WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese surveillance balloon that’s hovering over U.S. territory and believes it poses no military threat, Defense Department officials said Thursday.
“The U.S. has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.
The Chinese balloon was hovering over Montana for a short time — including over some sensitive military sites, such as nuclear weapons silos, according to a senior Defense Department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The U.S. doesn’t believe the balloon is able to collect any information beyond the capabilities that China already has, the official said.
It wasn’t the first time a spy balloon had been spotted over U.S. territory though this one is lingering for longer than past cases. The official declined to say why the U.S. believed the balloon belonged to China but said the U.S. had high confidence that was the case.
Officials made the decision not to shoot down the balloon because they believe the risk it poses to U.S. national-security is low compared to the risk — low as it might be — that downing the balloon could pose a danger on the ground.
The official said the U.S. had raised the issue with China. The Chinese embassy didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Thursday.
