The Pentagon admitted on Thursday that the U.S. military has been monitoring what’s being described as a Chinese “surveillance balloon” hovering in the skies over the United States for days.
“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News. “We continue to track and monitor it closely.” Officials have confirmed that the balloon belongs to China.
“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said.
“The official said there was a window while the balloon was over Montana Wednesday when they could have taken it down. NORAD sent aircraft — including F-22 Raptors from Nellis Air Force Base and airborne early warning aircraft known as AWACs — but the official would not say whether one of the options was to shoot the balloon out of the sky with a U.S. aircraft,” NBC reported. “The U.S. military flights prompted a ground stop at the airport in Billings, with air traffic controllers citing a ‘special military mission.'”
Officials say the balloon flew over the Aleutian Islands and through Canada before settling over the Billings, Mont., area. The balloon is still hovering somewhere over the United States, according to a senior defense official who declined to say where it is now.
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the balloon is “currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”
There’s been no mention by officials of the threat of a dirty bomb or an EMP, although there’s been plenty of speculation about that on Twitter.
At least one Twitter user, however, claims that it would be impossible for a balloon to launch an EMP attack:
On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of senior military and defense leaders, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, NORTHCOM/NORAD Commander Gen. Glen VanHerck, and other combatant commanders.
Austin was traveling in the Philippines at the time.
The leaders reviewed the threat profile of the Chinese stratospheric balloon and possible response options, and ultimately decided not to recommend taking it out kinetically, because of the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field. Pentagon leaders presented the options to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
A senior administration official confirmed that Biden had been briefed and received a “strong recommendation” that the balloon not be shot down.
Startlingly, this is not the first time a Chinese spy satellite has breached U.S. airspace, but it’s unusual for one to hover over one specific area for an extended period of time.
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“Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration,” a senior administration official told NBC. “We acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.”
YourBigSky, an ABC and Fox portal, is sharing pictures reportedly showing the spy balloon, although these have not been confirmed by the Pentagon.
These are reportedly videos of the balloon, which has been described as being the size of three large buses on social media:
“Currently we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective over and above what the PRC can do through other means,” the official said. “Nevertheless we are taking all necessary steps to protect against foreign intelligence collection of sensitive information.”