Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive US military sites: Report

The Chinese spy balloon that flew across the US was able to collect intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, US-based NBC News reported on Monday. China was successful in gathering intelligence despite Washington's efforts to block it from doing so, the report said almost two months after a US air force fighter jet shot down the high-altitude Chinese surveillance balloon on February 4.

The US officials first detected the balloon on January 28 when it entered American airspace near the Aleutian Islands. The balloon traversed Alaska, and Canada and re-entered US airspace over Idaho. During its course, the balloon was flying over Montana — specifically Malmstrom Air Force Base, where the US stores some of its nuclear assets. The balloon was shot down on February 4, over a week after it was first detected.  

In a statement, the US Department of Defence said before bringing down the balloon, the Biden administration took steps to protect against the collection of sensitive information, mitigating its intelligence value to the Chinese. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the balloon was being used by China in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States. He, however, did not say anything about whether Beijing was able to gather sensitive information from the country's military sites.

Today, NBC News reported that China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real-time. The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the report said citing two senior officials said.

According to the report, China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the Biden administration's efforts to move around potential targets and obscure the balloon's ability to pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.

Beijing has said repeatedly that the balloon was an unmanned civilian airship that accidentally strayed off course. China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the balloon was civilian and was used for flight tests. "Affected by the weather and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course and entered into the airspace of Latin America," she said.

Responding to another question, the spokesperson said the unmanned airship was found to be "a civilian airship used for meteorological and other research purposes".  

After the balloon was shot down, the US administration did say that it was capable of collecting signals intelligence. The balloon had a self-destruct mechanism that could have been activated remotely by China, but the officials said it was not clear if that didn't happen because the mechanism malfunctioned or because Beijing decided not to trigger it, the report said.

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