President Biden has ordered not to shoot it down since “it does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground”
The Pentagon has reported this Thursday that the US Army has been tracking a suspected Chinese spy balloon, which would be at high altitude, over the continental airspace of the United States in recent days. “The United States has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States at this time,” Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder said.
Ryder has also specified that the balloon “does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground”, while indicating that “it is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic”, although it has not specified where it is located. would find, as reported by CNN.
In this sense, it has communicated that the United States Army has decided not to shoot it down from the air. The artifact has been sighted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday. It would also have flown over the Aleutian Islands (Alaska) through Canada and into Montana.
For his part, a senior defense official has specified that the balloon “has limited value” with respect to intelligence gathering “beyond what the People’s Republic of China can do by other means,” as reported by NBC News. .
Specifically, the US Department of Defense believes that Chinese spy satellites in low-Earth orbit are capable of delivering similar or better intelligence, limiting the value of what Beijing can glean from the high-altitude balloon, which is the size of three buses, according to what another defense official has detailed to CNN.
However, the US Executive has detailed that instances of this activity have been observed in recent years, even before the current administration.
Biden ordered not to tear it down
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has ordered not to bring down the Chinese balloon after being advised to do so by senior defense officials of his Executive.
The ranking officer in the US Armed Forces and President Biden’s top military adviser, Mark Milley, recommended against shooting down the balloon as it posed no military threat, emphasizing that the administration acted “immediately” to guard against the collection. of confidential information, as CNN has collected.
Meanwhile, Montana, where the balloon was sighted, is home to underground fields of Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos, a potential target for Chinese espionage.
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