WASHINGTON. Part of the broader Chinese spyware is balloon which USA According to representatives of American intelligence, off the coast of South Carolina.

The spy program, which has several such balloons in its “arsenal”, is based on the Chinese island of Hainan. CNN information. Although the US does not know how many balloons the Chinese agency has, Beijing has reportedly flown at least 24 such missions in at least five continents in recent years.

Nearly a dozen of these flights took place in US airspace, but not necessarily over US soil, officials in Washington said. The discovered balloons are not of the same class as the one that was shot down on Saturday, as Beijing uses different “versions” of the unmanned system.

At the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, an elite team of agency engineers examine the wreckage of a Chinese balloon recovered by the US Navy to learn everything they can about the flying object’s spying capabilities.

US agencies are keen to learn as much as possible about the balloon itself and its technical capabilities, including what data it collects, what satellites it is connected to, and whether it has technical flaws that the US could exploit. The researchers will also study the “digital signature” of the data transmitted by the balloon, which will allow faster detection of such aircraft in the future. On Monday, US Northern Command Commander General Glenn Vanherke acknowledged there is a problem with US airspace control.

The reconstruction and analysis of the balloon’s payload by the FBI labs will reveal whether it was equipped with data transmission devices that it collected in real time for transmission to the Chinese military services. Alternatively, the balloon could have had a data storage device.

Beijing insists that the balloon shot down by a fighter jet over the Atlantic Ocean was a weather balloon that went off course. China initially apologized to the US for the incident in a message on Friday.

The FBI is investigating the wreckage to confirm that the balloon was transmitting data to Chinese agencies.

But Beijing’s rhetoric has hardened significantly since the balloon was shot down, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry accusing Washington of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice.” The Beijing Ministry of Defense, for its part, strongly protested and warned that China “reserves the right to use appropriate means to deal with similar incidents in the future.”

It is reported that the US NSA has already received useful information about the data transmitted by the balloon during its flight over the continental United States. “Over time, you will realize that our patience has paid off and that the evidence we have collected is extremely valuable,” General Vanherke said.

Possibilities

US officials are keen to study the balloon’s electronic equipment to determine its true capabilities. “With the balloon in our hands, we can reverse engineer its electronic circuits and trace who built it and who helped. For that reason, it’s very valuable,” said Democratic House Rep. Jim Hymes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Everything also depends on the degree of damage received by the balloon after it was shot down and fell from a height of 20,000 meters into the waters of the Atlantic.

However, the biggest question in Washington concerns China’s motives. Despite strong denials from Beijing, US officials have expressed confidence in the spy nature of the balloon due to its ability to guide its course. Weather balloons are unpowered and drift with the wind without the ability to navigate.