The Alaska 'device' seems to be similar to the Lake Huron intruder. How did the Great Lakes intruder go undetected for so long? Where did it come from? As you say, maybe launched on U.S. soil - ? I posited yesterday that the 'unknown radar anomaly' over Montana was the same that closed northern Michigan air traffic and was then shot down over Lake Huron... following the US / Canadian border all the way! Supposedly un-traced!
What took so long to locate the intruder? ... which, as you say, is 'octagon shaped'. Doesn't sound like stealth material.
[We] have lots of places these can be “launched” from around the globe (even Antarctica, just sayin) as well as airborne launchers.
Again, they may be “proof of concept” objects only; the wright brothers started out with a skeleton of basswood.
Today, we fly metallic apartment complexes.
I will stress this is just my fevered mind.
Romulan cloaking device, maybe? :-)