Revealed: Chinese spy balloon’s complete details and onboard equipment that was shot down by the US

WASHINGTON DC, (IndyaTVnn): While the US government has been very modest about the Chinese spy balloon’s capabilities and technology, experts have pointed out that the balloon and its equipment payload were far much more advanced than the US wants people to believe.

For reasons best known to itself, the US Biden administration is playing down the advanced tech used in the spy balloon and its reach and ability to capture intricate photographic details of the topology it flew over.

According to US military sources quoted by Western media outlets, the balloon gave the Chinese better or higher resolution images and signals collection than military satellites, as well as a better ability to steer and hover for long durations over collection targets and locations.

The balloon could hover at a designated location, could turn around, go back and forth or circle around a particular spot or structure on the ground it wanted to record in detail. Further the balloon was remote controlled and its long antenna transmitted information in real time and also received instructions via radio to maneuver and move the airship.

“It was as though the Chinese had an eye in the sky and were watching the images sent by the balloon to the collection point in real time,” a UK military expert said.

Indian military experts said the Chinese had mastered the art of spy balloons, which they were using for centuries and the spy balloon shot down by the US was one of the most powerful and advanced military espionage equipment till date as the airship could stay put at one location for days, irrespective of wind patterns and the jet stream as it had motors, its own propulsion, powered by solar panels, rudders and propellers. It could circle the location to grab images from different angles and could listen in to almost all radio communication in the area, capturing and recording the waves, to be decoded later on.

Almost all the sensors from a the Chinese spy balloon shot down over the US earlier this month were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, the US said – according to CBS and BBC reports.

Search crews found “significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified”, said US Northern Command.

“Large sections of the structure” were also recovered off the coast of South Carolina, military officials said.

About 30-40ft (9-12m) of the balloon’s antennas were among the items found, according to CBS. The balloon had huge antennas to beam off its data to a collection point – maybe a ship or submarine lurking near US borders.

US officials have said that the high-altitude balloon originated in China and was used for surveillance, but China maintained it was a weather-monitoring airship that had blown astray due to winds.

A senior State Department official told CNN that the balloon “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations” and was part of a fleet that had flown over “more than 40 countries across five continents.”

The Biden administration has determined that the Chinese balloon was operating with electronic surveillance technology capable of monitoring US communications, according to the official, as reported by CNN.

Another military source revealed that the spy balloon relayed collected data to “collection points” almost immediately and did not store the collected data on its system to avoid problems if it was captured.