Canada reported that on Saturday an unidentified object tracked at high altitude breached the nation’s airspace, a move announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The object was detected by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, an agency established by Canada and the United States, and was eventually located over the Yukon region, near the Alaska border in the country’s northwest.
The incident follows recent actions in which the United States shot down another unknown aerial object over Alaska and a separate Chinese balloon, which Beijing was accused of using for espionage missions.
“I have ordered the downing of an unidentified object that violates Canadian airspace,” Trudeau wrote on social media.
Aircraft from both the United States and Canada participated in the operation to locate and down the device, including an American F-22 in the mission. Trudeau noted that he was coordinating closely with U.S. President Joe Biden throughout the operation.
The Canadian Armed Forces will recover and analyze the debris to determine the object’s nature, origins, and capabilities.
Earlier in the week, President Biden authorized the downing of another unidentified object over frozen waters in Alaska, a decision that underscored ongoing tensions over airspace and sovereignty in North American airspace.
While the White House refrained from detailing the object’s source, officials stated it differed from the Chinese balloon that drifted across multiple U.S. states before being shot down last week.
The United States has publicly accused China of running a balloon program intended for espionage, a claim tied to a broader operation that involved the armed forces and has spanned more than 40 countries across five continents.
As this sequence unfolded, Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned trip to Beijing, a move that reflected heightened concern about airspace surveillance and international diplomacy.
China has insisted that the balloon shot down by the United States was a meteorological device that deviated from its intended course due to force majeure and other factors, a characterization disputed by Western officials who view it within a broader context of geopolitical tensions.