Photo: Alamy
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) this week released a photo of the infamous Chinese spy balloon that was allowed to traverse the skies of the continental United States in early February. They additionally revealed what was onboard the craft.
According to a report from Fox News, recovered equipment from the downed balloon included solar panels and surveillance cameras.
Prior to this announcement from the Pentagon, RSBN had reported that the lack of information about what was onboard the balloon sparked concern among Americans who decried the lack of airtight national security.
Per Fox News, China has claimed that the spy balloon was a “civilian” research aircraft. However, not everyone agrees that the balloon was either harmless or aimlessly drifting in U.S. airspace.
Senator Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., recently addressed the Chinese spy balloon during a conversation on the “Undaunted Life” podcast with Kyle Thompson.
He noted that China was the number one threat to American safety in the event of a war, stating that “an advantage” the U.S. had over China is our ability to be energy independent, while China does not possess an “abundance of energy.”
“If we were to go to war, they would have to learn how to disrupt that,” Mullin stated. “And the biggest way to disrupt that is to take out a major supply…and that’s our pipelines coming out of Alaska.”
Interestingly, the initial Chinese spy balloon was first spotted moving over Alaska in early February, where it then made an “abrupt turn” as Mullin stated, and moved into the lower 48 states.
Ultimately, Mullin speculated, “I think they were mapping out, for future purposes, a best way to disrupt us and take around somewhere around 20 percent of the supply chain of petroleum products going to our refineries in a second.”
According to Fox News, the balloon was ultimately shot down off the coast of South Carolina by U.S. military fighter jets.