off Alaska’s north coast.

The launches of two more suspected balloons came over the weekend following the first launch of such an aircraft over South Carolina on February 4th. This first incident sparked criticism of the President from members of the House of Representatives and Senate, who questioned why this had not happened sooner, before the vehicle could traverse the continental United States. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaskan senator, was particularly outraged, accusing the government of viewing her condition as an afterthought.

Officials in Beijing have confirmed the first vehicle was of Chinese origin, describing it as a weather balloon that accidentally entered US airspace. US officials have strongly denied this claim, saying the ship was carrying advanced surveillance equipment. Chinese officials condemned the destruction of the first ship, while Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin defended it in response to an “unacceptable violation of our sovereignty”.

China’s Foreign Ministry released a statement noting Beijing’s “strong dissatisfaction and protests against the United States’ use of force to attack the unmanned civilian airship,” calling its destruction a “blatant overreaction and a grave violation of international practice,” and adding that the government “reserve[s] the right to take further necessary measures”.