US Department of Defense: "Chinese Reconnaissance Balloon Unable to Collect Information Due to Our Measures"

The U.S. Department of Defense announced on the 29th (local time) that the Chinese reconnaissance balloon shot down over U.S. airspace last February was unable to collect information due to preemptive measures taken by the U.S.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Patrick Ryder, a Department of Defense spokesperson, stated at a briefing that day, "We know it was equipped with information-gathering capabilities, but our current assessment is that it did not collect information while flying over or passing through U.S. airspace."

He added, "We took measures to reduce the reconnaissance balloon's ability to collect information," expressing confidence that these actions contributed to preventing China from gathering intelligence. This implies that although the Chinese reconnaissance balloon attempted to collect information in U.S. airspace, the information collection was completely blocked.

Earlier, U.S. authorities detected and shot down the Chinese reconnaissance balloon in February. The U.S. Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recovered the debris and launched an investigation. The day before, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing preliminary investigation results, that the balloon was equipped with a large amount of U.S.-made equipment commercially available on the market. It was found to have U.S.-made photographic and video collection devices that could actually be used for reconnaissance. U.S. authorities reportedly tracked purchase orders for some equipment, buyers, and their connections to the Chinese government.

Regarding this, spokesperson Ryder said, "We have known from previous cases that commercial products or U.S. components have been used in drones or other capabilities," adding, "The fact that (U.S. equipment was installed) itself is not surprising."

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