CCP Spy/weapon Balloon shot down after it completed it's mission of gathering and sending back intel to CCP intel on US's military/intel instillations
The emergence of the spy aircraft comes on the heels of a classified report to Congress which outlined advanced new technology that US adversaries were harnessing to spy on the country.
The report last month mentioned at least two incidents of a rival power conducting aerial surveillance with what appeared to be unknown cutting-edge technology, sources told The New York Times.
Although the report did not single out any country, two US officials familiar with the research named China.
The two sites where the unusual surveillance was detected included a military base in the US and another overseas.
Since 2021, the Pentagon has studied 366 unexplained incidents and determined that 163 were balloons.
A handful of these were advanced surveillance balloons, a US official told the Times.
'Americans are endangered and our enemies are emboldened.'
Kim said the Chinese balloon is also far more advanced and could be using artificial intelligence (AI), allowing it to steer through severe winds at extreme altitudes.
It has a significant, visible 'payload' - the electronics for guidance and collecting information, powered by large solar panels, he said.
AI has made it possible for a balloon, just by reading the changes in the air around it, to adjust its altitude to guide it where it wants to go, Kim said.
'Before you either had to have a tether… or you just send it up and it just goes wherever the wind takes it,' he said.
'What's happened very recently with advances in AI is that you can have a balloon that… doesn't need its own motion system. Merely by adjusting the altitude it can control its direction.'
That could also involve radio communications from its home base, he said.
But 'if the point of it is to monitor (intercontinental ballistic missile) silos, which is one of the theories… you wouldn't necessarily need to tell it to adjust its location,' he added.
Kim said that as satellites become more vulnerable to being attacked from the Earth and space, balloons have distinct advantages.
Firstly, they don't easily show up on radars.
A second Chinese spy balloon was reported flying over Latin America, with many taking photos of a balloon hovering above Venezuela (left). The sighting comes after a surveillance balloon was spotted flying Montana (right)
The aircraft has also sparked concerns that China could have deliberately sent the balloon to spy on US bases.
Montana Senator Steve Daines warned that the balloon might've been targeting his state's nuclear missile fields.
'Montana plays a vital national security role by housing nuclear missile silos at Malmstrom AFB,' Daines wrote to the Department of Defense.
'Given the increased hostility and destabilization around the globe aimed at the United States and our allies, I am alarmed by the fact that this spy balloon was able to infiltrate the airspace of our country and Montana.'
Completely Incompetent CCP friendly O'Biden Administration, their minions in the DOD, DHS & all other agencies