Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said Sunday he was told by U.S. Northern Command that some airspace over Montana was closed Saturday night because an object was sighted and not for a radar anomaly, as had been previously reported.
"I am in constant communication with NORCOM and they have just advised me that they have confidence there IS an object and it WAS NOT an anomaly," Rosendale tweeted. "I am waiting now to receive visual confirmation. Our nation's security is my priority."
On Saturday night, hours after a U.S. F-22 fighter jet shot down an object over Canadian airspace, the Federal Aviation Administration and North American Aerospace Defense Command closed some airspace over Havre, Montana, near the Canadian border for a little more than an hour to support Defense Department activities. NORAD later said the closure came after it detected "a radar anomaly" and sent fighter aircraft to investigate. The aircraft did not identify any object, NORAD said.
Rosendale has been pressing the Defense Department for answers over the Chinese surveillance balloon that flew over Montana and was allowed to travel across the country before being shot down Feb. 4 off the coast of South Carolina. In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Feb. 3, Rosendale said he was concerned about surveillance of Malmstrom Air Force Base in his district, which operates, maintains, and secures Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"This incident is only the most recent example of China's brazen espionage attempt — it is abundantly clear that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in a multilayered approach to spy on Americans," Rosendale wrote to Austin. "The Biden administration must do more to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from targeting Americans."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed.
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