According to him, US President Joe Biden received a recommendation from the military to shoot down these devices.
“Firstly, we could not rule out that they were potentially reconnaissance vehicles, and secondly, the route of their flight in certain cases could lie over potentially sensitive objects,” RIA Novosti quotes him.
Kirby noted that the United States could determine whether these were reconnaissance gathering apparatuses or balloons.
However, later experts came to the conclusion that the objects did not have a military purpose.
Earlier, the head of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), Glen Van Herck, did not rule out that the downed air objects could be of extraterrestrial origin.
At the same time, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US authorities do not see extraterrestrial activity in the situation with downed air targets.
US President Joe Biden ordered the formation of an interagency group to analyze in detail the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) after incidents with downed air objects over the United States and Canada.