U.S. Government Says It’s Tracking Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Spotted in Montana

A Chinese aircraft spotted in Montana has sparked national security concerns.

CNN reports a high-altitude surveillance balloon was spotted this week hovering over Billings, Montana. U.S. officials say the balloon was launched from mainland China, and made its way over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and through Canada before entering the continental U.S.

The Pentagon confirmed it has spent the last couple of days tracking the aircraft, which some have described as a sophisticated espionage tool. Officials claim the balloon is still in the country, but declined to say where it was located.

“Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has since confirmed that the ballon is Chinese; however, they insist it’s a civilian airship used primarily for meteorological research purposes and that it was simply blown off course by strong winds.

“The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure,” a CFM spokesperson said in a statement, adding the country would continue communicating with the U.S. to “properly handle this unexpected situation.”

The Biden administration has reportedly explored military options, as a number of lawmakers have urged the president to shoot the airship down. Officials point out that the balloon has flown over a “number of sensitive sites,” and was possibly being used for intelligence collection.

Biden was reportedly advised not to shoot the airship down, after experts conducted a cost-and-benefit analysis.

“Why not shoot it down? We have to do the risk-reward here,” a senior defense official told CNN. “So the first question is, does it pose a threat, a physical kinetic threat, to individuals in the United States in the US homeland? Our assessment is it does not. Does it pose a threat to civilian aviation? Our assessment is it does not. Does it pose a significantly enhanced threat on the intelligence side? Our best assessment right now is that it does not. So given that profile, we assess the risk of downing it, even if the probability is low in a sparsely populated area of the debris falling and hurting someone or damaging property, that it wasn’t worth it.”