US shoots down ‘unidentified object’ that violated airspace over Canada

A US military jet shot down an unidentified airborne object over Canada’s Yukon Territory Saturday — as President Biden’s administration continued to remain mum about the mysterious intruder brought down in Alaska the previous day.

Canada closed its airspace over parts of Yukon at around 4:50 p.m. due to an “active air defense operation,” and five minutes later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that he “ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace.”

“Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled, and a US F-22 successfully fired at the object,” Trudeau tweeted.

He revealed no information about the nature of the object or where its wreckage landed.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the object had been detected over Alaska late Friday and was tracked by US and Canadian military aircraft as it crossed into Canadian airspace, then taken down by an AIM 9X missile fired by an American jet.

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Earlier in the day, security sources had told Canada’s Global News that at least one new airborne object — possibly a spy balloon — was being monitored by North American Aerospace Defense Command, the joint US-Canada military response team that oversees the continent’s air defenses.

Recovery operations continued Saturday near Deadhorse, Alaska to retrieve the remnants of a still-unidentified object that penetrated American airspace before being shot down by a Sidewinder missile fired from an F-22 Raptor fighter jet Friday.

The search, which was being conducted on sea ice by military troops, the Alaska National Guard, local law enforcement, and the FBI, was hampered by “arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight,” US Northern Command said.

The mysterious object managed to penetrate American airspace without being detected beforehand, Fox News reported — and pilots who flew near it gave differing reports on what they observed, with some saying it had “interfered” with aircraft sensors, according to CNN.

“We have no further updates at this time,” a Department of Defense spokesperson told The Post when asked for more information.

The latest incidents came a week after the US military shot down a massive Chinese spy balloon that had made an embarrassing high-altitude journey over the entire North American continent, from Alaska to South Carolina, before it was finally destroyed on Feb. 4. Seaborne recovery operations continued near Myrtle Beach on Saturday, military officials said.

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But officials have refused to describe the latest intruder’s appearance, capabilities, or ownership, saying only that it was “not similar in size or shape” to the much larger spy balloon.

“We don’t know who owns it — whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we just don’t know,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday.

The administration’s ignorance drew ridicule Saturday from former President Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller.

“We don’t know if it’s a Chinese balloon or just some kid,” an incredulous Miller told Fox News. “If you’re a writer for ‘Saturday Night Live,’ you’ve got all the material you need for the next three weeks.”

Republicans have hammered Biden for his foot-dragging response to the Chinese spy balloon’s week-long journey — saying that his “vastly changed” response to Friday’s airspace intrusion was evidence it had been mishandled.

But they cheered the US military’s Yukon operation.

“We have the most capable military in the world when they are given the orders to act,” tweeted Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. “Protect our homeland!!”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration slapped sanctions on six Chinese companies to retaliate for the spy balloon’s intrusion late Friday.

The Commerce Department blacklisted five aerospace corporations and one research institute, accusing them of supporting Beijing’s “military modernization efforts, specifically those related to aerospace programs, including airships and balloons” used for “intelligence and reconnaissance.”

The move will block the targeted entities from buying American technical materials.

“The Commerce Department will not hesitate to continue to use … regulatory and enforcement tools to protect U.S. national security and sovereignty,” Deputy Secretary Don Graves tweeted.

Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” said the recent wave of air incursions could be a harbinger of imminent global conflict.

“This could be the prelude to something far larger,” he said. “Someone is trying to destabilize us, distract us.”

The timing of the disturbances in North America’s airspace—with the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just days away—seems more than accidental, Chang said.

“Are China and Russia working together? I don’t think we can assume this is just a coincidence,” he said. “The president needs to tell the American people we need to mobilize to defend ourselves. Chinese are mobilizing to go to war.”