A recent report has revealed that the Chinese balloon that entered US airspace in 2023 was equipped with technology from at least five American companies.
Back on February 4, 2023, the US Air Force took down a 200-foot high-altitude balloon off the coast of South Carolina.
The Pentagon initially identified the balloon as a surveillance device after it traveled across Alaska and western Canada between January 28 and February 4.
China, however, denied these allegations, claiming that the object was a civilian airship that had veered off course.
A new military report indicates that the balloon was indeed carrying technology from several US companies.
This equipment had the capability to survey, photograph areas, and gather intelligence data, according to iHeartRadio.
The balloon was also reported to have ‘launchable gliders for additional reconnaissance missions,’ potentially collecting detailed data on unaware Americans, and was equipped with a short-burst messaging module known as Iridium 9602, writes the New York Post.
“A Chinese company would not have given them a full satcom [satellite communications] coverage of the US,” a former federal intelligence worker told Newsweek.
Newsweek mentioned that it had reviewed a Chinese patent titled ‘A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method’, which described a communication system similar to the one used by the balloon that traversed the United States.
The patent, awarded in 2022 to scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Aerospace Information Innovation Research Institute in Beijing, reportedly detailed how China-based operators could utilize a US company’s satellite transceiver to communicate with the balloon before relaying data.
It’s reported that the balloon’s communication system was produced by Iridium, alongside technology from at least four other American companies.
These companies are said to be Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation, and Onsemi.
According to Newsweek, equipment from at least one Swiss company was also allegedly involved.
Iridium’s executive director for communications, Jordan Hassim, stated that the company does not ‘condone’ the misuse of its radios or modules.
“There’s no way for us to know what the use is of a specific module. … For us it could be a whale wearing a tag tracking it; it could be a polar bear, an explorer hiking a mountain,” he explained.
In response to the report, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC has reiterated that the aircraft was simply a harmless balloon that had drifted off course.
“The straying of the Chinese civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure,” a representative informed the publication.
“The airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into the US because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability.”