Pentagon confirms suspected Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. ‘right now’ - UPI.com
It sounds rather ominous - a Chinese surveillance balloon is floating above US soil right now. I wonder why they would send a balloon, though. It seems that if they wanted aerial photographs of US territory, there might be easier and less conspicuous ways of doing so.
Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that the military has been tracking a high-altitude spy balloon over the United States.
"The United States Government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now," Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.
Ryder said that the U.S. government, including North American Aerospace Defense Command, continues to track and monitor the balloon, which is presumed to be from China.
"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," Ryder said in the statement.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other top leaders recommended not to take "kinetic action" to shoot down the balloon "due to the risk to safety and security of the people on the ground," the official said.
The balloon was first spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday, after it passed over the Aleutian Islands and Canada before entering the airspace above Montana.
"Currently we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective," the defense official said.
It sounds rather ominous - a Chinese surveillance balloon is floating above US soil right now. I wonder why they would send a balloon, though. It seems that if they wanted aerial photographs of US territory, there might be easier and less conspicuous ways of doing so.