{"id":33403,"date":"2023-02-09T20:06:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T20:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/02\/09\/chinese-balloon-wasnt-downed-over-alaska-due-to-dangerous-recovery\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:36:45","slug":"chinese-balloon-wasnt-downed-over-alaska-due-to-dangerous-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2023\/02\/09\/chinese-balloon-wasnt-downed-over-alaska-due-to-dangerous-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese balloon wasn\u2019t downed over Alaska due to \u2018dangerous\u2019 recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A senior Pentagon official on Thursday tried to justify the military\u2019s decision not to shoot down a Chinese balloon as soon as it entered Alaskan airspace by highlighting the dangers doing so would have posed to the recovery and examination of its surveillance equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, spoke to lawmakers days after the U.S. shot down a high-flying balloon off the South Carolina coast, and on the same day a senior State Department official revealed additional details about the balloon\u2019s spying capabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA key part of the calculus for this operation was the ability to salvage, understand and exploit the capabilities of the high-altitude balloon,\u201d Dalton said before the Senate Appropriations Committee\u2019s defense panel. \u201cAnd we look forward to sharing that with you in a classified setting and openly as we learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted that bursting the balloon over Alaskan waters would have translated into \u201ca very different recovery operation.\u201d The Bering Sea can reach depths exceeding 13,000 feet, with below-freezing winter temperatures<\/a> and ice cover in its northern portion. All of that \u201ccan be extremely dangerous\u201d and \u201cinduce additional risk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese balloon carried an array \u201clikely capable of collecting and geolocating communications,\u201d according to the State Department official, who provided details on the condition of anonymity. It was further rigged with solar panels large enough to feed \u201cmultiple active intelligence collection<\/a> sensors,\u201d the individual said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Defense Department ultimately chose to shoot down the balloon Feb. 4 with a missile fired from an F-22 jet, but concerns about the potential for civilian casualties delayed the decision for several days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defense Department officials shared additional information about the balloon\u2019s capabilities and its ongoing recovery in a closed-door briefing with the full Senate. But the explanation has not done much to sway senators already critical of the Defense Department\u2019s decision-making<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the classified briefing, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida dismissed the value of recovering the balloon\u2019s surveillance equipment as \u201coverblown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope I can be proven wrong, but this is not very sophisticated technology,\u201d said Rubio, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. \u201cWe know what it is. We know it collects electronic signals<\/a>. It takes high-resolution imagery probably. We know what the payload is. I don\u2019t think this is somehow some exquisite technical capability. It\u2019s just very crafty ways of maneuvering it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signals intelligence involves the harvesting of information from electronic systems, such as radar or weapons, for defense purposes. Such operations have long been in the U.S. playbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio also said<\/a> he doesn\u2019t \u201cdismiss the notion\u201d that shooting the balloon down over U.S. soil could kill people on the ground, but said that risk must be weighed \u201cagainst the possibility that it could malfunction, that it could have a self-destruct mechanism that could bring it down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chair of the Senate Appropriations defense panel, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., also expressed skepticism after the public hearing with Dalton that the recovery effort necessitated allowing the balloon to cross the country, where it loitered above nuclear silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base<\/a>, in his home state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d Tester said, \u201cbut what makes that compelling or not is what information they were able to collect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly what China had its eye on<\/a> or was in search of was not publicly clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House on Thursday passed a nonbinding resolution, 419-0, that condemned China for violating U.S. sovereignty and called on the Biden administration to provide \u201ccomprehensive briefings\u201d on the incident, including \u201can assessment of what surveillance data [the People\u2019s Republic of China] was potentially able to collect or transmit via the balloon while it was over United States territory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Birds
Defense Department officials shared additional information about the balloon\u2019s capabilities and its ongoing recovery in a closed-door briefing with the full Senate. (Colin Demarest\/C4ISRNET)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. initially inspected the balloon from afar, with U-2 spy plane flybys and high-resolution photography, according to the State Department. The senior official there said the balloon\u2019s kit was \u201cinconsistent\u201d with what one would find aboard a weather balloon, as China described it<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the Defense and State departments said the balloon, some 2,000 feet tall, was part of a larger, established surveillance effort employed by China, likely at the behest of its military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least four other balloons have traveled across the U.S., according to Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder<\/a>, the Pentagon press secretary. The State Department official accused China of deploying \u201cthese surveillance balloons\u201d over more than 40 countries and five continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of where they\u2019re coming from, I can\u2019t go into the specific location other than to say: \u2018China,\u2019 \u201d Ryder said Feb. 8. \u201cAnd the last thing I\u2019ll say is that this last week provided the United States with a unique opportunity to learn a lot more about the Chinese surveillance balloon program, all information that will help us to continue to strengthen our ability to track these kinds of objects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing scolded Washington for the popping of what it claims was a civilian research balloon blown astray. China\u2019s defense minister, Wei Fenghe, rejected a request to speak to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin<\/a> immediately after the takedown, according to Ryder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, the [People\u2019s Republic of China] has declined our request.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon is trying to justify its decision to lawmakers critical of how long it took the Biden administration to 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