A Chinese spy balloon capable of transmitting information to Beijing

(CNN) — A Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US in February was capable of capturing images from US military sites and picking up some intelligence signals, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The balloon was able to transmit information in real time to Beijing, and the U.S. government is still unsure if the Chinese government was able to delete the data from the balloon. This raises the question of whether the balloon was able to pick up intelligence that the US still does not know about.

However, the intelligence community did not care much about the information the balloon could collect because it was not much more complex than what Chinese satellites could collect while orbiting similar locations.

The U.S. also knew what the balloon’s path would be and was able to secure key locations and censor certain signals before the balloon took off, officials said.

In CNN News, the US intelligence community Developed a system last year to monitor Controlled by China’s military, it claims to have a fleet of these Chinese balloons operating around the world.

The FBI is still investigating the balloon, but has so far been able to obtain more information about its operation, including the algorithms used for the balloon’s software, its design and its power.

CNN contacted the White House’s National Security Council and the Pentagon for comment. NBC He was the first to report this recent event with a balloon.

The balloon first crossed US airspace over Alaska in late January, before crossing over Canada and landing in Montana, where it stayed for several days, leading the US to believe it was trying to monitor important military installations such as Malmstrom in Montana. It was finally shot down by the US off the East Coast on February 4, and the incident further escalated tensions between Washington and Beijing, including the postponement of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s diplomatic visit to China.

A senior US State Department official said the balloon was “capable of conducting intelligence signal gathering operations” while flying over the US.

General Glenn VanHerg, commander of the US Northern Command and NORAD, said the US “did not assess” that the balloon presented a significant collection risk beyond what the Chinese already had in place in the technical means they could operate.

The surveillance program, which involves a similar array of balloons, is being carried out in part from the tiny Chinese province of Hainan, officials told CNN. The U.S. does not know the exact size of China’s observation balloon fleet, but sources told CNN it has made at least two dozen missions over at least five continents in recent years.

About half a dozen of those flights took place within US airspace, but not necessarily over US soil, an official with knowledge of the matter said.

China has maintained that the balloon was nothing more than a misguided weather balloon, and the US is evaluating the possibility that it was not deliberately maneuvered into US territory by the Chinese government, according to CNN.

However, according to officials, China retained the ability to maneuver the balloon. As the balloon passed over Montana, China took advantage of its position to circle key locations and attempt to gather intelligence.