During 2023, there was widespread alarm across the country as a Chinese surveillance balloon traversed the entirety of the United States, passing over critical locations, important sites, and key facilities. Eventually, the Biden administration decided to bring it down off the East Coast, but only after it had already flown over everything of interest to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Now, we have learned that this spy balloon was loaded with American technology.
The Chinese balloon that caused panic when it crossed over the US a couple of years back was indeed intended for spying on Americans, as long suspected. What surprised many was that it was equipped with technology made in the US, as revealed by a recent report.
This 200-foot-tall balloon carried a satellite communication module, sensors, and other advanced technology sourced from at least five American companies, according to two insiders familiar with a confidential US military report, as reported by Newsweek.
The craft — which floated from Alaska over Canada and into the US Midwest before it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, 2023 — could have collected detailed data on oblivious Americans, the sources said, citing what was discovered in parts of the recovered balloon.
That included tech to survey, take photographs and collect other intelligence data — and even launchable gliders that could have flown on other recon missions, the sources said, citing the classified military report.
That sounds like a very sophisticated reconnaissance asset, not just a weather balloon, a child’s toy, or anything else the Biden administration would have liked us to believe. As we learned late in 2023, the Biden administration even attempted to cover up the fact that the balloon was transmitting information, presumably back to China.
Why use American electronics? As it turns out, there’s a very good reason.
“A Chinese company would not have given them a full satcom [satellite communications] coverage of the US,” said one of the sources, a former federal intelligence employee.
The technology matched a patent awarded in 2022 to scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Aerospace Information Innovation Research Institute in Beijing, which has links to China’s military, according to Newsweek, which said it was briefed on the report but did not see it directly.
Included in the patent, titled “A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method,” was a short-burst messaging module called Iridium 9602, Newsweek reported.
Module maker Iridium is a global satellite communications provider whose command post is in McLean, Va. — mere miles from CIA headquarters, the report noted.
The balloon also had a communications system by Iridum, along with tech from four other US companies: Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation and onsemi, the report said, noting other equipment from at least one Swiss company.
Iridium makes a variety of communications technology, including personal satellite phones, personal communications devices, GPS trackers, and broadband terminals.
