A Chinese balloon that crossed over the continental US last week had multiple antennas for intelligence gathering and was part of a wider surveillance fleet, the state department said Thursday.
A senior state department official said China uses similar surveillance balloons in more than 40 countries and five continents. He added that the US would continue to brief allies on the scope of the program.
The official said the high-resolution photographs taken by the U-2 spy plane had “revealed that high-altitude balloons could conduct signals intelligence gathering operations”.
“It has several antennas to include an array that can collect and geolocate communications,” the official added.
The Biden administration is looking into Chinese entities linked to the country’s military that support balloon crossings into the US, as well as other actions to tackle Beijing’s surveillance program.
“We will also see greater efforts to expose and address the PRC’s increased surveillance activities that endanger national security, and those of our allies and partners,” the official said.
Since shooting down the balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, the US has been conducting a rescue operation to learn more about the craft and China’s increased surveillance efforts. U.S. officials have repeatedly said they gained valuable information by tracking the balloons while they were still in the air.
The Biden administration on Thursday released additional details about the balloon, including the manufacturer’s link to the Chinese military, and equipment on board that showed the aircraft was not being used for weather research, as China claimed.
Citing information from the official procurement portal for China’s military, the official said the balloon manufacturer has direct ties to Beijing and is an approved vendor for the military.
A Chinese balloon passed over the US for eight days, causing a diplomatic crisis between the US and China. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned trip to Beijing, which would have been the first by a Biden cabinet official, in response to the plane’s discovery.
Michael Gallagher, a Republican lawmaker who chairs the new House China committee, said he hoped the balloon incident would serve as a warning to Americans about the threat from Beijing.
“It would be phenomenal if there were some Sputnik moments, not because of the capabilities of this particular balloon . . . but just because it has to give a sense of urgency and we have a terrible problem,” Gallagher told the Financial Times on Thursday.
“I hope my friends and the American people understand that this is not just a problem ‘over there’, a problem of territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas, but a problem at home.” Gallagher added. “We have to wake up and defend our sovereignty more.” in partnership with our closest allies.”
Defense officials said US defense secretary Lloyd Austin tried to reach his Chinese counterpart over the weekend after the US shot down the balloon but was unable to get hold of him, in a sign that lines of communication between Beijing and Washington continue to break down.
Senate Democrats and Republicans questioned why the Pentagon did not release the balloons as they passed over the waters around Alaska, implying that the Biden administration had delayed and allowed the aircraft to monitor sensitive military facilities, including a nuclear missile site in Montana.
“You have to help me understand why this baby hasn’t been brought out,” Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, said at the hearing Thursday.
Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, criticized the administration for allowing balloons to monitor military sites in her state.
“The clear message to China is: we’ve got free range in Alaska,” Murkowski said. “The American public deserves more than what they’ve seen in terms of transparency about why this spy balloon was allowed to spend two days in our waters and in the state of Alaska.”
Melissa Dalton, a top Pentagon official who testified before the Senate appropriations committee, said one of the reasons for the delay was that the water around Alaska was deeper than the coastal waters off South Carolina, where the balloon was shot down.
He added that colder temperatures will also make rescue operations more difficult. “If we had taken it down through Alaska, it would have been a different recovery operation,” she said.