The Pentagon said it had not collected data on the Chinese spy balloon

The Pentagon says the Chinese balloon that crossed the US mainland from Alaska to the East Coast in February did not collect any information. Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said Thursday that the United States is “aware that the balloon has intelligence capabilities” but that “our current assessment is that it did not collect it while it was in transit or over the United States.” writes bbc.

The general, who did not confirm to the Wall Street Journal that the balloon was carrying US-made equipment, said that “US efforts to limit intelligence activity contributed to the failure of the balloon to collect sensitive information.” Using off-the-shelf American equipment.

Just like telex We wrote tooThe blimp spent a week flying over the United States and Canada in February before being shot down by a fighter jet off the Atlantic coast at the behest of US President Joe Biden.

The incident caused tension between the United States and China, as China denied that it had sent a balloon into US airspace for intelligence purposes and claimed that the downed aircraft was for meteorological purposes and had deviated from its intended course. He later accused the US of sending its spy balloons over China after the incident.

Two more similar incidents occurred this weekend, with an unidentified aircraft being shot down near the Yukon in northwest Canada the next day, and a third aircraft shot down over Lake Huron in the US on February 12.