Documents allegedly leaked by airman Jack Texeria show that China may have had several more spy balloons monitoring American activities. The revelations are just a small portion of the intelligence trove within the more than 100 documents.
According to several documents containing sensitive information, there is far more information about Chinese balloons that has not been publicly released.
According to the documentation, the original Chinese craft shot down over the coast of South Carolina had elements that had not yet been identified by the federal government.
Furthermore, the Pentagon logged another balloon that flew over an American carrier strike group. Furthermore, the Defense Department also tracked a balloon that crashed near South Korea.
There were no dates attached to these other two sightings, though it is possible that the carrier overflight references the USS Nimitz, which traveled through the western Pacific Ocean earlier this year.
US officials knew of more Chinese spy balloons, according to Pentagon leaks https://t.co/uLlg6SOI7q pic.twitter.com/MxZdviMu74
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) April 15, 2023
The leaked intelligence also shows that the Pentagon had tracked at least three suspected spy balloons and gave them each operational names. The craft shot down over South Carolina was given the moniker “Killeen-23.”
This craft was overflown by an American U-2 spy plane. American intelligence then assessed that the craft could generate its own power and had a radar system on board. It also had a number of other communications elements that are still being studied.
Congress has been briefed on other craft that have flown over the United States. There were reports in February about a craft flying over Latin America. Furthermore, there were several shootdowns of unidentified objects over the United States and Canada in the weeks following the initial craft’s discovery.
The United States responded to the spy flights by sanctioning a number of Chinese organizations linked to the balloons.
In particular, the Biden administration accused one institute and five aerospace companies of supporting China’s spying efforts, “specifically those related to aerospace programs, including airships and balloons.”
The released documents appear to link at least one of the balloons to one of the sanctioned companies.
Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has commented about the most recent balloon revelations.
