The United States shot down the objects that had been detected in the country’s airspace in the past week out of caution, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton told a briefing.

"Because we have not yet been able to definitively assess what these recent objects are, we have acted out of an abundance of caution to protect our security and interests," she noted.

"In light of the People's Republic of China balloon that we took down last Saturday, we have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase in objects that we've detected over the past week," Dalton added.