UK Begins Security Screening After Spy Balloon, UFO Surge
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday the government would do “whatever is necessary” to protect the country as the UK announced a security review after several unidentified objects were shot down in the skies over North America.
Asked about the objects, Sunak said he would “not comment in detail on security issues, but people should be reassured that we have every means to keep the country safe,” including a rapid reaction force of Typhoon fighter jets.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said: “The UK and its allies will examine what these airspace incursions mean for our security.”
He said: “This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.”
US fighter jets shot down an object over Lake Huron on Sunday – the fourth such shooting down over the US or Canada this month.
On February 4, the US military downed a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina after tracking it across North America for several days.
On Friday, F-22 jets shot down a “car-sized” object in US airspace off the coast of Alaska, and on Saturday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had ordered a US warplane to shoot down an unidentified object – later described as a balloon – high above the Yukon Territory of northwestern Canada.
The object launched Sunday was described as being octagonal in shape, with cords hanging down, but had no apparent payload.
The three objects were much smaller, different in appearance and flying at lower altitudes than the suspected spy balloon – one of the US officials says is a fleet of Chinese air surveillance balloons that have targeted more than 40 countries over several years.
China says the unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that went off course.
Britain’s Transport Secretary Richard Holden said on Monday it was “possible” China had flown spy balloons over Britain. He said Britain will deal “robustly” with China, which he called “an enemy state”.
A senior US military official said Sunday that part of the reason for the repeated downings was “increased alertness” and a closer survey of the sky following the discovery of the spy balloon.
Pentagon officials say the three objects that have since been shot down posed no security threats, but little is known about them so far and officials have ruled out nothing — not even UFOs.
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