WASHINGTON (Michigan News Source) – U.S. Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-07) is reassuring Michiganders that the unidentified aerial object shot down by a U.S. F-16 over Lake Huron on Sunday is not a UFO.

“I know that’s gotten all kinds of excitement,” the former CIA analyst said during a Sunday briefing, “but the chances are this is just a normal, run-of-the-mill thing that we in the intelligence community know how to exploit.”

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Reporters also asked Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), whether he could definitively rule out aliens or extraterrestrials. VanHerck noted that the counterintelligence community had been tasked with identifying the object and stated, “I haven’t ruled out anything. At this point, we continue to assess every threat or potential threats unknown that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.”

According to Slotkin, VanHerck’s response “has certainly fueled a lot of Michiganders’ interest in UFOs,” but “I have zero reason to believe that. And, in general, don’t believe too much in those conspiracy theories.”

NORAD has been closely monitoring its radar since a Chinese spy balloon was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs Melissa Dalton suggested that this may explain the “increase in objects that we’ve detected over the past week.”

The most recent object shot down over Lake Huron “wasn’t a threat to national security,” according to Slotkin. Efforts to recover debris from the object for identification remain underway.