UPDATE - US shoots down unidentified unmanned object flying over Great Lakes region in Michigan

ADDS PENTAGON STATEMENT; CHANGES DECK AND LEDE

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - The US military shot down an unidentified unmanned object flying over the Great Lakes region in the state of Michigan on Sunday.

"An F-16 fired an AIM9x (missile) to shoot down an airborne object flying at approximately 20,000 feet altitude in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron in the State of Michigan," the Pentagon said in a statement.

It noted that North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object Sunday morning and maintained visual and radar tracking of it.

"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 (Department of Defense) sites," it said.

The Pentagon "did not asses 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."

It said a team is making efforts to recover the object “in an effort to learn more.”

"The US military has decommissioned another 'object' over Lake Huron," Michigan Rep. Jack Bergman said earlier on Twitter.

The retired lieutenant general said he had been in contact with the Department of Defense "regarding operations across the Great Lakes region today."

On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered a fighter jet to shoot down an unidentified object that was in his country’s air space.

The latest incident marks the fourth time that objects have been shot down above North American air space in the past eight days.

A week ago, the US downed an alleged Chinese spy balloon, and in the aftermath, President Joe Biden sanctioned six Chinese entities that are part of Beijing's aerospace industry.

The US shot down another object Friday off the coast of the state of Alaska. It was described as being the size of a small car, but no further details were disclosed.