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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pentagon tracking Chinese spy balloon hovering over Montana; Fairchild tankers involved in flyover

Airman 1st Class Jackson Ligon, 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron technician, prepares a spacer on an intercontinental ballistic missile during a Simulated Electronic Launch-Minuteman test Sept. 22, 2020, at a launch facility near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Mont. The U.S. says it is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground.  (U.S. Air Force)
By Helene Cooper New York Times

WASHINGTON – The United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northwestern United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday, a discovery that comes days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing.

The Pentagon has chosen, for now, not to shoot down the balloon after a recommendation from senior defense officials that doing so would risk debris hitting people on the ground, according to a senior defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Three KC-135 Stratotankers took off from Fairchild Air Force Base on Thursday, online flight trackers showed, and circled Montana before heading back to Spokane County in the afternoon. A message left late Thursday with Fairchild Air Force Base went unanswered, and it’s unclear if the flight was involved with monitoring the balloon.

The decision to publicize the discovery appears to put China on notice before Blinken’s Beijing visit – the first by an American secretary of state in six years – during which he is expected to meet with President Xi Jinping. The sudden appearance of the balloon is bound to raise already escalating tensions between the two powers.

The official said that while it was not the first time China had sent spy balloons to the United States, this one has appeared to remain over the country for longer. Still, a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat and added that it had limited value in collecting intelligence. Another defense official said the Pentagon did not think the balloon added much value over what China could glean through satellite imagery.

Pentagon officials said the balloon traveled from China to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and through northwest Canada over the past few days before arriving somewhere over Montana, where it was hovering on Wednesday.

It was unclear what China was looking for in Montana, but the state is home to the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, one of three U.S. Air Force bases that operate and maintain intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Department of Defense press secretary, told reporters that the balloon was traveling “well above commercial air traffic,” adding that “once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.” He did not specify what those measures were.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.