POLITICO Playbook Daily Briefing
For the fourth time in eight days, the U.S. shot down a flying object yesterday. The latest kill came above Lake Huron, near the border with Canada, after it had flown over part of Michigan, The Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke and Kim Kozlowski report. The Pentagon said an F-16 fighter jet took the object down with a Sidewinder missile at around 20,000 feet after determining that it posed no “kinetic military threat” but could potentially interfere with flight safety or conduct surveillance.
Our Paul McLeary, Olivia Olander, Lara Seligman and Alexander Ward write that defense officials remain mum on the topic, “raising questions over the threat the objects could have represented to civilians across North America, what the purpose of the objects was, and why there has been a rash of detections and responses with fighter planes and guided missiles.”