Using underwater drones, warships and inflatable vessels, the Navy is carrying out an extensive operation to gather all of the pieces of the massive Chinese civilian balloon a U.S. fighter jet shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
In the newest images released by the Navy on Tuesday, sailors from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 are seen leaning over a rigid hull inflatable boat and pulling in broad swaths of the balloon’s white outer fabric and shell structure.
The head of U.S. Northern Command, Gen. Glen VanHerck, said Monday the teams were taking precautions to safeguard against the chance any part of the balloon was rigged with explosives.
The balloon was an estimated 200 feet (60 meters) tall and was carrying a long sensor package underneath, which VanHerck estimated was the size of a small regional jet.
The Navy is also using ships to map and scan the sea floor for all remaining parts of the balloon, so U.S. analysts can get a full picture of what types of sensors the Chinese were using and to better understand how the balloon was able to maneuver.
The balloon debris is scattered in waters that are about 50 feet (15 meters) deep, but stretch across an area 15 football fields long and 15 football fields across, VanHerck said.
According to anoher source, The U.S. Navy on Tuesday released photos showing the recovery of the remnants of a Chinese civilian balloon that was shot down over the weekend on the orders of President Joe Biden off the coast of South Carolina.
The photos were taken Sunday, a day after an American fighter jet fired on the 200-foot-tall balloon, sending it hurtling down into the Atlantic Ocean in a dramatic scene caught live on TV.
China insists that the balloon, which first was spotted by the public flying over Montana last Wednesday, was a wayward “civilian unmanned airship” that was primarily conducting weather research.
But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said the balloon was being used by China “in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States.”
Five Navy ships were involved in the effort to recover debris from the balloon over a 10-square-mile search area off the coast of Myrtle Beach.
The debris field was the size of 1,500 square meters, according to officials, who said the balloon’s payload weighed more than a ton.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday told reporters that the Biden administration “is looking at other actions that can be taken” in response to the balloon.
Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the current state of relations between the U.S. and China is “tense.”
After the balloon was spotted, but before it was shot down, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken canceled a planned trip to China.
During a hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., said he “loves” Biden but disagreed with the dayslong delay in shooting down the balloon because of the time it gave the Chinese to collect additional data and intelligence by the aircraft flying over the U.S.
In response, a witness at the hearing, former National Security Council and National Economic Council member Peter Harrell, said that Blinken’s decision to postpone his trip to China is the start of a response, not the end.
Rep. Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican, said she and her family watched as the balloon flew over her home state.
“President Biden’s decision to let the [Chinese Communist Party] balloons travel the length and breadth of the United States of America was an unpardonable show of weakness on the world stage,” Wagner said.
“I am calling on the administration to restore America’s ability to deter reckless provocations. The stakes of strategic competition with China are exceedingly high,” she said. “And if the CCP’s influence continues to spread and unchallenged, American communities will pay a price.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the balloon is suspected of being the fifth Chinese surveillance balloon detected over the continental U.S. since 2017.
Kirby said three of those balloons flew over the U.S. during the Trump administration, while there was another one during Biden’s tenure in the White House besides this most recent one.
Former President Donald Trump has said he was never informed that a Chinese balloon had passed over the U.S. when he was in office.
Kirby said the three balloons during Trump’s tenure were only discovered after he left office in January 2021.
