Chinese Spy Balloons Used American Tech, Report Says

Spy balloon
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Chinese ‘weather balloons’ grabbed more than their fair share of headlines in early 2023 as they floated across Alaska and the lower 48, as well as Canadian airspace. Now the results of a multi-agency-led preliminary investigation into one of the balloons, which was shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, has revealed what was inside. The Wall Street Journal states that the investigation is finding that the balloons were full of American tech. In other words, these weren’t simple weather observation balloons as China has insisted, but spying devices using technology from the country they were spying on.

News that these seemingly low-tech but high-altitude balloons were quietly drifting across the continental US came into public perception in January and February this year. Though this was the first time knowledge of these balloons was discussed widely in media reports, it turned out that China had been floating these devices across the US since Donald Trump was president. Moreover, research has since revealed that similar Chinese balloons have been flown over territories in Europe, the Asia, and more.

What Was in the Balloons?

Confounding Chinese claims that these intrusive blimps were simple meteorological balloons is the assortment of technologies that have been found by investigators. The WSJ report says that inside balloon debris there was evidence of a multitude of American made equipment designed to collect photos, videos and other information. Among the components were a satellite-like device, solar panels for power, a propeller, and devices to collect photos, videos and radar data.

Some of the American-made information gathering equipment could be found for sale online. However, its mix with specialized Chinese sensors and other equipment has lead to this preliminary probe concluding that the Chinese balloons were created for spying.

When the news coverage of Chinese spying balloons was at its peak, there was talk about the blimps being able to collect and send data back to the Chinese government in real-time. Those fears have been calmed somewhat by the investigation which suggests that the downed near South Carolina device didn’t transmit any information to China during its eight-day adventure over the continent. Whether the non-transmission of data was due to a software or hardware fault, some other issue with the balloon, or if transmission was jammed by the US authorities, hasn't been explained.

Chilling an Already Cold Relationship

The US and China are already in the midst of a trade war, with seemingly tit-for-tat sanctions upon Chinese and American companies being implemented. Thus this new preliminary report, indicating the Chinese balloons were indeed designed for covert spying operations, won’t soothe relations.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • The Historical Fidelity
    Admin said:
    Preliminary investigations indicate that the Chinese ‘weather balloons’ in the news earlier this year were indeed designed for spying on Americans.

    Chinese Spy Balloons Used American Tech, Report Says : Read more
    Very interesting news. Thank you for the update!
    Reply
  • davisch
    One of the balloons was even American made! RIP K9YO-15. The government spent ~$500,000 to shoot down a ~$20 Ham radio hobby balloon.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    I sure would appreciate more detail, though I assume that's all that has been released? For one thing, I'd love to know why they're so sure it didn't transmit any of the data it collected.

    It sure seemed to be remotely navigated, based on the path it took and the way it seemed to linger over certain key strategic locations, in spite of prevailing air currents. I guess it could've been preprogrammed with a list of potential targets and just tried to gather data on the ones closest to where the wind took it.

    As for American tech, it's unsurprising that an advanced craft wouldn't have at least some US made/designed sensors and devices. IMO, that's the least surprising fact in the article.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    davisch said:
    One of the balloons was even American made! RIP K9YO-15. The government spent ~$500,000 to shoot down a ~$20 Ham radio hobby balloon.
    It's an understandable overreaction. The way I heard it explained, US defense radars are tuned to ignore all the multitudes of weather and hobbyist balloons up there. After this high-profile incident, they naturally disabled some of these filters and chose to err on the side of caution.

    Yes, it's expensive to shoot something down with a precision munition, but you wouldn't want anything less - especially if you weren't sure whether it could be hostile.

    The important thing is that sensors and tactics seem to have successfully adapted, given that we haven't heard of ongoing issues with shoot-downs of nonthreatening objects.


    On a related topic, I've been wondering for a while about high-altitude drones. A light-weight craft with large enough wings could conceivably stay aloft indefinitely, just using solar power. At similar altitudes, it'd be a lot harder to see than such a massive balloon.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    bit_user said:
    On a related topic, I've been wondering for a while about high-altitude drones. A light-weight craft with large enough wings could conceivably stay aloft indefinitely, just using solar power. At similar altitudes, it'd be a lot harder to see than such a massive balloon.
    That would be an Airbus Zephyr.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Zephyr
    The most recent one was in the air for 64 days nonstop.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    bit_user said:
    Yes, it's expensive to shoot something down with a precision munition, but you wouldn't want anything less - especially if you weren't sure whether it could be hostile.
    At 60-65k feet, that is the highest recorded air to air kill so far.
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    bit_user said:
    I sure would appreciate more detail, though I assume that's all that has been released? For one thing, I'd love to know why they're so sure it didn't transmit any of the data it collected.

    It sure seemed to be remotely navigated, based on the path it took and the way it seemed to linger over certain key strategic locations, in spite of prevailing air currents. I guess it could've been preprogrammed with a list of potential targets and just tried to gather data on the ones closest to where the wind took it.

    As for American tech, it's unsurprising that an advanced craft wouldn't have at least some US made/designed sensors and devices. IMO, that's the least surprising fact in the article.
    Just my speculation here, but one of two navigation methods could have been used if the balloon was not in contact with home base.

    1. Night time star chart based position recognition, then inertial navigation during the day until it can look at the stars again to calculate its new position. They would have to program in the star positions above each target before the balloon is released.

    2. Terrain following navigation similar to the US Tomahawk cruise missile. The navigation computer would be loaded with a detailed topographical map of its flight path then the balloon uses radar or a camera to recognize topographic features.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    The Historical Fidelity said:
    Just my speculation here, but one of two navigation methods could have been used if the balloon was not in contact with home base.

    1. Night time star chart based position recognition, then inertial navigation during the day until it can look at the stars again to calculate its new position. They would have to program in the star positions above each target before the balloon is released.

    2. Terrain following navigation similar to the US Tomahawk cruise missile. The navigation computer would be loaded with a detailed topographical map of its flight path then the balloon uses radar or a camera to recognize topographic features.
    Or, just GPS.
    Reply
  • The Historical Fidelity
    USAFRet said:
    Or, just GPS.
    Where’s the fun in that….lol
    Reply
  • bit_user
    USAFRet said:
    Or, just GPS.
    I thought of that, but it reminded me of this:
    "... the drone was captured by jamming both satellite and land-originated control signals to the UAV, causing the UAV to fall back to GPS autopilot. Iran followed up by a GPS spoofing attack that fed the UAV false GPS data to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its home base in Afghanistan."

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93U.S._RQ-170_incident
    Harder to do, if you don't know where it's trying to go. I'm sure the altitude wouldn't make it that easy, either.
    Reply