Feb. 14—Washington ― The first air-to-air missile fired Sunday by an F-16 fighter jet over Lake Huron missed the flying object it was trained on and went into the water before a second missile met its target, federal officials confirmed Tuesday.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, responding to a reporter's question in Brussels Tuesday, acknowledged that the first attempted takedown was a miss.
"Yes, the first shot missed," Milley said. "The missile landed harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron. We tracked it all the way down."
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed Tuesday that the White House was aware of the miss, but referred to the Pentagon a question about whether the missile remained live or broke up into pieces.
"It has been reported to us that it went directly into the lake, into the water," Kirby told reporters on a call.
An F-16 fighter jet shot down the unidentified octagonal-shaped object Sunday afternoon using an AIM9x Sidewinder missile at about 20,000 feet of altitude over Lake Huron on the U.S. side of the border with Canada.
It marked the fourth such incident over North American airspace in recent days, with officials saying they haven't been able to definitively assess what the three most recent objects are or even what propels them to remain airborne ― which is why an "intensive" debris recovery is continuing, Kirby said Tuesday.
The latest object had passed over Wisconsin, Lake Michigan and the Upper Peninsula before it was shot down about 15 nautical miles east of the U.P. in Lake Huron, Pentagon officials said Sunday. Once hit, they said, the object drifted and landed in Canadian waters in the lake, where the U.S. and Canadian coast guards are working to recover it.
Tuesday was the first time that a top military official had publicly confirmed that the first missile shot on Sunday missed its target. Officials have said that the F-16 aircraft that took the successful shot was from a Wisconsin Air National Guard unit in Madison.
A spokesman for Rep. Jack Bergman, the Republican congressman who represents the U.P., said there's no such thing as 100% accuracy in life, "and the same is true in weapon firing."
"We don't know what the conditions were at the time and what led to the initial miss. We do know the second shot landed successfully and our U.S. military destroyed this object over Lake Huron," Bergman spokesman James Hogge said. "Lessons will be learned. If the Biden administration was more forthcoming on the situation, maybe we would have more answers."
Milley noted the military beforehand had evaluated the likely debris field using the missile based on whether it landed on land or water and went to "great lengths" to ensure that the airspace and water was clear of aircraft and mariners to the "max" effective range of the missile.
"We're very, very careful to make sure that those shots are in fact safe," Milley said. "And that's the guidance from the President: Shoot it down to make sure we minimize collateral damage and we preserve the safety of the American people."
Milley added that the first three objects shot down, including the larger Chinese surveillance balloon, were taken down on the first shot.
Milley was in Brussels with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
National security officials have said the airborne object over Lake Huron didn't pose a risk to people on the ground but was a potential safety threat for civilian aircraft.
"Thus far, we haven't seen any indication or anything that points specifically to the idea that these three objects were part of (China's) spy balloon program, or that they were definitively involved in external intelligence collection efforts," Kirby said Tuesday.
Kirby also said that, after consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration, officials have ruled out that the objects were possibly operated by the U.S. government. Also, no company or other entity has stepped forward to claim them, Kirby said.
But the White House said Tuesday that a "leading explanation" that the intelligence community is looking into is that these objects are tied to commercial or research entities and are "benign," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
"That very well could emerge as a leading explanation here. Again, I want to caveat that we haven't found the debris," Kirby said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, told reporters after a classified briefing Tuesday on Capitol Hill that so far the government has been unable to locate the debris after the objects were shot down.
"They can't find them. The remnants are in very difficult terrain, low temperatures, lots of inclement weather, and they're looking but they haven't been able to find them, except for the spy balloon," Kennedy said.
The Canadian Coast Guard said Monday that it is supporting the locating and retrieval of debris in the northeast section of Lake Huron from the downed object, with its vessel, the CCGS Griffon, on scene and with a drone on board for use in the search, depending on weather conditions.
Kennedy noted that it's not a new trend of objects "flying over" Americans, but what's different about the last two weeks "is that we've started shooting them down."
"At a minimum, our director of national intelligence should go in front of the American people and explain what we know and what we don't know, without divulging any classified information," Kennedy added. "But it's clear to me this is not a recent phenomenon."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, also said the American people deserve to know more and could be told some of the information disclosed in the briefing without harm to intelligence-gathering sources or U.S. national security.
"I think that there's a need for greater transparency," he said. "I am not in any way afraid that we are under a threat of attack or physical harm to our homeland. That's my personal feeling. But the American people need to be reassured with more facts.
Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.
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