Intelligence officials have disclosed the use of an American internet service provider by a Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. for a week in February 2023. The balloon was part of the communication network during its journey.
The balloon drifted east and entered U.S. airspace over Alaska on January 28, 2023. It was tracked as it flew over Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, where nuclear assets are stored.
On February 4, 2023, the Air Force dispatched an F-22 fighter jet armed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to intercept the balloon over water. In a new report from NBC, the outlet cited two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the report as its source.
The report stated that the balloon was connected to a US-based company and was communicating with China about its navigation. The report also mentioned that this connection “allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods” to its home base in China.
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The specific name of the company involved has not been disclosed by the source. Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, asserted that it was a weather balloon that inadvertently drifted into American airspace.
In a statement to NBC, they said, “As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into the U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability. The facts are clear.”
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The unidentified internet service provider company has refuted all such allegations. Days after officials in the Biden administration had intended to keep the Chinese spy balloon secret, it has now been disclosed.
A top Air Force commander admitted that the balloon revealed gaps in their intelligence gathering. According to a source speaking to NBC, an initial intention was to study the Chinese spy balloon discreetly and allow it to pass over without public disclosure.
Despite Beijing’s denial that the balloon, previously dismissed as a government vessel, collected and transmitted data, the Biden administration has remained firm. When questioned by the outlet, an official from the senior Biden administration denied any effort to keep the balloon secret.
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They said: “To the extent any of this was kept quiet, that was largely to protect intel equities related to finding and tracking. There was no intention to keep this from Congress at any point.”
NBC also disclosed that during a phone call on January 27, 2023, General Mark Milley and NORAD Chief Gen. Glen VanHerck discussed the Pentagon’s plan to send up F-22 jets to assess its characteristics.
Following that conversation, jets deployed targeting pods to ascertain that the entity was, indeed, a balloon. The balloon was approximately the size of three school buses and was equipped with a surveillance payload.
President Biden was not informed about the balloon until February 1, 2023, and the public only became aware of it after NBC reported the story. VanHerck has subsequently mentioned that the balloon revealed deficiencies in the intelligence agencies. He also cautioned that the Chinese balloon program is still ongoing.
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