The National Security Council coordinator for US strategic communications, John Kirby, said the alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down last week provided “limited” intelligence to China.
He said the object was part of the People’s Republic of China’s high-altitude balloon program for intelligence gathering.
“We assess that, at this time, these balloons provide limited additional capabilities to China’s other intelligence platforms used in the United States,” Kirby said at a White House press briefing on Monday.
“But in the future, if China continues to advance this technology, it could certainly become more valuable to them,” he added.
The coordinator also pointed out that the Chinese balloon program was operating during the Trump administration, but the objects were not detected at the time. So the US is working to better understand and track these intelligence assets.
Other objects downed
Kirby noted that efforts are being made to recover debris from smaller, low-lying objects brought down off the coast of Alaska, over Canada and over Lake Huron over the weekend.
In contrast to last weekend’s Chinese surveillance balloon, they were flying low enough to pose a threat to civilian air traffic.
“We are focused on confirming their nature and purpose, including through intensive efforts to collect debris from the remote locations where it fell,” he said.
“In each instance, we followed the same basic course, assessing whether they posed any kinetic threat to people on the ground. In case, no; we assessed whether they were sending any communication signal — we did not detect any,” said the coordinator.
“We looked to see if they were maneuvering or had any propulsion capability – we saw no signs of that; and we made sure to determine if they were manned or not,” she added.
All three missions were completed “successfully and safely” and recovery efforts are ongoing, although the government acknowledges that all three objects were shot down “in fairly remote terrain – ice and desert”, which has complicated reconnaissance efforts. .
*DJ Judd da CNN contributed to this report
*published by Tiago Tortella, from CNN
Source: CNN Brasil

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