THE Chinese balloon that flew over the US earlier this year managed to gather intelligence from military bases for days before it was shot down, US media report.
The balloon was able to transmit data to Beijing in real time, NBC News reported, citing US officials.
The craft picked up electronic signals rather than taking pictures, according to one official quoted by the network.
The White House didn’t confirm the report.
But US officials say they managed to limit the balloon’s intelligence-gathering abilities as it floated over the country.
On Monday, a defence department spokesperson said that the FBI was still examining the balloon debris.
“We do know that the balloon was able to be manoeuvred and purposely driven along its track,” said spokesperson Sabrina Singh, who declined to say which military installations the balloon was able to hover over.
“We’re still doing an assessment of what the intel was that China was able to gather but we do know that the steps that we took provided little additive value to what they’ve been able to collect on from satellites before,” she said.
