The The United States Navy published on Tuesday the photos of the recovery in the Atlantic Ocean of the remains of the Chinese spy balloonwhich was shot down on Saturday by a US fighter off the coast of South Carolina.
The Navy photos, released by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS), show sailors removing the remains of the balloon.
The teams deployed off the coast of South Carolina (southeast) “recovered some debris from the surface of the sea,” John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, told reporters.
He added that “weather conditions” have not allowed underwater operations to recover more.
According to him, The United States “does not intend or plan to return” the remains to the Chinese authorities.
A United States Navy ship inspected the area where the remains of the balloon fell, which was about 60 meters high and was carrying a kind of basket weighing more than a ton, said General Glen VanHerck, head of the Command. of North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD).
Republicans criticize the US president, Democrat Joe Biden, for having, according to them, taken too long to tear down the device.
But Kirby said the delay was because it was an occasion to examine the globe, and that they hope the wreckage will provide more information.
He also assured that The United States has “taken steps to mitigate the ability to collect (data) that this balloon would have had over sensitive military sites.”
China claims it was a roving weather observation balloon with no military purpose, but the US calls it a high-altitude spy vehicle. Over the weekend, a second Chinese balloon was detected flying over Latin America.
What happened does not seem to surprise Biden. “The issue of the balloon and the attempt to spy on the United States is something that is anticipated from China,” he said, specifying that “it is not about trusting China, it is about deciding what we can work on together and what (issues ) we are in opposition”.
According to Kirby, the government contacted previous administration officials for information about Chinese balloon flyovers while Donald Trump was president.
Chinese balloons flew over US territory three times, for brief periods, during the Trump presidency, and once, also briefly, at the beginning of Biden’s term, says The Pentagon.
Since the shooting down, the United States has been in contact with the Chinese authorities, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, but there was no talk of rescheduling the trip of the head of diplomacy. Anthony Blinkena China, postponed by the balloon incident.
“Even in these tense times, we want to be able to pick up the phone and talk,” he told reporters.
The Biden administration is also in contact with its allies to inform them of what it knows about the Chinese spy balloon.
Shoot down of the spy balloon
With a single missile fired from a F-22 Raptor military planethe plane was shot down on Saturday at 2:39 pm (local time), shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the temporary closure of flights at the airports of Wilmington, North Carolina, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Charleston.
President Joe Biden congratulated the F-22 pilots for shooting down the aerostat in the airspace and over the territorial waters of the United States, which had been flying over the country for several days.
“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the security of the American people first and will respond effectively to the People’s Republic of China’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he told his office. time the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.
The F-22 was operating at an altitude of 17,700 meters when it sent the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon, which was hovering at 18,000 to 20,000 meters, causing the system to plummet into waters several kilometers offshore, an official said. senior US defense official over the weekend.
Keep reading:
China admitted that the balloon that flies over Latin America is its own and says that it went astray because of the weather
How was the Pentagon operation to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon
Colombia confirmed that a balloon also flew over its territory
China’s regime protested the downing of its spy balloon overflying the United States
Source-www.infobae.com