The Chinese spy balloon that flew across the US was able to gather intelligence from a number of sensitive American military sites – despite attempts to block it from doing so. This is according to two current senior US officials and one former senior administration official, reported by NBC News. The officials reportedly said China was able to control the balloon to enable it to make several passes over some of the sites, before then transmitting the information it collected back to Beijing in real time.
They added the intelligence collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel.
The officials claimed China was potentially stopped from gathering lot more more intelligence from sensitive sites.
But this was thwarted by efforts from the Biden administration in moving around potential targets and obscuring the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals.
The US Defence Department has not commented on these latest claims.
Instead, it has to comments from February where senior officials said the balloon had “limited additive value” for intelligence collection by China’s Government “over and above what [China] is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low earth orbit”.
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