The United States has recovered significant pieces of sensors and electronics from a Chinese balloon shot down in early February, the US military said on Monday.
“Teams were able to recover significant debris from the site, including all priority sensors and identified electronics, as well as much of the structure,” the North American command said in a statement.
Washington has no doubt that it was a Chinese spy balloon that entered American territory a few days before it was launched. For its part, Beijing assured that it was a civilian aircraft that was mainly used for meteorological research purposes.
That balloon was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet off South Carolina on February 4, and teams were immediately deployed offshore to recover the debris at sea.
American fighter jets have since shot down three mysterious flying objects, one over Alaska (northwest), another over the Yukon in northwest Canada, and the third over Lake Huron in the northern United States.