A new report confirms suspicions that the Chinese balloon, which created widespread concern when it passed over the United States two years ago, was designed to spy on Americans—using technology sourced from the US.
The 200-foot balloon was equipped with a satellite communications module, sensors, and various technologies from at least five US-based companies, as revealed by two individuals with direct access to a classified US military report, who spoke to Newsweek.
The balloon, which journeyed from Alaska over Canada and into the US Midwest before being downed off the coast of South Carolina on February 4, 2023, was capable of gathering in-depth data on unsuspecting Americans, according to these sources, who referred to findings from the debris of the downed balloon.
This included technology for surveillance, photography, and gathering other intelligence data, as well as deployable gliders that could have been used for additional reconnaissance missions, the sources explained, based on the classified military report.
One of the sources, a former federal intelligence official, noted, “A Chinese company would not have given them a full satcom [satellite communications] coverage of the US.”
The technology utilized in the balloon aligns with a patent awarded in 2022 to researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Aerospace Information Innovation Research Institute in Beijing, which is linked to China’s military. Newsweek, which was briefed on the report but did not directly view it, revealed this connection.
The patent, titled “A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method,” included a short-burst messaging module known as Iridium 9602, Newsweek reported.
Iridium, the company that developed this module, is a global satellite communications provider headquartered in McLean, Virginia, just a short distance from CIA headquarters, as the report highlighted.
The balloon also carried a communications system provided by Iridium, alongside equipment from four other American companies: Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation, and onsemi, with additional components sourced from at least one Swiss firm, the report stated.
Iridium responded to Newsweek, saying it was impossible to predict how its technology, which can be purchased for as little as $150 online, would be acquired and utilized.
“We certainly don’t condone our radios or our modules ending up and being used in ways they shouldn’t be,” said Jordan Hassim, Iridium’s executive director for communications.
“There’s no way for us to know what the use is of a specific module. … For us it could be a whale wearing a tag tracking it, it could be a polar bear, an explorer hiking a mountain.”
The spy balloon, which was ultimately destroyed, stood about 200 feet tall and weighed several thousand pounds.
It might have also been carrying explosives intended for self-destruction, as previously disclosed by the US North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Despite the findings in the report, Chinese officials continue to maintain that the balloon was a harmless weather research device that had inadvertently drifted off course.
A spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, reiterated this position earlier this week, stating, “The straying of the Chinese civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure.”
“The airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into US because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability,” the spokesperson added.
{Matzav.com}