U.S. intelligence authorities believe that the recently recovered Chinese spy balloon is part of a comprehensive surveillance operation controlled by the Chinese military, according to various American sources familiar with the intelligence.
The Washington Post was the first to expose the link to the broader surveillance program, which was disclosed before the current balloon was sighted last week.
Approximately six of these flights have flown within U.S. airspace, albeit not necessarily over American territory, according to an official with knowledge of the intelligence.
The U.S. does not know the exact size of the Chinese surveillance balloon fleet, but according to sources, the program has undertaken at least two dozen sorties across at least five continents in recent years.
And not all of the balloons observed across the globe have been exactly the same model as the one shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, the official and another source familiar with the intelligence said. Rather, there are numerous "variations," according to these individuals.
Meanwhile, at a government facility in Quantico, Virginia, an elite team of FBI engineers is poring over the fragments of the recovered balloon. During the balloon's crossing across the U.S., according to defense officials, the U.S. acquired crucial clues to some of these issues' solutions.
According to a defense official, the U.S. has already gathered real-time data on the types of signals the balloon emitted as it went, utilizing technical capabilities offered by the National Security Agency and other organizations.
Officials seek to learn as much as possible about the balloon's technological capabilities, including the type of data it could intercept and receive, the satellites it was attached to, and any flaws that the U.S. could exploit, according to sources involved with the investigation.
On Monday, the chief of U.S. Northern Command, General Glen VanHerck, admitted to reporters that the U.S. had a "domain awareness gap" that allowed prior balloons to enter US airspace without being detected.
The complete study of the wreckage will take an indeterminate amount of time, according to the source, because recovery activities are still ongoing.
Meanwhile, defense officials argue that the U.S. learned more about the balloon's capabilities by allowing it to pass over the U.S. than they would have by shooting it down immediately - a choice that some senators on Capitol Hill have blasted as a counterintelligence threat.
China maintains that the vessel shot down by the U.S. was a weather balloon blown off course, although it did express "regret" in a statement Friday.
