The United States Government says it is tracking a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States. The balloon is over Montana.
The balloon is traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground, the Pentagon said.
The path of the balloon took it over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and through Northwest Canada. It would have to have crossed over mainland Alaska, with NOAA backward projections offering the idea that it cross into Alaska over the near the Nome or Kotzebue area, and went across Interior Alaska, before entering Canada air space.
“Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” the Pentagon said.
The government considered shooting it down but was concerned the debris could hit people on the ground or damage property.
“We did assess that it was large enough to cause damage from the debris field if we downed it over an area. Â We had been looking at whether there was an option yesterday over some sparsely populated areas in Montana. But we just couldn’t buy down the risk enough to feel comfortable recommending shooting it down yesterday,” the senior Defense official said. “So, beyond that, though, I can’t really go into the dimensions. But there have been reports of pilots seeing this thing, even though it’s pretty high up in the sky. So, you know, it’s sizable.”
The Defense official said the balloon is clearly for surveillance and its flight path has carried it over “so clearly the intent of this balloon is for surveillance. Â And so the current flight path does carry it over a number of sensitive sites.”
The military believes that whatever the surveillance payload is on this balloon, “it does not create significant value added over and above what the PRC is likely able to collect through things like satellites in Low Earth Orbit.”
The department has taken preliminary mitigation steps and said that this is not the first time a spy balloon has crossed over the continental United States.
“It has happened a handful of other times over the past few years, to include before this administration,” the official said, adding that this time it is appearing “to hang out for a long period of time this time around, more persistent than in previous instances. So that would be one distinguishing factor.”
The military says it doesn’t pose a threat to aviation and it doesn’t posed much of a security threat. Because of that, taking the risk of downing the balloon and hurting people on the ground is not worth it. The risk of shooting down a China spy asset could prompt the People’s Republic of China to shoot down American aircraft in the South China Sea.
The transcript of the Pentagon briefing is at this link.
The War Zone — was a high altitude airship spotted in the South China Sea?
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