The suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States early this year used commercially available, off-the-shelf technology that was American-made, according to three U.S. officials familiar with preliminary findings by the FBI.
News of the findings came as the Pentagon said Thursday that the balloon did not collect intelligence before it was shot down.
The officials said the Biden administration first suspected the balloon could be carrying U.S.-made equipment or parts in the first hours after it was detected and that it had sent aircraft to check it out and take photos. They said those suspicions had been confirmed by analysis of debris that was recovered after the balloon was shot down by the U.S. military on Feb. 4.
The Biden administration tracked the balloon for eight days as it traveled across Alaska, Canada and the continental U.S., including over sensitive military sites, before it was downed by a fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina. The results of the analysis by the FBI and other defense and intelligence agencies have not yet been publicly released.
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The balloon incident further destabilized relations between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, and led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing until this month. China maintains the balloon was a civilian airship that strayed off course while conducting meteorological research and that the U.S. overreacted by shooting it down.
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