Chinese spy balloon

A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been ...

“The current flight path does carry it over a number of sensitive sites,” the official told reporters. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have taken additional mitigation steps.” The official wouldn’t detail what those actions were. “The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.” “We wanted to make sure…to empty out the airspace around that potential area. Biden was briefed on the matter Wednesday when he asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to develop options against the large slow-moving balloon, according to a senior U.S. The U.S.

The U.S. government is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been flying over the northern part of the country since earlier this ...

China views the bolstered U.S. The U.S. military presence in the Philippines. has communicated the “seriousness with which we take this issue,” to the Chinese government “through multiple channels” both in Washington, D.C., and in Beijing. But while it is not unprecedented for Beijing to fly similar stratospheric balloons over or near U.S. “The U.S. but declined to say where it is currently. “The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, traveling in the Philippines at the time, quickly convened a meeting of top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. The officials also said the U.S. Glen VanHerck, a senior defense official told reporters The official also said the balloon is still over the U.S.

Officials say balloon has been watched for a few days but has decided not to shoot it down for safety reasons.

He could see it for about 45 minutes and it appeared stationary, but Doak said the video suggested it was slowly moving. Not least on the list of irritants are China’s tacit support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its refusal to rein in North Korea’s expanding ballistic missile program and ongoing disputes over trade and technology. The president asked for military options, but it was decided that there was too great a danger of debris harming people on the ground were it to be shot down. Military experts say that use of high-altitude balloons is likely to increase over the coming years. “Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Defence officials said the balloon has been watched for a couple days since it entered US airspace, flying at high altitude.

A Chinese spy balloon is drifting over the northern United States. Pentagon officials have considered shooting it down.

officials have protested the incursion of the spy balloon with Chinese authorities and continue to track its path, the official said. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been briefed on the balloon, the official said. The balloon is designed for surveillance, the official said. “Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years, Ryder said. officials sought to prevent the Chinese from collecting sensitive information, Ryder said. considered destroying it, the official said.

The revelation comes days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing, where he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping.

At the same time, he is a proponent of President Biden’s goal of keeping open channels of communication with China to avoid a deterioration of the relationship. [permissive stance](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/15/world/ukraine-russia-war) toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine has also strained relations. On Thursday, the Defense Department said the U.S. The Biden administration has aggressively moved to check China’s ability to further its technological and military ambitions, drawing fiery rebukes from Beijing. The Pentagon assessed that the spy balloon “did not provide anything that ‘other’ Chinese collections did not already provide them,” Michael P. Still, a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat and added that it had limited value in collecting intelligence. The revelation comes as tensions between Beijing and Washington have been on the rise. Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters that the balloon was traveling “well above commercial air traffic,” adding that “once the balloon was detected, the U.S. Blinken’s Beijing visit — the first by an American secretary of state in six years — during which he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping. Do the sources know the information? Like American spy satellites, the Chinese satellites can take pictures and monitor weapons launches, officials said. The decision to publicize the discovery appears to put China on notice ahead of Mr.

The Defense Department is "confident" a balloon spotted over Billings Wednesday is a surveillance balloon from China, a senior defense official said ...

A senior defense official told the network that the balloon remains over the U.S. “I received an informational briefing yesterday on the situation involving a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana. A senior defense official said the balloon flew over the Aleutian Islands, through Canada, and over Montana. "You did see reports yesterday of a ground stop at Billings airport, and the mobilization of a number of assets including F 22s...in the event that a decision was made to bring this down while it was over Montana. has tracked similar balloon flights in recent years, including during the Biden administration, but the official did not specify when or where. Christopher Grady recommended against taking "kinetic action" because of possible danger from falling debris, the defense official said.

Republican senators also demand "full and accurate accounting" of what happened.

“Information strongly suggests the Department failed to act with urgency in responding to this airspace incursion by a high-altitude surveillance balloon,” the Mississippi senator said. However, in this instance the balloon loitered for a longer period of time. “We have made clear we will do whatever is necessary to protect our people and our homeland.” it is very difficult to see how Blinken’s trip can proceed as planned,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. This kind of activity has happened “a handful of other times” over the past few years, including before the Biden administration, the senior DoD official said. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) [ tweeted that the balloon](https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1621295667040722944) highlighted how “intense & brazen” Chinese espionage efforts targeting the U.S. At Billings Logan airport on Wednesday, flights ground to a halt as the U.S. At the same time, officials are gaining “insights” into the balloon’s capabilities. But it is flying over a number of sensitive sites, including Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to some of the nation’s silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Pentagon said Thursday it had detected and was tracking a Chinese surveillance balloon flying high over the United States. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin convened senior Pentagon leaders on Wednesday while he was traveling in the Philippines, and discussed the possibility of shooting it down. The balloon is floating at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a threat to people on the ground, Pentagon spokesperson Brig.

The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese surveillance balloon that's lingering at high altitude over the western US, home to sensitive sites including ...

A massive spy balloon from China has been surveilling the United States, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

President Biden must start putting the American people first and recognize that China is a threat to our freedom, values and way of life." "The Department of Defense owes Congress and the American people a full and accurate accounting of why U.S. "Take the shot." In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Daines called it "imperative" that the government affirm the American people's safety and security. VanHerck to not "take kinetic action due to the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field." "Currently, we assess that this balloon has limited additive value from an intelligence collection perspective," the official said. The official wouldn't say where the balloon is now. "The first question is, does it pose a threat?" Biden was briefed about the balloon and "asked for military options," the defense official said. "The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is flying over the continental United States right now," Brig. The defense official said the U.S. It is appearing to hang out for a longer period of time this time around."

News that the Pentagon is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in the skies over the continental United States raises a series of questions ...

“Some of these systems use extremely high frequencies that are short range, can be absorbed by the atmosphere and being line-of-sight are very directional. This means they can loiter to a limited extent. Since then the US has used hundreds of them to monitor its adversaries, said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia and former Royal Australian Air Force officer. “An advantage of balloons is that they can be steered using onboard computers to take advantage of winds and they can go up and down to a limited degree. “Balloon payloads can now weigh less and so the balloons can be smaller, cheaper and easier to launch” than satellites, Layton said. This is not the first time a Chinese balloon has been spotted over the US, but this seems to be acting differently to previous ones, a US defense official said.

The government has been monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northern U.S. and officials have discussed ...

The U.S. military presence near Taiwan, with plans to expand the number of U.S. On Thursday, the Pentagon announced it would bolster the U.S. and in Beijing.” The official did not say whether the Chinese admitted the balloon was theirs. Tensions are high between the U.S. military will continue to monitor it closely and will keep the option of taking out the balloon on the table. NORAD sent aircraft — including F-22 Raptors from Nellis Air Force Base and airborne early warning aircraft known as AWACs — but the official would not say whether one of the options was to shoot the balloon out of the sky with a U.S. The official said there was a window while the balloon was over Montana Wednesday when they could have taken it down. “We acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.” The high-altitude balloon was spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday. “The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said.

The US is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted flying over sensitive sites in recent days. Defence officials said they ...

It will be the first visit to the country by a Biden administration cabinet secretary. US media have reported another US official comparing it to the size of three buses. It confused social media users in Montana, with some posting images of a pale round object high in the sky. Top military leaders, including Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met on Wednesday to assess the threat. Canada said on Friday that it was monitoring "a potential second incident" involving a surveillance balloon, but did not say which country could be behind it. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.

The Pentagon said Thursday that it has "very high confidence" that the high-altitude surveillance balloon came from China and is being used to collect ...

"The U.S. But, he said, the U.S. as the situation develops. A senior defense official told reporters Thursday that the U.S. "We shouldn't let this thing be floating above our ICBM fields, or really over the U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. had been tracking the balloon since it entered U.S. defense officials believe the balloon does not pose a "military or physical threat to people on the ground," as NORAD and U.S. U.S. [Ryan Zinke](https://twitter.com/RyanZinke/status/1621334674176876546?s=20&t=J03TWKqDHXjPPbsQTT_B4A) — are accusing China of provoking the U.S. launched hundreds of balloons to gather intelligence on China and the Soviet Union, after tracking east from Montana, and reiterated that it poses no threat to people on the ground.

The U.S. is tracking a Chinese balloon that was discovered over the continental United States, a discovery that risks adding further strain to tense ...

Montana balloon crisis sounds a lot less dramatic than its Cuban-missile counterpart, and not just because the Chinese surveillance balloon spotted over Big ...

[conciliatory statement](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/03/1154114264/chinese-spy-balloon-us-pentagon-china) that it “regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. The balloon is not a nuisance to either commercial airlines or U.S. By exposing the balloon’s existence, the administration has put pressure on China to de-escalate the issue. One definition of crisis is a disruption that affords little time to respond before it turns into a disaster. airspace.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken has now [postponed](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-03/us-to-postpone-blinken-s-visit-to-china-over-its-spy-balloon) his expected visit to China next week. Protections on the ground can deny the Chinese surveillance access to whatever it is they are interested in. Although the balloon lingers somewhere above where passenger jets normally fly, it is in American airspace—which is to say, the American homeland. Emergency management, then, presents two basic choices: Either prevent the disruption or buy yourself more time to minimize its consequences. [armchair analysts and GOP politicians](https://newrepublic.com/post/170391/republicans-response-reported-chinese-spy-balloon) insisting that President Joe Biden was weak in the face of a clearly aggressive action by the Chinese. [Chinese government denies](https://www.euronews.com/2023/02/03/suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-spotted-over-western-us) that it is collecting intelligence. goal is to make China stop doing that while avoiding harm to Americans. Blowing up an adversary’s airborne surveillance equipment over Montana, or even scrambling to capture it, involves different logistical and legal calculations than doing so in an active theater of war.

WASHINGTON — American military officials on Thursday said they had detected a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” launched by China floating in the skies ...

Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. It is a big enough deal for the State Department to cancel Mr. “The main purpose of the trip was to put some guardrails on the relationship. [said the statement](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202302/t20230203_11019484.html) on the ministry’s website. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into U.S. “China’s brazen disregard for U.S. Others called for more forceful action. Biden had been briefed and had asked to review military options. WASHINGTON — American military officials on Thursday said they had detected a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” launched by China floating in the skies of Montana, causing a diplomatic panic that led Secretary of State Antony J. “Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. [is expanding its presence in the Philippines](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/world/asia/philippines-united-states-military-bases.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-us-china&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc), a sign that the United States is positioning itself to [constrain China’s armed forces](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/us/politics/us-china-philippines.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-us-china&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc)and bolstering [its ability to defend Taiwan](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/world/asia/us-philippines-military.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-us-china&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc). [Beijing has the edge](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/01/world/asia/indonesia-china-united-states.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-us-china&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc).

China acknowledged Friday that a high-altitude balloon spotted this week over Montana does in fact belong to Beijing, but it referred to the airship as a ...

The U.S. has been tracking the balloon "for quite some time" as it entered U.S. A Chinese official was summoned to the State Department for a formal U.S. However, CBS News has learned the U.S. government had determined the balloon does not pose a threat. The Pentagon is still considering ways to "dispose" of it but has "grave concerns" about the damage it would cause if it fell to Earth. to properly handle the unexpected situation." By Friday morning, the balloon was no longer over Montana but had moved over the Midwest and is now over "the middle of the country," according to a U.S. The only other time a Chinese balloon has flown over the continental U.S. A Chinese balloon has never been over the middle of the country before. The statement also says that the balloon "seriously deviated from the scheduled route" and expressed regret that "the airship strayed into the United States due to force majeure." China acknowledged Friday that a high-altitude balloon spotted this week over Montana does in fact belong to Beijing, but it referred to the airship as a civilian device "used for scientific research such as meteorology."

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said Friday afternoon that the “Chinese spy balloon” that has been drifting over the continental United States has been seen ...

They said they would not shoot down the balloon over concerns about the safety of people on the ground. The balloon was first seen on Wednesday over Montana. officials have said they believe the high-altitude balloon’s purpose is for surveillance, but that it poses no military or physical threat and is not collecting sensitive information. [See all Hill.TV](https://thehill.com/hilltv) [See all Video](https://thehill.com/video) [Defense](https://thehill.com/policy/defense/) [Finance](https://thehill.com/policy/finance/) [House](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/) [Defense](https://thehill.com/policy/defense/) [See All](https://thehill.com) whether it’s our airspace or the southern border.” “President Biden must protect the sovereignty of the U.S.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley recommended not shooting it down due to danger from debris, a senior defense official said.

The U.S. A Chinese official was summoned to the State Department for a formal U.S. The balloon is expected to be over the U.S. has been tracking the balloon "for quite some time" as it entered U.S. However, CBS News has learned the U.S. The Pentagon is still considering ways to "dispose" of it but has "grave concerns" about the damage it would cause if it fell to Earth. It can be maneuvered but it is also subject to the jet stream, which could eventually push it out of U.S. The balloon was flying at an altitude of about 66,000 feet, according to a U.S. By Friday morning, the balloon was no longer over Montana but had moved over the Midwest and is now over "the middle of the country," according to a U.S. A Chinese balloon has never been over the middle of the country before. The only other time a Chinese balloon has flown over the continental U.S. The statement also says that the balloon "seriously deviated from the scheduled route" and expressed regret that "the airship strayed into the United States due to force majeure."

By Friday, the balloon appeared to be floating above northwest Missouri and the Kansas City area. Predictions have it headed for the Carolinas.

military’s land-based, nuclear-tipped Minuteman III missile fields](https://time.com/6252551/chinese-weather-balloon-shoot-down/). Josh Hawley.](https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1621562707089522689?s=20&t=pL4zak_NMZpM3f9HNRTY8A) By midday-they confirmed that the balloon was [closer to the center of the U.S.](https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/03/chinese-surveillance-balloon-now-drifting-across-the-middle-of-the-u-s-pentagon-confirms/) They predict that the balloon will [remain in U.S. It noted that the would work with the U.S. senators](https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article272078102.html) have already called for the balloon to be taken down. airspace for several days](https://apnews.com/article/politics-antony-blinken-china-314302278a5f05bdc2df146ed5b35ec6). As a result of the balloon’s flight path, many Montana flights were reportedly [diverted or delayed](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/suspected-chinese-balloon-us/index.html). The U.S. The Pentagon has said that it is monitoring the aircraft and its direction. His analysis put the balloon as floating south of St. [moving southeast slowly from Montana](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/03/what-is-chinese-spy-balloon-montana/) and flying at about 60,000 feet—twice the high of most passenger planes. The National Weather Service says it has received multiple reports of a “large balloon visible on the horizon.” The agency also posted a picture of the object as seen from its office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.

An alleged Chinese spy balloon seen floating about 11 miles above Montana this week could just be one for the Biden administration. Or it could make fraught ...

"I think they'll take a pretty low-key approach and they will try to get the trip back on the calendar as quickly as they can." [Joshua Eisenman](https://keough.nd.edu/people/joshua-eisenman/), an expert on Chinese foreign relations at the University of Notre Dame. McCarthy [responded](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2023/02/04/2003793691) later, saying: "I don't think China can tell me where to go at any time, at any place." [said](https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202302/t20230202_11018861.html) on Thursday, China is opposed to any official interactions between the U.S. And the ministry expressed rare "regret" for the incident. Susan Shirk, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, and author of the book Overreach: How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise, says the coming days will be key. "The way they framed the response is a big step-down from their previous harsh rhetoric on the U.S.," says Sun. relations is steep, according to But it can only go so far, Eisenman says. In recent weeks, though, observers say Beijing has softened its diplomatic rhetoric and sent what some interpret as signals of openness to thawing ties with the United States and other Western countries. "If they want the [Blinken] trip to be rescheduled and for things to be back on track, they will have to deliver something to incentivize." relations are at their worst point in decades, strained over numerous issues including microchips, human rights, tariffs and Taiwan.

A popular military tool during the Cold War, spy balloons have since fallen out of favor—for good reason.

The senior DOD official noted that the balloon is big enough to cause a potentially dangerous debris field if the US shot down the balloon over an inhabited area. Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Thursday that, "instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. A senior US Department of Defense official [told reporters](https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3287204/senior-defense-official-holds-a-background-briefing-on-high-altitude-surveillan/) on Thursday, though, that “clearly the intent of this balloon is for surveillance.” US officials said on Thursday that the spy balloon was floating above commercial air traffic at roughly 60,000 feet and that it does not pose a threat to people or activity on the ground. “You may have noticed that this balloon has caused a massive international incident, and it’s got everyone looking at China and demanding that the US government do something. And unlike satellites, which are out of sight and out of mind for people on Earth, the situation currently playing out with the Chinese balloon illustrates the biggest limitation of surveillance balloons.

Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the ...

One is that you can’t steer it, really, and it only passes over the place that you’re looking at—if you even get lucky and are able to place it correctly—once. So yes, if you want a balloon to end up in a certain place, you can strategically choose where you launch it from and you can have some reasonable degree of control [over where] it’s going to end up. How visible it would be would depend on how big it is, what it’s made of and also the detection technology being employed to track it. China already has capabilities like satellites, and they didn’t seem to think the balloon was going to be dramatically different. and that was flying in the U.S. If it’s a weather balloon, then it would be equipped with sensors to measure things like temperature, and so on. We know this is a Chinese balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver.” And so the only control that a balloon has is: in some balloons, you can control the altitude—you can make it go higher or lower. And that can give you some measure of control—but not anywhere near the level of control that you have [with an airplane]. To the extent that the wind speed and direction varies with altitude, you can change the altitude, within some limits. It adds some more complexity to the whole thing.” In addition to its maneuverability, the surveillance balloon differs from a typical weather balloon in other ways, On Friday the Pentagon’s press secretary said that the balloon is now over the central U.S.

A Chinese balloon has been raising a lot of questions for people who live under its path. “I did see it, and it should have been shot,” said a barbecue chef ...

“It was a wake-up call for me and probably for a lot of people in Montana,” Mr. It was just a big white orb in the sky.” “It’s definitely noticeable,” he said. “Taking a rental car would be a lot cheaper than sending a balloon from Beijing,” he said. “I grew up in a little farmhouse a mile from an intercontinental missile,” he said. to pick up his car from a repair shop when he spotted the balloon. “We should take care of our security a lot better,” said Chet Cole, who works at the Marble Table restaurant in Billings. “The state can feel too remote to be in harm’s way if there were a war, but in fact it could very likely be the frontline of a nuclear first strike. “I did see it, and it should have been shot,” said a barbecue chef in Billings, Mont. The chance of hitting anyone is less than the chance of winning the Powerball.” The balloon, which the Chinese authorities insist is a civilian craft designed more for meteorological recordings than for espionage, had floated out of the state by Friday. Mayer, who works for The Billings Gazette and is also a pilot.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his upcoming trip to China in response to the flying of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the United ...

He also said that what makes this surveillance balloon different from other similar balloon activity in the past is the “duration and the length of which it has been over US territory.” It is also not the first time a surveillance balloon has appeared over the United States. The US official said there were similar incidents with suspected Chinese surveillance balloons over Hawaii and Guam in recent years. Ryder added on Friday that the balloon “has changed its course which, again, is why we’re monitoring it.” He added that the US military will not get into “hour-by-hour” updates on the location, but said the public can look up and see it. The balloon is assessed to have “limited additive value” from an intelligence collection perspective, the official added. Earlier this week, the State Department summoned China’s charge d’affaires in Washington, Xu Xueyuan, “to deliver a very clear and stark message” regarding the discovery of the spy balloon, a second US official told CNN. A US military official said the incident is serious because of the “audacity” of the Chinese government, rather than any intelligence gain. We also engaged our close allies and partners to inform them of the presence of the surveillance balloon in our airspace.” The balloon was spotted in Missouri on Friday and is moving toward the East Coast. The Chinese foreign ministry claimed Friday that the balloon spotted over the US was a “civilian airship” used mainly for weather research that deviated from its planned course. The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

The high-altitude balloon now floating at 60000 feet over the continental US is part of a broader Chinese spying program that's seen many such devices sent ...

A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in the skies over the continental United States has sparked national security and diplomatic concerns, adding to ...

“We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.” “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. One of the officials said it could exit the East Coast on Saturday. But that’s not to say that it couldn’t be [State Department official said](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/03/politics/china-us-balloon-intl/index.html) that the US has acknowledged China’s “statement of regret” but that the presence of the balloon in US airspace was “a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred.” [plans to hold a hearing](https://www.tester.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tester-announces-defense-hearing-on-chinese-spy-balloon/) on the balloon and how it was able to violate US airspace. It is unclear exactly where over Latin America the balloon is, but a US official told CNN it does not appear that balloon is currently heading to the United States. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. [shot down eventually](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/03/politics/us-monitoring-chinese-balloon/index.html); a senior defense official said Thursday that the US has “options to deal with this balloon” if the risk assessment changes. [had advised Biden](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/02/politics/us-tracking-china-spy-balloon/index.html) not to shoot the balloon down due to fear over the debris posing a safety threat. [postpone his highly anticipated trip](https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/03/politics/china-us-balloon-intl/index.html) to China, saying Friday that the high-altitude Chinese balloon entering US airspace “created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.” Pat Ryder has flatly denied the Chinese government’s claim that the balloon serves a civilian research purpose, saying that the US knows it is a “surveillance balloon.”

Twice a day, hundreds of weather balloons are launched across the country, but the U.S. military said it is tracking what it believes is a high-altitude ...

While we won’t get into specifics in regards to the exact location, I can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States. "During a weather balloon launch you want to cover the entire troposphere, which varies seasonally. However, the fact is we know that it’s a surveillance balloon, and I’m not going to be able to be more specific than that," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Defense officials believe the balloon is the size of several buses, much larger than those launched by National Weather Services offices. military to be a high-altitude surveillance balloon launched by the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese airship has likely been in the skies for days and traveled thousands of miles.

The Pentagon's only comments on the balloon's movements are that it's heading “eastward,” and officials do not believe it poses a direct threat.

[ was sent for surveillance](https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/02/03/its-a-spy-balloon-defense-secretary-says-disputing-chinas-civilian-airship-claim/?sh=455c0e6b1e8a), but they have chosen not to shoot it down since the debris field might cause “civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage.” Beijing on Friday acknowledged the balloon originated in China, but claimed it is simply a “civilian airship” that was somehow blown thousands of miles off course—an assertion the Biden Administration has dismissed. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Friday the balloon does not pose a “military threat” to the U.S. A suspected Chinese spy balloon hovering over the U.S. [Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Hovering Over U.S., Pentagon Says](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/02/02/chinese-spy-balloon-hovering-over-us-pentagon-says/?sh=52de626439ac) (Forbes) [It’s A Spy Balloon, Defense Secretary Says, Disputing China’s ‘Civilian Airship’ Claim](https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/02/03/its-a-spy-balloon-defense-secretary-says-disputing-chinas-civilian-airship-claim/?sh=455c0e6b1e8a) (Forbes) [Blinken Postpones China Visit After Spy Balloon](https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/02/03/blinken-postpones-china-visit-after-spy-balloon/?sh=1d5b9b703e65) (Forbes) 60,000 feet. [ was spotted over Montana](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/02/02/chinese-spy-balloon-hovering-over-us-pentagon-says/?sh=52de626439ac) on Wednesday after moving over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and then passing through Canada, according to the Pentagon.

Republicans on Friday were calling for the Biden administration to do more to deal with the continued presence of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the ...

And as my colleague said over at the Department of Defense earlier today, we are tracking closely and keeping all options on the table," she said. [White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre](https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics/executive/white-house) defended the administration’s handling of the balloon, saying it does not present a military or physical threat to Americans on the ground. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said there must be a "strong response" and described the administration’s current response as passive. "I am writing to request a security briefing on this situation as soon as possible to hear why the balloon penetrated so far into our country before it was identified, what the true purpose of it was, and how we can prevent this invasion from taking place in the future," Rosendale wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Time and time again, the President has failed in countering, curbing, and competing with Beijing," Green told Fox News Digital. "Would Trump have let China fly a spy balloon over our country? Take the shot." In the Senate as well, Republicans accused the administration of not doing enough. "We have concluded that the conditions are not right at this moment for Secretary Blinken to [Chinese official](https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-confirms-balloon-theirs-spokesperson-claims-civilian-research-airship)s confirmed that the balloon was Chinese, but said it was a civilian airship that drifted off course. "The Chinese spy balloon is clear provocation. But with the balloon hovering at approximately 60,000 feet over the continental U.S.