Page 869 - Capabilities News Today

Balloon. that time -- first of all, apples and oranges here in terms of size. this was size of a small car, and it was over a very sparsely populated area, but also more critically over -- it was over water, water space when we ordered this down as we did the -- as we did the last one. but completely different size. and the debris field for this, we expect to be much, much smaller than would have been for the other one, thats difference one. difference two, we knew for a fact that the prc balloo...

>> reporter: has secretary austin reached out to his chinese counter part or any other counter parts at all since this has been tracked? >> since this particular object, no. let me go here, and then ill come over to lauren. >> reporter: previous balloon had been recovered, what additional information you have now about the capabilities of that balloon? >> yeah, so were continue to go assess that. again, im not able to go into more detail other than in addition to learning a lot about the balloon...

Capabilities of the bloom. >> we are continuing to assess that, i cant go into more detail other than learning a lot about the ballooning capability said it has while it was over the continental united states, we have identified or located a significant amount of debris on the ocean floor that will be very beneficial to us learning more about it, but at this point in time im not going to have more details. >> and the balloons indicated that they are all manufactured in china, so it is from china...

What does that tell you about the capabilities of this object? >> well, i suspect its less than the balloon sensor suite. im speculating here. i would think it sounds as though it was less sophisticated. a smaller payload. didnt have the guidance. whoever the owner of this object is, had not made the investment in resources and technology that it appears was made in the case of the chinese balloon. >> when you look, general, at the vastly different handling of this object versus the chinese ball...

In terms of recovery, we have hc-130, hh-60 and ch-47 aircraft participating in that recovery effort. >> okay. you mentioned there was a reasonable threat. was there also a threat to potentially this object detecting some of our more sensitive radar capabilities that are based in alaska? and then what hasnt been said is where this object has come from. is there any indication that this was also a chinese surveillance balloon, object, whatever it is? >> yeah, so at this point we dont know the ori...

Some of which will remain classified because, again, we dont want to reveal sources and methods. in this particular case, i can tell you that there were efforts underway to make that public. you know, montana journalist reporting notwithstanding. all that to say, look, there are going to be times when there are activities happening that were monitoring that are not going to be public, especially when it doesnt present a particular or pose a significant threat to the american public. but again, a...

To provide capabilities like fighter aircraft to ukraine, thats certainly their decision to make. and one would assume that if youre going to introduce a system into a military that they have no experience with that theres going to have to be some training that goes along with that. were doing it right now. fort sill, oklahoma, weve got ukrainian soldiers learning how to use a patriot battery, and outside of ukraine, were helping train them on combined arms maneuver, so its not unusual to do tha...

Very beneficial to us learning more about it. >> is there a manufacturing label on these or the balloons indicate theyre all manufactured in china? >> again, i dont have details. >> 39 other countries have indicated they have seen balloons in their territory. r are you sharing the information from the pentagon to these countries or the capabilities of how you shot it down? >> in terms of what were learning from these balloons, i know the state department has talked about this. certainly the depa...

>> reporter: you mentioned there was a reasonable threat. was there also a threat to potentially this object detecting some of our more sensitive radar capabilities that are based in alaska? and then what hasnt been said is where this object has come from. is there any indication that this was also a chinese surveillance balloon, object, whatever it is? >> at this point, we dont know the origin of the object. again, we will know more once were able to potentially recover some of those materials....

High-altitude surveillance balloon taken down off the coast of south carolina on february 4. separately, u.s. northern command continues their recovery operations in support of the recent takedown of the chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon. recovery teams have mapped the debris field and are in the process of searching for and identifying debris on the ocean floor. debris thats been recovered so far is being loaded onto vessels, taken ashore, cataloged and moved onwards to labs for subseq...