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Navy sailors are still pulling up debris from the Chinese spy balloon an F-22 fighter jet shot down on Saturday, and more details about the surveillance device are likely to be revealed in the coming days.
But for now, there are more questions than answers.
Here are the questions we have about the Chinese spy balloon.
What equipment was attached to the balloon, and what was it being used for?
A State Department official revealed on Thursday the balloon hosted antennas with the capability of collecting communications intelligence.
It also came “equipped with solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors,” the official said.
There is little else known about the equipment attached to the spy balloon, which weighs about 200 pounds and is the size of three coach buses.
While satellites are commonly used by nations for surveillance, balloons are cheaper to deploy and can linger over certain areas for longer than a satellite, potentially snapping clearer pictures and picking up on more communications.
Tim Heath, a senior international defense researcher at Rand Corporation, said China is using these balloons to “augment satellite collections.”
“Satellites are highly capable but they’re in high demand so they can’t be everywhere,” Heath said. “Balloons are cheap and pretty cost effective. … You can deploy them all over the place.”
Why didn’t the Pentagon tell the public about the balloon for five days?
The Pentagon first detected the balloon on Jan. 28 over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska but chose not to inform the public about it until Feb. 2, when it was spotted over Montana.
Military officials briefed President Biden on the balloon last Tuesday.
