The Chinese spy balloon shot down on February 4 in Atlantic waters after crossing the entire US territory was able to transmit information and images in real time to Beijing, according to sources from NBC and CNN. Also, according to military sources, they have been able to obtain data on US military locations, and before their demolition by the Biden administration, they would have obtained information on weapon systems.

CNN sources, however, explain that the US secret services they are not very concerned about the information harvested, since the devices that the balloon carried did not have technology that could collect much broader data than what Beijing already obtains with the satellites in orbit.

In addition, the source has highlighted that by knowing the trajectory of the balloon they were able to protect the most sensitive places and censor some signals to avoid detection. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to investigate the balloon itself, the software algorithms, the power systems, and the general design of the device. The United States would also have a tracking system capable of locating and monitoring an entire fleet of Chinese balloons deployed around the world.

Washington believes that the fleet of balloons spies is based on the island of Hainan, in the south of the country, and that in the last year has carried out at least two dozen missions on the five continents. Six of these flights would have been in US airspace, but not necessarily over US territory. China maintains that it is a meteorological probe that strayed by accident, despite the fact that the device had a flight direction system that was used when it was over the state of Montana.