Chinese spy balloon

Chinese 'intelligence-gathering' airship has been sighted close to a number of 'sensitive sites' over the continental United States, officials say.

We have had several reports across northwest MO of a large balloon visible on the horizon. [ a statement](https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3287173/dod-statement-on-high-altitude-surveillance-balloon/) on Thursday night, Brig Gen Ryder said the US Government “has detected and is tracking a high altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now”. During Friday’s briefing, a Pentagon official said the airship had flown close to “a number of sensitive sites”. The crew of a private jet reported seeing a “derelict balloon adrift” in a notification to the Federal Aviation Administration at about 11.30am on Friday. It is now visible from our office in Pleasant Hill and the KC Metro. It confirmed the balloon did not belong to the weather service, and said it was moving in a southeast direction. There were reports on social media that a balloon matching the description of the one sighted over Montana had been seen in the skies above Japan in 2020. At a press briefing at midday on Friday, Pentagon Press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the balloon was currently over the centre of the continental United States. “The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is.” A Pentagon official called the air balloon “a clear violation of US sovereignty” at a press briefing on Friday and and dismissed China’s claims that it is not a spy ship. The balloon then headed south, and was sighted over the skies of Montana around the city of Billings. A Pentagon official said during a briefing on Thursday that the balloon, which is roughly the size of three large buses, was first sighted over the Aleutian Islands earlier this week.

It sounds too bizarre to be real – but there is definitely something lingering in the sky above Montana...

If balloons from other country could really enter continental US smoothly...it only proves that the US’s air defence system is completely a decoration.” We hope the relevant parties will handle the matter in a cool-headed way.” It’s not clear if this is the same one, which is thought to have flown, into the US after travelling over the Aleutian Islands and Canada, or a second object. Our assessment is it does not. Our best assessment right now is that it does not. Spokesperson Mao Ning said: “We have no intention to violate other countries’ sovereignty and airspace. [was planning to visit China](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/vladimir-putin-address-what-it-really-means_uk_632abc73e4b07198f013f145) between February 5 and 6, to discuss [Russia’s](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/russia) war on [Ukraine, ](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/ukraine)but in the aftermath of the balloon incident, he has postponed the trip. Beijing refused to confirm it sent the balloon, and China’s foreign ministry has said the country is “verifying the facts” over the incident. “So the first question is, does it pose a threat, a physical kinetic threat, to individuals in the United States in the US homeland? [US](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/us) nor [China](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/china) have admitted to knowing about the origins of the apparent inflatable – which obviously meant the whole of [Joe Biden](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/joe-biden) and the Pentagon are against doing so because of the risk to civilians from the falling debris. They claimed that its current flight path carries it over “a number of sensitive” military sites, adding that Washington has “very high confidence” the balloon has Chinese origins and is looking to collect information.

China says a suspected spy balloon is actually a wayward "civilian airship" used for weather monitoring.

It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary. "I thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO," he said. "The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure."

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese-surveillance balloon which has been flying over 'sensitive' areas - but what is it, asks Sian Hewitt?

The balloon was seen flying over Alaska and through Canada before it appeared over the city of Billings in Montana on Wednesday (February 1). Balloons are cheaper to run than satellites. Balloons can be launched relatively cheaply. The top US diplomat was expected to meet China’s President [Xi Jinping](https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/xi-jinping), making him the first in his role to do so. US officials are said to not be too concerned over intelligence gathering by the balloon as they know “exactly where the balloon is and exactly where it is passing over”. The spy balloon is said to be the size of three buses.

China says a suspected spy balloon is actually a wayward "civilian airship" used for weather monitoring.

It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary. "I thought maybe it was a legitimate UFO," he said. "The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure."

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been flying over sensitive areas. VIEW COMMENTS. <p>A high-altitude balloon floats over ...

The balloon was seen flying over Alaska and through Canada before it appeared over the city of Billings in Montana on Wednesday (February 1). Balloons are cheaper to run than satellites. Balloons can be launched relatively cheaply. The top US diplomat was expected to meet China’s President [Xi Jinping](https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/xi-jinping), making him the first in his role to do so. US officials are said to not be too concerned over intelligence gathering by the balloon as they know “exactly where the balloon is and exactly where it is passing over”. The spy balloon is said to be the size of three buses.

Pentagon says there is no evidence of any nuclear or radioactive material on board the balloon, which is operating at around 60000ft.

[Alaska](https://news.sky.com/topic/alaska-5714), and through [Canada](https://news.sky.com/topic/canada-6330) before entering the US. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of senior military and defence leaders to review the threat profile of the balloon and possible responses, which were presented to US President [Beijing](https://news.sky.com/topic/beijing-9128) admitted the balloon had come from China - but said it was for meteorological and other scientific research. [Montana](https://news.sky.com/topic/montana-5738), on Wednesday, close to one of the US's three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base - was a Chinese balloon flying over sensitive sites to collect information. [Chinese](https://news.sky.com/topic/china-5869) claims that the balloon was in fact a "civilian airship" that had strayed into American airspace. [Future Wars: Could there ever be a conflict between the US and China?](https://news.sky.com/video/future-wars-could-there-ever-be-a-conflict-between-the-us-and-china-12680957)

Montana balloon crisis sounds a lot less dramatic than its Cuban-missile counterpart, and not just because the Chinese surveillance balloon spotted over Big ...

[conciliatory statement](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/03/1154114264/chinese-spy-balloon-us-pentagon-china) that it “regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. The balloon is not a nuisance to either commercial airlines or U.S. By exposing the balloon’s existence, the administration has put pressure on China to de-escalate the issue. One definition of crisis is a disruption that affords little time to respond before it turns into a disaster. airspace.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken has now [postponed](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-03/us-to-postpone-blinken-s-visit-to-china-over-its-spy-balloon) his expected visit to China next week. Protections on the ground can deny the Chinese surveillance access to whatever it is they are interested in. Although the balloon lingers somewhere above where passenger jets normally fly, it is in American airspace—which is to say, the American homeland. Emergency management, then, presents two basic choices: Either prevent the disruption or buy yourself more time to minimize its consequences. [armchair analysts and GOP politicians](https://newrepublic.com/post/170391/republicans-response-reported-chinese-spy-balloon) insisting that President Joe Biden was weak in the face of a clearly aggressive action by the Chinese. [Chinese government denies](https://www.euronews.com/2023/02/03/suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-spotted-over-western-us) that it is collecting intelligence. goal is to make China stop doing that while avoiding harm to Americans. Blowing up an adversary’s airborne surveillance equipment over Montana, or even scrambling to capture it, involves different logistical and legal calculations than doing so in an active theater of war.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has spoken with a senior Chinese official about his postponed trip to the country. US officials said Mr Blinken spoke to ...

The US has engaged Chinese officials "with urgency" and communicated the seriousness of the situation. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin convened a meeting of senior military and defence leaders to review the threat profile of the balloon and possible responses, which were presented to US President Officials also said they "noted" China's statement of regret but said "the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty, as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred". US officials also said they "noted" China's statement of regret but said "the presence of this balloon in our airspace is a clear violation of our sovereignty, as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred". [Alaska](https://news.sky.com/topic/alaska-5714), and through [Canada](https://news.sky.com/topic/canada-6330) before entering the US. Senior state department officials described the incident as a "clear violation of US sovereignty and international law" and said conditions were "not right at this moment" for Mr Blinken to travel.

Antony Blinken delays trip, as China claims balloon was for 'meteorological' purposes and was blown off course.

Once the balloon was detected, the US government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.” US officials said earlier that the balloon had travelled over part of Canada on its way to Montana. “If balloons from other countries could really enter continental US smoothly, or even enter the sky over certain states, it only proves that the US’s air defence system is completely a decoration and cannot be trusted.” “The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure.” “We acknowledge that China has issued this statement of regret,” a senior state department official said. “We had a broad, substantive agenda in mind,” a senior state department official said.

“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Pentagon press secretary Brig Gen ...

[ reporters that the balloon](/news/world/americas/china-balloon-location-pentagon-latest-b2275457.html) “has the ability to manoeuvre” and denied Chinese government claims that it was used for civilian research. The latest development came a day after US officials admitted it was tracking the spy balloon across the country and said it is expected to remain in US airspace for the next few days. [spy balloon has been spotted](/news/world/americas/chinese-spy-balloon-montana-canada-latest-news-b2274997.html), this time in the skies over [Latin America](/topic/latin-america), according to the [Pentagon](/topic/pentagon).

A popular military tool during the Cold War, spy balloons have since fallen out of favor—for good reason.

The senior DOD official noted that the balloon is big enough to cause a potentially dangerous debris field if the US shot down the balloon over an inhabited area. Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Thursday that, "instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. A senior US Department of Defense official [told reporters](https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3287204/senior-defense-official-holds-a-background-briefing-on-high-altitude-surveillan/) on Thursday, though, that “clearly the intent of this balloon is for surveillance.” US officials said on Thursday that the spy balloon was floating above commercial air traffic at roughly 60,000 feet and that it does not pose a threat to people or activity on the ground. “You may have noticed that this balloon has caused a massive international incident, and it’s got everyone looking at China and demanding that the US government do something. And unlike satellites, which are out of sight and out of mind for people on Earth, the situation currently playing out with the Chinese balloon illustrates the biggest limitation of surveillance balloons.

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the ...

One is that you can’t steer it, really, and it only passes over the place that you’re looking at—if you even get lucky and are able to place it correctly—once. So yes, if you want a balloon to end up in a certain place, you can strategically choose where you launch it from and you can have some reasonable degree of control [over where] it’s going to end up. How visible it would be would depend on how big it is, what it’s made of and also the detection technology being employed to track it. China already has capabilities like satellites, and they didn’t seem to think the balloon was going to be dramatically different. and that was flying in the U.S. If it’s a weather balloon, then it would be equipped with sensors to measure things like temperature, and so on. We know this is a Chinese balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver.” And so the only control that a balloon has is: in some balloons, you can control the altitude—you can make it go higher or lower. And that can give you some measure of control—but not anywhere near the level of control that you have [with an airplane]. To the extent that the wind speed and direction varies with altitude, you can change the altitude, within some limits. It adds some more complexity to the whole thing.” In addition to its maneuverability, the surveillance balloon differs from a typical weather balloon in other ways, On Friday the Pentagon’s press secretary said that the balloon is now over the central U.S.

US secretary of state calls it 'irresponsible act' as Beijing denies espionage claims and insists it is 'civilian airship'

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