The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, closing air space for a “National Security Air mission.”  That’s what they did off South Carolina before shooting down the first China Balloon!

A U.S. Air Force C-130 refueling tanker has been on-station for about the past thirty minutes and remains in the area, as seen from the radar image below:

The full Notice from the FAA is screen-shot below:

UPDATE 3:07 PM EST —

The U.S. has downed an unidentified object over Alaska at the order of President Biden. It’s not confirmed if the object was a balloon but it was traveling at an altitude that made it a potential threat to aircraft.

UPDATE 3:11 EST —

AFRQ52827 remains on site. Marine recovery is unlikely due to ice and weather conditions. Far harder operation than the one we saw last week off SC.

Alaska National Guard, FBI, participated.

The object shot down was about the size of a small car.  Not similar in size or shape to surveillance balloon.

The object shot down over Alaska did not appear to be “self-moving and was at the mercy of the wind” 

The US aircraft involved in the shoot down was an F-22 fighter jet which fired an A-9X “Sidewinder” missile.

LOCAL WARNING RADAR SITES

The image below shows the location of US Warning Radar sites in that area; they are significant: FPS-117 long range and FPS-124 short range radars.

Here is a description for those radar sites:

(Source)