US detected several Chinese spy balloons in recent years

3 years ago 3

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Intelligence agencies in the US identified several Chinese spy balloons in the past few years before one was recently detected and shot down over the country, The Washington Post reports.

The information comes from a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) top-secret document, one of the hundreds recently leaked on a Discord channel, allegedly by 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira.

Teixeira was arrested on Thursday, 13 April 2023, after he was identified as the likely culprit behind the leak.

The balloons the particular document detailed were in addition to the Chinese surveillance balloon that made news headlines in early February 2023 after it was spotted hovering over the western US.

The balloon — dubbed Killeen-23 in the document — was moving around the state of Montana, where the US’s Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos are located.

Although defence department officials said it posed no intelligence or physical threats, the balloon was shot down by a US Air Force F-22 fighter jet soon after that.

The leaked document said that sensors and antennas recovered from the destroyed balloon remained unidentified over a week after the incident.

A second balloon was spotted over a US carrier strike group in a previous incident, while another top-secret document stated that a third crashed into the South China Sea.

The documents also delve into the details of balloons labelled Bulger-21 and Accord-21, although it is possible that these were the same one.

Bulger-21 was fitted with sophisticated surveillance equipment and circled the Earth between December 2021 and May 2022. Accord-21 featured similar tech in addition to a “foil-lined” gimbaled sensor.

The Washington Post explained the balloons’ names were created by combining the surnames of notorious criminals with the year of their discovery.

In the cases of the balloons whose names’ are known — these were Tony Accord, James Bulger, and Donald Killeen.

The names were appointed alphabetically, suggesting Killeen-23 is possibly the 11th Chinese spy balloon the US has identified.

Intelligence analysts used detailed photos of the Killeen-23 balloon to determine it could generate enough power to operate basically “any” surveillance and reconnaissance technology.

That included a sophisticated type of radar that could scan through clouds and thin materials at night.