According to the White House, the unidentified flying objects could have been research or commercial balloons.

WASHINGTON - A White House spokesman said on Tuesday that three unidentified flying objects shot down from North American airspace may have been balloons used for commercial or research purposes that did not directly threaten the United States. According to the information we have so far, the intelligence community is looking at the possibility that these balloons are simply tied to a commercial or benign purpose as a leading explanation, according to spokesman John Kirby. Nobody has expressed a willingness to take responsibility.

Furthermore, a lot of questions remain unanswered. Despite the fact that they were shot down about a week after the United States shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of the Atlantic, Kirby claimed that the United States hasn't seen any evidence that specifically links the objects to China's spy balloon program. He claimed that the possibility that the objects came from the American government had been ruled out by the Pentagon.

The U.S. has not yet recovered debris from the objects shot down over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory, and in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron, complicating the search for additional information because each is in remote locations with challenging conditions, and two are in bodies of water. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Mark Milley, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that "we'll get them eventually, but it's going to take some time." Off the coast of South Carolina, in an area of about 50 feet of water, some pieces of the Chinese spy balloon have been found.

According to him, the object that was shot down over Lake Huron on Sunday is hundreds of feet below the surface. According to Milley, one missile that was fired at that object missed its target and landed safely. Sen. informed of incidents The unidentified objects pose a low threat, according to reports from Tuesday. Republicans, however, contend that President Joe Biden should tell the American people that.

After the briefing, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said, "I mean, my phone is ringing off the wall, and we've got a president of the United States that's not saying anything." Get out there and inform people that we are healthy, aware of the situation, and ready to carry on with our lives.

The Biden administration, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, is being "extremely cautious and thoughtful. " Some of the information is either classified or "on the edge of being classified," and it's difficult," according to him, so it cannot be made public.

On Tuesday, Kirby and a number of senators confirmed that the last three objects that were shot down had no data left in them. One of the three objects, according to Idaho Sen. James Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had a payload. More:

What number of spy balloons have been discovered? After flying objects were shot down, concerns increased Sensible statements regarding the spy balloons Senate Republicans Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz claimed that the briefing didn't teach them very much.

Hawley said, "I get the impression they don't really understand what in the world is going on. Hawley, who expressed disappointment that no members of the White House administration attended the briefing, said that Biden should be addressing the country and "laying out what they know.

" According to Schumer, some of his Republican colleagues are expressing their opinions in "premature" and "very political" ways. Other Republicans, including North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, spoke in a measured manner on Tuesday.

Given that her home state is the first line of defence against China and Russia's foreign adversaries, Murkowski described herself as "angry" last week in response to an infringement on American airspace. She stated that she still has questions on Tuesday morning, but some of them might not have answers until the data is retrieved. "They're searching for a needle in a haystack in these difficult circumstances up north, but it could be worse.

Right now, it's about 50 below there "She spoke of the temperatures in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon across the border.

When asked if he agreed with the Biden administration's choices, Tillis responded, "I think so," and he was confident that the information that would be gleaned from the data of the spy balloon that had been shot down over South Carolina would be "very valuable." After the briefing, he remarked, "I think they've done a good job of getting our situational awareness to where it is today, and we had no situational awareness a month ago.

Biden has been urged to act quickly by Congress, with fellow Democrats calling for accountability and repercussions for spying. Meanwhile, Biden is juggling a delicate line between trying to demonstrate strong leadership and strong diplomacy with a foreign foe.

The administration, according to Kirby, is "as transparent as we can be," he said on Monday. He claimed that Biden had ordered his staff to properly brief and consult with members of Congress. We are also making our best efforts in the public sphere.

How many spies have been shot down after being discovered in balloons? Three unidentified flying objects and at least one spy balloon have been found and shot down: On February 4, a high-altitude surveillance balloon thought to be from China was shot down six miles off the coast of South Carolina. On Friday, an aircraft was shot down close to Deadhorse, Alaska. In Canada's Yukon, another flying object was shot down on Saturday. A fourth aircraft was shot down on Sunday in Lake Huron, about 15 nautical miles off the coast, and it most likely landed in Canadian waters.

Why were the spy balloons not discovered earlier? Senators and House members have questioned why it took the Biden administration to discover alleged Chinese spy balloons that were in American airspace during the Trump administration. At least four Chinese balloons that entered American airspace through Florida, Hawaii, and Texas went undetected by the U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD.

The lack of detection of those threats, according to VanHerck, the commander of NORAD, is "a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out." This gap, according to some Republican senators, is unacceptable. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, stated that "this has been going on for years." "We're not entirely sure what they are. "Even if we had caught them all, we are unsure." On Wednesday afternoon, senators will receive a second classified briefing on the overall threats from China.