WASHINGTON ( Associated Press) – US Navy divers began retrieving the remains of a Chinese spy balloon from the depths of the ocean Tuesday, using sophisticated reconnaissance drones known as Kingfish and Swordfish to locate the wreckage. Were.
After collecting all the white fabric and outer structure of the balloon floating on the surface, the Navy is searching underwater for the remains of the giant balloon that was shot down by US warplanes off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. , he informed. officers.
He said Navy and Coast Guard personnel used underwater drones to locate and map the wreckage area, with divers pulling up whatever they could.
The collected debris was carried by small boats to some locations in the area, including a Coast Guard station south of Myrtle Beach, and, depending on size, would be sent to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, or to other sites where Experts can analyze them, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of an ongoing military operation.
The head of the US Northern Command, Gen. Glenn VanHerk, who is in charge of the recovery efforts, and several federal government officials will brief members of Congress on the balloon on Wednesday and Thursday.
Lawmakers have raised several questions about whether the balloon had managed to collect information and transmit it to China while flying over the United States, after crossing the border from Canada into Idaho.
White House and Pentagon officials have largely avoided giving details about the balloon’s capabilities.
Officials said Tuesday that the United States is well aware of the sites the world has traversed – including nuclear missile silos and other military installations – and it knows how to protect them from any intelligence gathering. Go He claimed that even though the balloon was capable of transmitting, it was not getting any new or important information to send.
Officials were unwilling to provide details on what the United States has managed to discover about the collection and transmission capabilities of the balloons.
The balloon, about 200 feet (60 m) high, carried under a long sensor package that VanHerck estimated to be the size of a small aircraft.
US counterintelligence teams hope to learn more about the sensors and other equipment on the globe once they recover and study it.
