Suspected Chinese spy balloon spotted over U.S. skies, Pentagon says

The Defense Department is “confident” a balloon spotted over Montana is a surveillance balloon from China, a senior defense official said Thursday. 

A senior defense official said the U.S. has engaged with Chinese officials “urgently,” and President Biden has been briefed on the situation. 

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and vice chair Joint Chief Gen. Christopher Grady recommended against taking “kinetic action” because of danger from debris, the defense official said. The U.S. government has also determined the balloon does not pose a threat, the defense official said. 

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier Gen. Patrick Ryder said that the balloon is “currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.”

A U.S. official told CBS News that the balloon is flying at about 66,000 feet. It can be maneuvered but it is also subject to the jet stream, which could eventually push it out of U.S. airspace, the official said.

Silos that can house intercontinental ballistic missiles are located around the Montana site — and jet fighters were scrambled to be in a position to shoot the balloon down.

While incidents like this have happened before, they’ve never lasted this long, according to a defense official. The U.S. has been tracking the balloon “for quite some time,” as it entered U.S. continental airspace a couple of days ago, the official said. 

The Pentagon’s best assessment at the moment is that the balloon’s surveillance capabilities are not a significant step up from what China is likely able to collect through other means like satellites in low earth orbit, according to a senior defense official. Out of an abundance of caution, the Pentagon has taken additional mitigation steps to protect certain sites.

A source familiar with the situation told CBS News that, when briefed on Wednesday, Mr. Biden had initially wanted to shoot down the balloon. But as he sought military options from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Milley and others, they advised against such action because of the risk to Americans on the ground. 

Ryder said the U.S. government will continue to “track and monitor it closely.”

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said Thursday in a statement that he had “received an informational briefing” Wednesday “on the situation involving a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over Montana,” and added that he was “deeply troubled by the constant stream of alarming developments for our national security.”