U.S. Military Concludes Operation To Recover Debris From Chinese Spy Balloon

Ryan SaavedraFebruary 17, 2023

The U.S. military is now wrapping up its operation to recover debris from a Chinese Spy balloon that flew above the United States earlier in the month.

This news comes after the U.S. military used an F-22 Raptor to destroy the spy balloon above the Atlantic Ocean on February 4. It was equipped with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile and an air-to-air AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The missile was fired at approximately 58,000 feet. President Joe Biden had allowed the spy ballon to fly thousands miles over the U.S. continental.

“Recovery operations concluded Feb. 16 off the coast of South Carolina, after U.S. Navy assets assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully located and retrieved debris from the high-altitude PRC surveillance balloon shot down Feb. 4, 2023,” The U.S. Northern Command issued a statement. “Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the [FBI] labratory in Virginia for counterintelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered. U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard vessels have departed the area. Air and maritime safety perimeters have been lifted.”

Biden attempted to sound tough in his Thursday speech about the matter, which was two weeks after it occurred.

“I expect to be speaking with President Xi and I hope we can get to the bottom of this,” Biden claimed. “But I make no apologies for taking down that balloon.”

Several other unidentified objects were also shot over Canada, Alaska, and Lake Huron.

“We don’t yet know what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests that they were related to China’s spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country,” Biden claimed this during his remarks.

Biden claimed that the administration would continue to develop “sharper rules” For tracking objects that enter U.S. Airspace and determining possible actions against those objects. He allowed the Chinese spy ball to fly over the U.S. just a few weeks before finally shooting it down off South Carolina.

Biden stated that he wants the new rules be able to “distinguish between those that are likely to pose safety and security risks that necessitate action and those that do not.”