A Chinese high-altitude balloon that flew coast to coast across U.S. airspace for a week reportedly gathered intelligence from several sensitive U.S. military sites before it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
U.S. officials previously said steps were taken to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information, mitigating its intelligence value to the Chinese.
Now, a report from NBC News indicates that despite the Biden administration's efforts to block it from doing so, the balloon in fact gathered information from sensitive military sites.
The report cites two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official, who told the network that China was able to control the balloon and make multiple passes over the sites, while transmitting the information it collected back to Beijing in real time.
According to the report, "the intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images."
The officials added, like the initial statement from the Pentagon, that the balloon likely gathered very little new information due to steps taken by the Biden administration, such as stopping the broadcast of electronic signals.
The balloon was also equipped with a self-destruct mechanism that could have been activated remotely, the officials said.
While it's not clear exactly how much intelligence the balloon was able to collect, officials previously said the information would have had "limited additive value" for the Chinese government.
After the balloon was shot down, the U.S. accused Beijing of operating a fleet of surveillance balloons around the world.
China accepted ownership of the balloon, but said it was a weather balloon caught off course. U.S. intelligence officials dismissed the claim, saying the suspected spy balloon was linked to a massive aerial surveillance program that targeted more than 40 countries.
The 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, a fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, which fell off the coast of South Carolina, the DOD said.
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."
The FBI is continuing to investigate debris from the balloon.
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