US Leaked Documents Reveal "China Had Up to 4 More Reconnaissance Balloons"

Before the Shootdown of the Reconnaissance Balloon,
US Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Flew Over and Crashed in the South China Sea, etc.

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of up to four additional objects similar to the Chinese reconnaissance balloon that violated U.S. airspace last February, according to recently leaked U.S. government documents reported by the American daily The Washington Post (WP) on the 14th (local time).

This claim is contained in documents presumed to have been leaked on the online chat service Discord by Private Jack Tesseira (21) of the U.S. Air National Guard, who was arrested the previous day on charges of leaking classified information.

A report dated February 15, prepared by the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), includes assessments of the Chinese reconnaissance balloon called "Killin-23" and previous balloons named "Bulza-21" and "Akardo-21." February 15 was about ten days after the U.S. shot down the Chinese reconnaissance balloon over the East Coast on February 4.

Another report explains that another reconnaissance balloon flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group, and yet another balloon previously flew in the sky before crashing into the South China Sea. The names and launch dates of these balloons are not listed in the report. This means that U.S. authorities were aware of two to four additional balloons besides the one shot down in February.

The balloon named Bulza-21 reportedly flew worldwide from December 2021 until May of last year and was equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipment. It had full-motion video (FMV) equipment with zoom functionality, enabling surveillance capabilities such as high-resolution data collection, and the report also shows a connection to EMAST, the Chinese reconnaissance balloon developer subject to U.S. sanctions. Akardo-21 was also found to be equipped with gimbal sensors.

The report states that Killin-23 was equipped with advanced reconnaissance systems such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR), but the U.S. government had not fully identified the antennas or sensors installed on it even more than a week after shooting it down.

WP pointed out that if the reconnaissance balloon flew over the aircraft carrier strike group as stated in the report, it would raise further suspicions amid criticism from the U.S. Republican Party in Congress, accusing the Biden administration of failing to detect Chinese espionage activities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.