The Lake Huron Shootdown (2023)

Eleven seconds into the clip the sensor settles on an area of contrast in the centre of the frame. At the 20-second mark, AARO's description says, the footage "appears to depict a kinetic interaction between two distinct areas of contrast". The object then fragments "in a radial displacement pattern that suggests a high-energy event". The uploader's title is blunt: a USAF Air National Guard F-16C "Shoots Down UAP over Lake Huron". The callsign and the weapon are redacted.

What is on the record

The video is DOW-UAP-PR071, 46 seconds long, published by the Department of War on 22 May 2026 in its second PURSUE release. AARO found it on a classified network while answering eight members of the House who had asked for 51 records. It had been uploaded there in February 2023. AARO notes that many of those materials lack a substantiated chain of custody, and it gives no identification of its own.

The shootdown itself is public record. NBC News reported that an F-16 fired an AIM-9X at about 2:42 p.m. and that officials described an octagonal structure with strings hanging off it and no discernible payload. General Mark Milley said the first missile missed and fell into the lake. Wikipedia and The War Zone give the unit as the Minnesota Air National Guard's 148th Fighter Wing. On 16 February President Biden said the three objects downed that weekend were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions.

The search was called off the same day. Canadian records reported by The War Zone show the RCMP later held debris that included a module from a weather-equipment company. An official wrote that it was uncertain whether it came from the shootdown. Former AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick has since said plainly that what was shot down were balloons.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. The record identifies the observer as the pilot of an Air National Guard F-16C, with the callsign withheld. No independent testimony sits beside the video in the archive, and the tier measures sourcing rather than truth. This is a separate event from the Alaska shootdown two days earlier, which has its own page. What the F-16 destroyed over Lake Huron is not resolved here.