Chinese spy balloon: US tracks suspected surveillance device

(BBC) The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days.

Defence officials said they were confident the “high-altitude surveillance balloon” belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.

The military decided against shooting it down in case debris falls.

China warned against speculation and “hype” until the facts are verified.

The object flew over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing over the city of Billings in Montana on Wednesday, US officials said.

A senior defence official said the government prepared fighter jets, including F-22s, in case the White House ordered the object to be shot down.

Canada said on Friday that it was monitoring “a potential second incident” involving a surveillance balloon, but did not say which country could be behind it. It said in the statement that it is working closely with the US to “safeguard Canada’s sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats”.

Top military leaders, including Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met on Wednesday to assess the threat. Mr Austin was travelling in the Philippines at the time.

Montana, a sparsely populated state, is home to one of only three nuclear missile silo fields in the country, at Malmstrom Air Force Base, and the official said the apparent spy craft was flying over sensitive sites to collect information.

But the military leaders advised against taking “kinetic action” against the balloon because of the danger that falling debris might pose to people on the ground.

Officials refrained from giving information about the exact size of the balloon, but described it as “sizeable”, with reports of pilots being able to see it, even from a distance. US media have reported another US official comparing it to the size of three buses.

The defence department, however, said there was no “significantly enhanced threat” of US intelligence being compromised, because American officials “know exactly where this balloon is and exactly where it’s passing over”.

And there was also no threat to civilian aviation as the balloon was “significantly” above the altitude used by commercial airlines.

The statement added that the balloon is unlikely to give much more information than China can already collect using satellites.

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