The Chinese spy balloon that traversed the country in February gathered sensitive intelligence from U.S. military sites, and efforts to block it failed, according to an exclusive report Monday from NBC News.
The report is based on information provided by two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official whom the outlet did not name.
Rather than visual imagery, which is easily gathered from other readily available sources, the craft gathered data from electronic signals, which were transmitted in real time to Beijing, the three officials told the outlet. Those electronic signals include communications from base personnel and signals that can be picked up from weapons systems.
Notably, the high-altitude craft, which Chinese officials claimed was a civilian balloon that strayed off course, flew over Malmstron Air Force Base in Montana. That base stores some of the United States’ nuclear assets.
The 341st Missile Wing is headquartered at the Montana base. It is one of three U.S. Air Force bases that “operates, maintains, and secures the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.” The 341st Missile Wing comprises about 4,000 people, including active-duty personnel and civilians.
The craft could have gathered much more intelligence, the unnamed officials told the outlet, if the administration had not “move[d] around potential targets and obscure[d] the balloon’s ability pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.”
The high-altitude surveillance craft entered U.S. airspace over Alaska near the Aleutian Islands on January 28, according to a timeline provided by the New York Times. It drifted into Canada briefly before re-entering U.S. airspace over Idaho on Jan 31. Calls to down the craft ensued as Biden administration Cabinet members and military officials decided how to address the situation.
After the balloon made its way across the country for a week, an F-22 from Langley Air Force Base took down the Chinese craft with a Sidewinder air-to-air missile off the coast of South Carolina February 4. It was flying at an altitude of 60,000-65,000 feet. The U.S. Navy then worked to retrieve the debris.
Five days after the craft was shot down, the Biden administration said it was capable of collecting signals intelligence, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s not a major breach. I mean, look … it’s a violation of international law. It’s our airspace. And once it comes into our space, we can do what we want with it,” President Biden told Telemundo Noticias February 9.
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