president biden ordering the u.s. military to take down another high altitude object that was hovering over the u.s. we re told it was flying about 40,000 feet making it a threat to commercial airplanes. this coming less than a week after the u.s. shot down that chinese spy balloon. i want to bring in cnn national security reporter natasha ber trn, military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. great to have all of you. natasha, tell us what your latest reporting is on what happened today. yeah, alisyn, this was a big surprise by u.s. officials today. white house official john kirby he came to the podium and went through all his talking points and in the middle of the briefing he kind of sprung on everyone this had happen. essentially what happened off the coast of alaska on thursday night there was an object that was spotted, and it was unclear what that object actually was, but it was flying at a very concerning altitude, around 40,000 feet, just at that
security reporter natasha ber trn, military analyst and retired air force colonel cedric leighton. great to have all of you. natasha, tell us what your latest reporting is on what happened today. yeah, alisyn, this was a big surprise by u.s. officials today. white house official john kirby he came to the podium and went through all his talking points and in the middle of the briefing he kind of sprung on everyone this had happen. essentially what happened off the coast of alaska on thursday night there was an object that was spotted, and it was unclear what that object actually was, but it was flying at a very concerning altitude, around 40,000 feet, just at that top end of what civilian aircraft normally fly at. so it was deemed potentially risky to civilian aircraft, so what the military did is they continued to monitor, and on friday they briefed president biden on it and the president biden did ultimately give the order to shoot it down because it was not seen as able to