U.S. Northern Command has released the first official images off the effort to recover debris from the Chinese spy balloon which was shot down on Saturday. The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard worked in a joint operation as Divers and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) are working to locate and recover pieces of the downed craft. Military officials say the aircraft weighed thousands of pounds. The debris will be transferred to the FBI facility in Quantico for analysis once recovered. NORCOM also released images of the F-22 fighter jet that took off from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to shoot down the balloon on Saturday.
NORCOM also released the following images from the recovery efforts:
NORAD chief Gen. Glen VanHerck spoke to reporters in a press call on Monday, saying, “The domain awareness was there as it approached Alaska. It was my assessment that this balloon did not present a physical military threat to North America,” VanHerck said Monday. “This is under my NORAD hat and therefore, I could not take immediate action because it was not demonstrating hostile act or hostile intent.”
President Biden’s administration hopes to gain significant intelligence from the craft, which was allowed to cross the entire continental United States last week.
