Space Force, Space Command pass the buck on UFOs as US airspace security questions swirl

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No new 'objects' reported in last 48 hours, Pentagon says

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday said there have been no new "objects" reported in the last 48 hours.

The Pentagon's U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command have so far been absent from discussions on a handful of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over North America that have been shot down by the military in recent days.

Three flying objects were shot down last weekend, including one over northeastern Alaska on Friday, one over Canada's Yukon territory on Saturday and one over Lake Huron on Sunday. A week prior, a Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM) have been taking the lead on information related to the UFOs, but details on how involved the space-focused military agencies have been on identifying the objects and securing U.S. airspace is not clear.

The Space Command, which is one of the 11 of the military's "Combatant Commands," is in charge of command and control of the military's actions in the space region. However, a spokesperson for the command said it is not taking a lead role on the UFOs as the objects operated outside the command's "astrographic area of responsibility."

MILITARY NOT RULING OUT 3 SHOT DOWN UFOS MAY HAVE COME FROM 'HOSTILE NATIONS'

President Donald Trump was presented with the official flag of the U.S. Space Force in the Oval Office of the White House on May 15, 2020. (Samuel Corum-Pool/Getty Images)

"U.S. Space Command operates the most exquisite and extensive sensor network in the world," the agency told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday, while noting that NORAD, NORTHCOM and the Pentagon are the "focal point" of efforts to identify the UFOs.

"While the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena are below USSPACECOM's astrographic area of responsibility (100km+), we continue to monitor these events and provide supporting data to U.S. Northern Command," the spokesperson added.

When asked to elaborate on what "supporting data" the U.S. Space Command is sharing with NORTHCOM, the command declined to specify.

The command "plans, executes, and integrates military spacepower into multi-domain global operations" in order to "deter aggression, defend national interests, and when necessary, defeat threats," according to its website.

LAWMAKERS PLOT PATH FORWARD TO HOLD INTEL COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABLE FOR INFO ON UFOS

Vice President Kamala Harris received an unclassified briefing in the Command Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Space Force Base on April 18, 2022, in California. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

The Space Force is the newest branch of the military created under former President Donald Trump and organized under the Air Force similarly to how the Marine Corps is structured under the Navy.

Space Force media operations officer Jackie Lockett referred Fox News Digital to NORAD and NORTHCOM on the matter, and did not comment on whether the Space Force is working with those agencies on tracking the objects or if it often encounters UFOs.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that there have been no new "objects" reported in U.S. airspace over the last 48 hours.

"We're also working with other agencies, NASA, FAA, FBI and everybody in the community who may have an interest in operating in this space to learn more about, you know, what these could have possibly been," he added.

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Mark Esper watch as the flag for U.S. Space Command was unfurled in 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

"And so I would just tell you that the safety and security of the American people are, that's the thing that's most important to me and to everybody on the DOD team and throughout the interagency."

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Senior U.S. defense officials recently told Fox News that past incursions by suspected Chinese spy balloons were "brief," and logged by the military, but did not get flagged for senior officials in the Biden administration or in the previous Trump administration until recently.

The officials said there were sometimes hundreds of reports on incursions each day.

Questions continue to pile up from lawmakers on the origin and purpose of the objects. According to sources with knowledge of an unclassified briefing for members of the House of Representatives Tuesday on the UFOs, the three objects were "not engaged in hostile actions," but the military could not rule out that they were sent by a hostile country.