Newly declassified Pentagon footage shows the moment a U.S. Air National Guard F-16 shot down an unidentified aerial object over Michigan’s Lake Huron in February 2023.
The video was part of a second batch of declassified files on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), formerly known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, released Friday by the Trump administration.
Among the second release of recently declassified unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) documents held by the U.S government is this video from February 12, 2023 that shows an object being destroyed over Lake Huron by a U.S. Air Force Air National Guard F-16C “Fighting Falcon”… pic.twitter.com/Pr2TN1VpP3
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 22, 2026
The footage shows the object being shot down after U.S. authorities determined it could pose a hazard to civilian aviation. Officials said the object was flying at roughly 20,000 feet when a pair of Minnesota Air National Guard F-16CM Vipers were scrambled to intercept it.
One of the jets fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, bringing the object down over the lake.
At the time, officials described the object as octagonal in shape, though the newly released footage appears to suggest it may have been a balloon.
The Pentagon released the video as part of 222 newly declassified files, which include documents, photos and additional videos documenting UAP encounters.
One of the newly released videos shows four UAPs flying in formation over waters near Iran in August 2022.
‘UAP formation over Iran’ clip found in second batch of UFO files
The 2022 footage likely came from an infrared sensor aboard a US military platform and was uploaded to a classified network in 2024 pic.twitter.com/OsJJiw89Dk
— RT (@RT_com) May 22, 2026
Another video, filmed near Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Airport in March 2022, shows a glowing object across the night sky, while a witness is heard saying: “That’s not an airplane.”
🇺🇸🇰🇿 A glowing object spotted near an airport in Kazakhstan has just appeared in the U.S. Department of War’s latest classified UFO/UAP file release.
The footage, filmed near Karaganda International Airport in March 2022, shows a bright object streaking across the night sky as a… pic.twitter.com/mC2Vdwqzxh
— Europa.com (@europa) May 22, 2026
The Lake Huron incident was the fourth aerial object shot down over North America within days of the Feb. 4, 2023, destruction of a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina by a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor.
The second object was a cylindrical, silver-gray high-altitude object shot down over Alaska on February 10, followed by a third object downed over Yukon, Canada on February 11. Some reports later suggested the Alaska and Yukon objects may also have been balloons, though officials never publicly confirmed their exact nature.
