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

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

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

In addition, a U.S. official said Friday morning that Washington has communicated directly with Beijing about the situation at multiple levels. A Chinese official was summoned to the State Department for a formal U.S. complaint.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley 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.

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.

But the administration is  deciding what to do about the balloon when it gets to an area where it would be safe to shoot down, a U.S. official told CBS News.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier Gen. Patrick Ryder said 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 Friday the ballon over Montana “is not moving very fast.”

China’s foreign ministry said Friday that, “Speculation and hype are not conducive to the solution of the problem until the facts are clear. We are learning about the verification of this matter. We hope both sides can handle matter calmly and prudently.”

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mas Ning also said she didn’t have any word on whether a trip to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned for this month would still take place.

Blinken would be the most senior member of the Biden administration to visit China amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, trade and other issues.

Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) said in a statement late Thursday that the balloon had been “detected” and that Canada was “taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including the monitoring of a potential second incident,” but didn’t elaborate on what that incident might be.

However, CBS News has learned the U.S. hasn’t been able to confirm the possible second balloon mentioned in the Canadian release.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command was “actively” tracking the first balloon, the Canadian DND said.

A U.S. official told CBS News the balloon was flying at an altitude of 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 in Montana — 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.

There are other ways to deal with it other than shooting it down, such as electronic jamming of the signals it is sending back, a U.S. official pointed out to CBS News..

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

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday tweeted that “China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent.”

“I am requesting a Gang of Eight briefing,” he wrote, referring to the bipartisan group of eight congressional leaders who are tasked with reviewing national intelligence information.

A U.S. official told CBS news Thursday evening the administration briefed Gang of 8 staff members in the afternoon “to get this information to Congress expeditiously and offered additional briefings.”

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.”