Lake Huron Object — F-16 Shoot-Down February 2023

On February 12, 2023, a United States Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile and shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron, Michigan, at approximately 20,000 feet altitude. NORAD had been tracking the object. President Biden authorized the shootdown. The object was described as octagonal in shape with strings hanging from it by military officials — possibly consistent with a balloon or balloon-like device. Recovery operations were conducted by the US Navy in Lake Huron; the lake's depth and cold water complicated the recovery. Recovery teams retrieved some debris. The Department of Defense did not publicly attribute the object to any specific nation, state actor, or program. The Lake Huron shootdown was the fourth aerial object destroyed by the US military in nine days: a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down February 4 over South Carolina, a second unidentified object was shot down over Alaska on February 10 (Deadhorse), and a third over the Yukon, Canada on February 11. Of the four, only the Chinese balloon was officially attributed. The other three — including Lake Huron — remain officially unidentified. The unprecedented four-in-nine-days military action prompted NORAD to acknowledge it had adjusted its radar sensitivity settings to detect slower-moving lower-altitude objects, which may explain why more objects were suddenly being detected.