Pentagon leaks confirm US officials knew of more Chinese spy balloons

It has now been revealed that intelligence officials classify the balloon that was shot down as “Killeen-23‘’.

Teixeira, 21, was arrested on Thursday and charged under the Espionage Act as he is suspected of leaking several classified documents on a Discord chatroom.

The documents he is accused of having illegally shared include verbatim transcripts and classified documents that were photographed and shared.

According to the official documents, the other balloons were called “Bulger-21” and “Accardo-21.” It still is not clear, however, whether these balloons were the same ones that flew over the U.S. carrier group or crashed into the South China Sea.

A U.S. intelligence official who remained anonymous reported to the Post that the balloons were named alphabetically after infamous criminals.

Advanced surveillance technology

The leaks included reports from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that indicated that Killeen-23 could generate enough power to operate “any” surveillance technology such as a radar. Meanwhile, Bulger-21 and Accardo-21 boasted advanced surveillance equipment while the latter contained a “foil-lined gimbaled” sensor.

No comments were supplied by the Pentagon and the office of the director of National Intelligence.

The Post further noted that Chinese military researchers have for years written about the advantages of deploying synthetic aperture radar capabilities on “near space” vehicles, quoting an article published in the official newspaper of the Chinese military: the PLA Daily. 

In September 2020, the report explained how airships and balloons could be loaded with radar and photoelectric surveillance equipment to detect targets for strikes.

The Biden administration was heavily attacked by Republicans in February for its slow response to the Chinese surveillance balloon. Politicians argued that it allowed the Chinese government additional time to spy on the nation, putting Americans in danger.