Biden administration officials planned to keep a Chinese spy balloon floating over the United States secret from the public, it said. A senior Air Force commander admitted that the balloon had exposed gaps in their intelligence gathering.
The balloon entered U.S. airspace on January 28 and was shot down on February 4 after flying over several nuclear missile sites.
In a new report from NBC, the network quoted a former senior official who was briefed on the incident as claiming that the government had planned to keep the incident secret.
The source said: “Before it became public knowledge, the intention was to study it and leave it unnoticed and never tell anyone about it.”
Biden's administration insisted that the balloon, which Beijing previously denied was a government ship, was not collecting and transmitting data.
The spy balloon is seen floating over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday – a fighter jet and its contrail can be seen underneath
NORAD Chief Gen. Glen VanHerck said the balloon's presence exposed holes in the intelligence community
A senior Biden administration official denied that there was an attempt to keep the balloon secret before its release.
They said: “To the extent that any of this was kept secret at all, it was largely to protect intelligence assets related to detection and tracking.” “There was at no time any intention to withhold this from Congress.”
NBC also revealed that Gen. Mark Milley and NORAD Chief Gen. Glen VanHerck said during a phone call on Jan. 27 that the Pentagon planned to send 5 to 22 jets to measure its characteristics.
Soon after that call, jets using targeting pods determined that the object was actually a balloon about the size of three school buses and carrying a surveillance payload.
President Biden was not informed about the balloon until February 1, and the public learned about it later after NBC broke the story.
VanHerck has since said that the balloon exposed gaps in intelligence and warned that the Chinese balloon program was still ongoing.
He said: “Significant gaps have been exposed, wide-ranging gaps, so that we can identify potential threats to the homeland. “I think that has been eye-opening for a lot of people.
“Time is an opportunity to create deterrence options or, if necessary, defeat options,” adding that the U.S. is still “not where we need to be.”
The F-22 Raptor takes off from Joint Base Langley-Eustis to shoot down the balloon
A U.S. Air Force U-2 pilot looks at the Chinese surveillance balloon floating over Central America
Another administration official also told the outlet that the balloon “caused so many problems.”
The balloon drifted east on January 28 and entered US airspace over Alaska. He was tracked as he flew over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where nuclear weapons are stored.
On February 4, the Air Force sent an F-22 fighter jet armed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to release the balloon over the water.
The balloon was found to have a self-destruct mechanism that could have been activated remotely from China.
NBC also reported that it was remotely piloted from China at some points while simultaneously using the wind and jet stream to push it over America.
After being released, the balloon plunged into the waters off the coast of South Carolina. Divers and underwater robots were used to recover the remains.
Throughout the episode, Beijing insisted that the ship was being used for “meteorological purposes” and vehemently opposed its destruction.
President Biden further suggested that Chinese leadership may not have known about the spy balloon.
He told reporters: “China has some legitimate difficulties that have nothing to do with the United States.”
The Chinese spy balloon after it was shot down by an F-22 over the coast of South Carolina on Saturday
President Joe Biden downplayed the latest Chinese spy balloon to float over the US, saying he believes Chinese leaders may not have known about it
“And I think one of the reasons that balloon was shot down was not so much.
“I don't think leadership knew where it was and what was in it and what was going on. “I think it was more embarrassing than intentional.”
This comes following a report earlier this week that said a Chinese spaceplane launched into orbit last week was sending strong signals over the US
The ship – named Shenlong after a ghost dragon from Chinese mythology – released six mysterious objects after entering Earth's orbit for the third time in three years.
The objects are being tracked by the US Space Force, but no details have been released about what they are or what purpose they serve.
Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley tracked the plane and examined the signals it emitted.
He told that they appear to send out the strongest signals when flying over North America.
An announcement in the Chinese press described the spaceplane's purpose as providing “technical support for the peaceful use of outer space” – but the country kept details secret.