WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese surveillance balloon that’s hovering over U.S. territory and believes it poses no military threat, Defense Department officials said Thursday.
“The U.S. has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.
The Chinese balloon was hovering over Montana for a short time — including over some sensitive military sites, such as nuclear weapons silos, according to a senior Defense Department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. The U.S. doesn’t believe the balloon is able to collect any information beyond the capabilities that China already has, the official said.
