Arlington, Virginia - An as yet unidentified object that strayed into US airspace over Alaska has been shot down by fighter jets, the Pentagon announced on Friday.

Both Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder and National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed to the press that the mysterious object was downed 10 miles off the coast of Alaska.

It had been tracked since Thursday, when President Joe Biden was briefed on its presence by Defense of Department officials. He ultimately directed the Pentagon to take it down, not least of all because as became obvious that the object's flight path could pose a danger to air traffic.

On Friday afternoon, a US fighter successfully completed the task by firing a missile, having waited on full daylight to make the operation easier.

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"We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now," Kirby said. "We don’t know who owns it – whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we just don’t know."

The incident comes hot on the heels of the Chinese balloon saga, so there were naturally a lot of questions about the object's size and provenance. So far, the Pentagon was only able to say for certain that the target was about as big as a small car, seemed to be operated remotely, and didn't look like a balloon.

Recovery operations were launched immediately after the object was downed.