Top general reveals Chinese spy balloon was 200ft tall and payload was the size of a jetliner as White House defends decision to delay shooting it down
- A top Pentagon official said the Chinese was 200-feet tall and had a payload the size of a jetliner
- Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command, divulged new details about the downed balloon on a call with reporters Monday
- His briefing followed National Security Council spokesman John Kirby defending the decision to delay shooting down the balloon until it was over water
- The delay ‘afforded us a terrific opportunity to gain a better understanding, to study the capabilities of this balloon’
The Chinese spy balloon was 200-feet tall, weighed thousands of pounds and its payload was the size of a jetliner, a top Pentagon official said Monday.
Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command, divulged new details about the downed balloon on a call with reporters Monday.
His description followed a briefing by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who defended President Joe Biden’s decision to wait and shoot down the Chinese craft until it was over South Carolina’s coastline on Saturday.
‘Because the president decided they wouldn’t shoot it down until he could do so safely, and that meant over water, that afforded us a terrific opportunity to gain a better understanding, to study the capabilities of this balloon,’ he told reporters on a call.
Biden ordered the balloon shot down Wednesday, but under the advice of the U.S. military it was held off until Saturday, with the Air Force sending an F-22 fighter jet armed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to do the job.
The Chinese spy balloon carried explosives to destroy itself, was 200 feet tall, weighed thousands of pounds and its payload was the size of a jetliner, a top Pentagon official said Monday
The Chinese spy balloon after it was shot down by an F-22 on Saturday over South Carolina’s coastline
Parts of the downed balloon were seen on a boat pulling into North Myrtle Beach
The delay opened Biden up to political attacks from Republicans, many of whom demanded it shot down above land shortly after it was first reported to be flying above Montana.
On Monday, video of balloon debris was shared by South Carolina news outlets, coming in on a boat near North Myrtle Beach on Sunday.
VanHerck said the majority of the debris had been collected, but there was a possibility some could come ashore, and warned people to call the authorities and stay away from it.
Weather conditions had yet to allow undersea recovery efforts to fully begin, Kirby said.
But Kirby argued that the remains of the balloon would be valuable to the U.S.
Kirby declined to answer a question about whether Chinese President Xi Jinping had ordered the balloon mission or was even aware of it.
‘I would like to refrain from getting into any discussions about our intelligence assessments of this,’ he said.
