Downed Chinese ‘spy balloon’ had gathered intelligence from sensitive military sites – US officials
Officials have confirmed that the suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over several sensitive US military sites was able to gather intelligence, despite efforts by the White House to prevent it from doing so.
The balloon flew in a figure-of-eight pattern above sites to collect information, primarily from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or communications from base personnel, rather than images.
The officials said that China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if it were not for the efforts of the Biden administration to obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up electronic signals.
The balloon had a self-destruct mechanism that could have been activated remotely by China, but it is unclear if the mechanism malfunctioned or if China decided not to trigger it.
Crews were able to recover significant amounts of debris from where the balloon landed after being shot down, including “all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure”.
Officials have attempted to reconstruct the balloon from the debris recovered.
The US government released a photo of the balloon taken from the cockpit of an American spy plane before it was shot down.