US jets down 4 objects in 8 days, unprecedented in peacetime

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Feb. 5. Another flying object, apparently, the same object that led to an alert on the airspace over Havre Saturday, was shot down over Lake Huron Sunday. The heightened defense alert on flying objects follows the missile fired Feb. 5 by a U.S. F-22 off the Carolina coast ending the days-long flight of what the Biden administration says was a surveillance operation that took the Chinese balloon near U.S. military sites. It was an unprecedented incursion across U.S. territory for recent decades, and raised concerns among Americans about a possible escalation in spying and other challenges from rival China. Shooting down the object Sunday was the fourth such downing in eight days. Pentagon officials believe the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace has no peacetime precedent.