U.S. officials are revealing more information about the Chinese spy balloon shot down over the weekend.
They say the balloon was part of a fleet that make up a large-scale global surveillance system. It also contained tech capable of monitoring U.S. communications, officials say. Similar balloons have been spotted over five continents since 2018.
"This is not the only [People's Republic of China] surveillance balloon operating in the Western Hemisphere. We assess that a balloon was observed transiting Central and South America, and that that is another PRC surveillance balloon. These balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations," an unnamed senior defense official said during a press briefing. "Over the past several years, Chinese balloons have previously been spotted over countries across five continents, including in East Asia, South Asia, and Europe."
Defense officials said Chinese surveillance balloons have flown over the U.S. "briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time." According to Fox News, one balloon crashed into Pacific Ocean near Hawaii four months ago, and the previous three balloons were flown over Texas, Florida and Guam.
The most recent balloon was first detected on January 28 when it entered U.S. airspace near the Aleutian Islands, according to the Department of Defense. The balloon traversed Alaska, Canada and re-entered U.S. airspace over Idaho on January 31.
Officials waited to take down the balloon until the mission could be accomplished "without undue risk to U.S. civilians under the balloon's path." On February 4, an F-22 Raptor fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon, which fell approximately six miles off the coast of South Carolina in about 47 feet of water, the department said.
"This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada, and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites," an unnamed senior defense official said in a statement.
Long before the shoot down, U.S. officials took steps to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information, mitigating its intelligence value to the Chinese, the official said, adding that the balloon would have gathered very little new information before it was shot down.
"I would also note that while we took all necessary steps to protect against the [People's Republic of China] surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of U.S. territory was of intelligence value to us," the official said. "I can't go into more detail, but we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable."
Officials said the balloon never posed a military or physical threat to the American people, but called its intrusion of our airspace for multiple days "an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."
As for why the balloon was not shot down earlier and allowed to traverse across the country, officials determined the risk of Chinese intelligence collection was "low to moderate" while the risk to people on the ground was "moderate to significant," CNN reported. Shooting the balloon down over water provided additional benefits, officials said, including more time to observe the balloon and China's capabilities, and a better chance at recovering the balloon afterwards, according to the CNN report.
China accepted ownership of the balloon, but said it was a weather balloon caught off course. U.S. defense officials have dismissed the claim.
The FBI is currently investigating debris from the balloon while an operation continues to recover evidence that remains underwater. The FBI said the evidence recovered so far has been limited to surface findings, including the balloon itself, some wiring, a tiny amount of electronics -- but only a small portion of the payload, which was estimated to weigh several thousand pounds.
"We have not seen the payload where we expect to see the lion's share of the electronics," Michael Paul, assistant director of the FBI's Operational and Technology Division said in a statement. He added that no "energetic or offensive material" has been detected but emphasized much of the evidence has yet to be recovered.
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