If that Chinese spy balloon US military and intelligence agencies crossed American airspace late last month US They’ve been tracking it for almost a week now, watching it take off from its base near the south coast China. A Information shows that Washington was aware of the object earlier than previously.
US observers watched the balloon settle into a trajectory that appeared to have flown over the US territory of Guam. But somewhere along that eastern route, the object took an unexpected turn north, according to several US officials, who said analysts are studying the possibility that China had no intention of invading the American heartland with its aerial surveillance equipment.
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The balloon hovered over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, thousands of miles from Guam, and then flew over Canada, where it encountered strong winds that appear to have pushed the balloon south toward the U.S. mainland, officials said, speaking on the condition of the Anonymity to describe sensitive information. One On February 4, a US fighter jet shot down the balloon off the coast of South Carolinaa week after crossing Alaska.
This new account suggests that the ensuing international crisis, which heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing, may have been the result, at least in part, of a mistake.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has previously sent spy balloons over Guam as well as over Hawaii to monitor US military installations, officials said. But the dayslong flyby over the mainland United States was news and caused confusion within the Chinese government as diplomats scramble to publish a story that the balloon had gone off course while collecting harmless weather data, US officials said.
The excitement hit Beijing in the hind leg. First, he expressed “regret” over what he insisted was a wayward weather balloon. He then criticized Washington for what he felt was an overreaction, and this week he blamed the United States Send 10 spy balloons over China.
The White House vehemently denied the claim as false. “We don’t fly surveillance balloons over China. I’m not aware of any other vehicle we’re overflying in Chinese airspace,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator, said Monday.
political anger
US intelligence and military authorities tracked the balloon as it took off from Hainan Island. Intelligence analysts aren’t sure if the apparent distraction was intentional or accidental, but are confident it was intended for surveillance, likely at US military installations in the Pacific.
In any case, the intrusion into US airspace was a major misstep by the Chinese military, sparking political and diplomatic excitement and closer scrutiny of Beijing’s aerial espionage capabilities by the US and its allies.
Its passage into U.S. airspace was a violation of sovereignty, and its hovering over sensitive Montana nuclear facilities was no accident, officials said, citing the possibility that Beijing appeared to have decided to seize the opportunity, even if the balloon accidentally blown up over the US mainland to try to gather information.
The incident was just the latest indication of how China is deliberately expanding its surveillance capabilities from advanced satellite technology to balloons, officials said.
The balloon fleet is part of a much broader aerial surveillance effort that includes sophisticated satellite systems and into which analysts say the Chinese government has invested billions of dollars over the years.
“This was a lowkey program part of a larger series of programs aimed at gaining more clarity about military installations in the US and several other countries,” a senior US official said. It seems aimed at “scaling up satellite systems”.
Meanwhile, the authorities say Three more items have been dropped in the past week They appeared to be very different in size and capacity from the spy balloon and they still have no clue as to who launched them or if they were Chinese.
The balloon was launched from the ground, part of a program carried out in part by the PLA Air Force, and may have been distracted by strong highaltitude winds, officials said. The balloon was partly piloted by air currents and partly remotely controlled, they said. It can be maneuvered with propellers and rudders.
cold front
After the balloon was launched, computer modeling performed by the Washington Post shows that directional currents propelled it east across the Pacific Ocean, likely passing between the Philippines and Taiwan.
Around January 24, when the balloon was about 1,000 miles south of Japan, model simulations show it gaining momentum and rapidly turning north. This likely happened in response to a strong cold front that released exceptionally cold air over northern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan.
Normally, atmospheric control movements would have kept the balloon on a much more westerly course, historical weather data shows. However, the intense cold front forced the jet stream and highaltitude directional currents to dive south and may have pushed the balloon north.
The airship entered U.S. airspace via Alaska on Jan. 28, crossed Canada, and reentered the U.S. via Idaho on Jan. 31, a day before it was spotted by civilians in Montana, causing a standstill at Billings Airport led when US officials considered overthrowing it.
Realizing they couldn’t mitigate the risk to the people on the bottom, they decided to wait until they could throw it over the water.
Analysts are still awaiting recovery of the balloon’s payload, which official estimates are the size of three school buses, but “does not appear to be dramatic new capacity,” a second US official said. “It feels more like a collection everyone always wants more.”
Kirby said Monday: “These balloons offered limited additional capabilities to the other intelligence platforms [República Popular da China] used in the US. But if the PRC continues to push this technology in the future, it could certainly become more valuable for them.”
US officials stressed that they had taken steps to thwart any efforts by China to collect classified information from military installations. Any information or communication is encrypted, Kirby said.