--- title: U.S. General Doesn't Rule Out Aliens As UFOs Mount description: U.S. military downs high-flying object over North American airspace for the fourth time in eight days canonical: https://time.com/6254959/military-ufo-shootdown-lake-huron/ author: W.J. Hennigan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-02-13T02:58:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:40.144Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. General Doesn't Rule Out Aliens As UFOs Mount og:description: The military downed a high-flying object over North American airspace Sunday for the fourth time in eight days og:url: https://time.com/6254959/military-ufo-shootdown-lake-huron/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08ded5e372af2f98/698a3a40cabb1dcafae51243/spy-balloon.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Chinese balloon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. General Doesn't Rule Out Aliens As UFOs Mount twitter:description: The military downed a high-flying object over North American airspace Sunday for the fourth time in eight days twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08ded5e372af2f98/698a3a40cabb1dcafae51243/spy-balloon.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I Haven't Ruled Out Anything.' U.S. General Doesn't Eliminate Aliens As UFOs Mount > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The Chinese Balloon Was Shot Down By the U.S. Military [Watch (HLS stream): The Chinese Balloon Was Shot Down By the U.S. Military](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fAIpDCfZ.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2023-02-05. A U.S. fighter jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy blimp above the Atlantic Ocean off the South Carolina coast Saturday, ending a three-day spectacle that dominated headlines and created an international incident._  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Feb 13, 2023 2:58 AM UTC  Alleged Chinese spy balloon flies above in Charlotte NC, United States on Feb. 4, 2023. Alleged Chinese spy balloon flies above in Charlotte NC, United States on Feb. 4, 2023. Peter Zay—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Feb 13, 2023 2:58 AM UTC A U.S. fighter jet shot down a high-flying object above Lake Huron Sunday after it flew near a sensitive military site, the Pentagon said. The shoot-down, which came on President Joe Biden’s order, is the latest in an unusual series of aerial incidents that began last week when a [suspected Chinese spy balloon](https://time.com/6253974/chinese-balloon-worldwide-spy-operation/) traversed the continental United States. At 2:42 p.m. Eastern time, an F-16 launched a heat-seeking AIM-9X missile at an unidentified “object” flying at around 20,000 ft. above the Great Lake. It was the fourth time in eight days that the American military has been called upon to destroy a mysterious craft in midair, including three in the last three days. Other than the first balloon, which China has acknowledged was theirs, the Pentagon doesn’t yet know what the objects are or where they came from. Asked directly, a senior military official did not rule out the possibility that their provenance could be extraterrestrial. “I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,” General Glen VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told reporters late Sunday. “I haven’t ruled out anything,” VanHerck said when asked if aliens could be involved. “At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threat unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.” **Read More**: [_Chinese Balloon Wreckage Could Offer Clues Into Years-Long Spy Operation_](https://time.com/6253414/chinese-balloon-recovery-clues/) The Pentagon is now trying to obtain debris from each of the four shoot-downs in an effort to learn more about the crafts penetrating North American airspace. VanHerck acknowledged the military is perplexed. “I’m not going to categorize them as balloons,” VanHerck said. “We’re calling them objects for a reason. I’m not able to categorize how they stay aloft.” None of the flying objects have posed a threat to anything on the ground, VanHerck said, but they have been assessed to be safety hazards to civilian air traffic and potential surveillance threats. The flurry of incidents is due at least in part to an increase in military vigilance in the wake of the Chinese balloon. NORAD has tweaked its radar “gates” to account for lower speeds and sizes to spot more flying objects. “We have adjusted some of those gates to give us better fidelity on seeing smaller objects,” VanHerck said. “You can also filter out by altitude. And so, with some adjustments, we’ve been able to get a better categorization of radar-tracks now.” **Read More**: [_How an Alleged Spy Balloon Derailed an Important U.S.-China Meeting_](https://time.com/6252835/china-spy-balloon-blinken-meeting-canceled/) Every day, NORAD monitors airspace across North America. On Saturday at about 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time, the military command registered a radar contact in Canadian airspace, about 70 miles north of the U.S. border. The craft was not in communication with the Federal Aviation Administration, so VanHerck sent F-15 fighters from Portland, Oregon, to investigate over Montana. The F-15s arrived at 7:04, and within 45 minutes it became dark. The aviators ultimately couldn’t identify and locate the object in the dark. VanHerck didn’t identify the “sensitive” military site that the object flew over, but Montana is home to a sprawling field where nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles sit ready-for-launch in underground silos. The Chinese balloon lingered over that site, according to U.S. officials. On Sunday morning, NORAD made another radar contact near Wisconsin. “It’s likely, but we have not confirmed that the track that we saw in Wisconsin was likely the same track in Montana,” VanHerck said. NORAD tracked the object over Lake Michigan, he said, and as it passed over the state’s upper peninsula, the military engaged it. Up until a week ago, the U.S. had never shot down an airborne object in North American airspace that was deemed to be a threat. Now the extraordinary has come to seem commonplace. On Feb. 4, the U.S. blasted apart the [mammoth Chinese balloon](https://time.com/6253010/chinese-spy-balloon-shot-down/) over the Atlantic Ocean. On Feb. 10, on Friday, an American fighter jet [shot down a small car-sized](https://time.com/6254743/us-shoots-down-object-alaska/) “object” off the Alaskan coast. The next day a fighter brought down another “object” over northern Canada. The Pentagon and the Director of National Intelligence has an [ongoing review of hundreds](https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/reports-publications/reports-publications-2023/item/2354-2022-annual-report-on-unidentified-aerial-phenomena) of UFO incidents documented in recent years without explanation. Melissa Dalton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, said the Biden Administration hasn’t made a policy change in how it treats unidentified flying objects in U.S. airspace. “We are taking this pretty much on a case-by-case basis,” she told reporters during the briefing on Sunday. “Each operation has been different. And we will certainly keep you updated as we continue to learn more about these objects and the (People’s Republic of China’s) balloon and what that means for us going forward.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6254959/military-ufo-shootdown-lake-huron/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6254959/military-ufo-shootdown-lake-huron/"},"headline":"'I Haven't Ruled Out Anything.' 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