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Pentagon won’t rule out shootdown of ‘maneuverable’ China spy balloon

WASHINGTON – The Chinese spy balloon wreaking havoc over US airspace this week has moved on from Montana, but could continue lingering over the country “for days,” the Pentagon said Friday.

“While we won’t get into specifics in regards to the exact location, I can tell you that the balloon continues to move eastward and is currently over the center of the continental United States,” spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday claimed the object was a civilian weather instrument that had drifted off course and denied that it had any “intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.”

However, Ryder described the balloon as “maneuverable,” noting that it “has changed its course, which is again why we’re monitoring it.”

While Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier this week advised President Biden not to direct the military to shoot down the balloon given its potential for damage, the Pentagon continues assessing its “options” on how to handle the balloon, Ryder said.

A picture shows a suspected Chinese spy balloon in the sky over Billings, Montana.
CHASE DOAK/AFP via Getty Images
Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder
AP

The spokesman declined to say whether the decision would change if the spy balloon floated toward the nation’s capital, nor would he rule out what might happen once it moves out from US soil.

“Right now, we assess that it’ll probably be over the United States for a few days,” he said. “But we’ll continue to monitor [it and] review our options.”

The spokesman declined to say when the balloon began changing course and whether the movement coincided with the US informing China that it had detected the object.

An aerial view of the pentagon.
AFP via Getty Images

“Clearly it’s violated US airspace, and again, we’ve communicated that fact to [China,]” Ryder said.

The balloon is at an altitude of about 60,000 feet – about 20,000 feet higher than commercial airspace – and is not believed to “pose a potential risk to people while in the air,” he said.

Ryder added the object is carrying a sizable “payload” of surveillance technology that could bring “the potential for debris and the impact on civilians on the ground or property damage” if it were shot down. However, Ryder said the Pentagon does not believe it is carrying weaponry or other concerning material – radioactive or otherwise.

A picture of A launch facility operated by Malmstrom Air Force Base.
U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Delia
The balloon is at an altitude of about 60,000 feet and is not believed to "pose a potential risk to people while in the air," according to officials.
AP

“It is a surveillance balloon, right, so there is a there is a surveillance capability underneath this large balloon,” he said. “So if you look at a blimp, a blimp has a basket, right? So there’s a basket underneath it, in layman’s terms.”

“So again, large enough to be concerning if there were a debris field,” he added.

When the Pentagon notified the public on Thursday, the balloon was spotted hovering over Big Sky Country, home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls.

While the Pentagon has admitted it has seen similar incursions of foreign balloons in US airspace, Ryder declined to say whether those instances ever occurred over critical military infrastructure.