National security experts claim that the Chinese spy balloon was mapping out the location of missile silos in the U.S.
Bryan Clark, Director of the Hudson Institute Center for Defense Concepts, said that the balloon may have not been “a direct threat” but could have allowed China to “obtain close-up visual imagery from different angles.”
“That could improve China’s ability to target U.S. missile silos and better understand the construction and layout of U.S. bomber bases in places like Montana and North Dakota where the balloon is flying,” Clark told The Daily Wire.
“It could have obtained signals intelligence by listening in on U.S. military radio and radar signals. Because satellite flyovers are known and predictable, U.S. forces avoid transmitting sensitive signals during those windows, but the balloon can fly an unpredictable route and show up unexpectedly,” he continued.
Senior research fellow for the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, Victoria Coates, also claimed that the threat of the balloon may be on the same scale as security threats China has made on the social media platform TikTok.
“Make no mistake about it, this violation of U.S. sovereignty on the eve of Secretary Blinken’s scheduled trip to China was not only about surveillance, it was also about testing whether or not the Biden administration would respond strongly and risk the diplomatic engagement,” Coates said.
“Unfortunately, until the story blew up in the news they clearly prioritized keeping the trip over defending the national security of the United States, and even though it’s been delayed, Secretary Blinken said in his statement he expects it to be rescheduled and expressed his commitment to diplomacy,” he continued.
The Chinese high-altitude balloon has since been taken down by the Defense Department on Saturday after it was spotted flying over sensitive sites across the country last week.
Republicans criticized the Biden administration for not ordering the balloon to be shot down sooner, but a senior defense official said that it did not pose any physical or military threat to Americans on the ground and was flying above commercial airliner traffic.
“Does it pose a threat to civilian aviation? Our assessment is it does not,” the official said on Thursday during a briefing.
