The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over the continental United States for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to the risk of harming people on the ground, a defense official said Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. (Mikki L. Sprenkle/U.S. Army)
WASHINGTON — A “very high-altitude” surveillance balloon belonging to China has been hovering over the northern United States for several days, and the military is poised to shoot it down if it becomes a threat, a senior defense official said Thursday.
The official said the consensus among government and intelligence officials is the balloon belongs to the Chinese government and this is not the first time that one has been spotted over the continental United States.
“I will just say we have very high confidence that this is a [Chinese] balloon,” said the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We do not doubt that this is a [Chinese] balloon.”
The official said U.S. leaders have considered shooting down the balloon, but decided against it for now because it’s not posing a threat to aircraft in the sky or people on the ground. The debris from shooting it down, however, could be dangerous, the official said.
"[North American Aerospace Defense Command] continues to track and monitor it closely,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesman. “Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.”
The senior defense official said they weighed the value of shooting down the balloon.
“So, the first question is, does it pose a threat … to individuals in the United States homeland? Our assessment is, it does not,” the official said. “Does it pose a threat to civilian aviation? Our assessment is it does not. Does it pose a significantly enhanced threat on the intelligence side? Our best assessment is that it does not. Given that profile, we assess that the risk of downing it – even if the probability was low in a sparsely populated area with the debris falling and hurting somebody or damaging property – wasn’t worth it.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday that the balloon was a civilian “airship” used mainly for meteorological purposes that deviated far from its planned course, according to The Associated Press.
The Pentagon announcement comes days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China. It's not clear if this will affect his travel plans, which the State Department has not formally announced, the AP reported.
The balloon has spent days over the northern portion of the United States, the defense official said, including Montana on Thursday. The U.S. has been watching it in several ways, including manned aircraft, the official said.
Earlier Thursday, a senior U.S. official described the balloon to ABC News as the size of three buses, with a technology bay.
The defense official emphasized the Pentagon will continue to keep tabs on the balloon and could still decide to act if it poses a threat.
Though this isn’t the first time a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon has been detected over the U.S. recently, the senior defense official said this one has been hovering over the U.S. for longer and at a higher altitude than in previous balloons.
“It’s happened a few times in recent years … but beyond that, I’m not going to go into the details,” the senior defense official said.
