A Chinese spy balloon that crossed over the United States in 2023 was packed with American technology that could have enabled it to spy on Americans, according to two sources with direct knowledge of a technical analysis conducted by the U.S. military.
The discovery of a satellite communication module, sensors and other tech from at least five American firms underlines the failure of U.S. efforts to restrict exports of technology that could have military uses to main adversary China as well as to countries such as Russia and Iran. It also raises questions over the role of private companies that sell their equipment globally in keeping control over the ultimate users of dual-use technology that can have defense applications as well as civilian uses.
A Chinese patent reviewed by Newsweek describes a communications system for exactly such a balloon as the one that crossed America, based on using a satellite transceiver from a U.S. company that the balloon’s controllers in China would use to communicate with it and that would send data back, and that is easily available online.
What Happened to the Chinese Spy Balloon?
The giant, white high-altitude balloon entered the United States via Alaska in January of 2023 and floated across Canada and the American Midwest, drawing a frenzy of public attention before being shot down by an F-22 fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4. The balloon was estimated to be about 200 feet high with a dangling dark-colored frame that was at least 30 feet across. The frame had an approximately 10-foot-long tech payload that included sophisticated surveillance equipment – some of which was housed in a foam cooler – according to Newsweek sources.
Beijing said at the time that it was a meteorological balloon that had been blown off course by strong winds and accused the United States of overreacting.
What Was Found in the Chinese Spy Balloon?
However, the tech payload equipped the balloon to survey and take photographs and collect other intelligence data, Newsweek‘s sources said. They were granted anonymity to speak as they were not permitted to share the details of the classified report.
The ballon might also have been carrying launchable gliders that could collect more detailed data, since it had empty storage bays, they said. Chinese scientists have developed gliders to be used with such balloons, according to aerospace research papers reviewed by Newsweek.
The 75-page analysis of the parts recovered from the spy balloon and from what appeared to be two other balloons whose parts were collected elsewhere was carried out by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in Ohio where a Foreign Materiel Exploitation Squadron examines foreign technical equipment, the sources said. Newsweek did not review the analysis itself.
Newsweek contacted NASIC’s public affairs unit for comment but did not hear back. The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where NASIC is headquartered, told Newsweek it “did not have anything to do with this incident” and referred queries to the Pentagon. The Pentagon referred queries to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI declined to comment.
The Biden administration said the balloon was part of a large-scale surveillance program operated by China over dozens of countries.
Satellite technology
The technology identified by the sources matches that in a patent awarded in 2022 to scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Aerospace Information Innovation Research Institute in Beijing, which has links to China’s military and to its industrial defense base. The patent included a short burst messaging module called Iridium 9602 made by Iridium, a global satellite communications provider based in McLean, Virginia – and coincidentally less than five miles from CIA headquarters.
The patent was titled “A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method”.
The analysis of the materiel recovered from the balloon showed that it had incorporated an Iridium communications system as well as technology from four other U.S. companies and at least one Swiss company, the sources said.
“A Chinese company would not have given them full satcom coverage over the U.S.,” said one of the sources, a former federal intelligence employee.
What Did China Use the Spy Balloon For?
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing did not respond to a request for comment. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. declined to take questions about whether the balloon was using American technology, referring questions to CAS.
However, the embassy restated China’s position that the balloon was over the U.S. by accident: “The straying of the Chinese civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure. The airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability. China had made these details available to the U.S. side, after earnest verification and in the shortest possible time,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said by email.
Iridium, which says its biggest customer is the U.S. Department of Defense, told Newsweek it could not know who its end customers were, and there were also resale markets for its products. Iridium said it had partners in China but declined to identify them citing commercial competition. It said it had no past or current relationship with the Chinese Academy of Sciences or its Aerospace Information Research Institute.
“We certainly don’t condone our radios or our modules ending up and being used in ways they shouldn’t be,” said Jordan Hassim, Iridium’s Executive Director for Communications, adding, “There’s no way for us to know what the use is of a specific module. We need to know the module specifically. For us it could be a whale wearing a tag tracking it, it could be a polar bear, an explorer hiking a mountain.”
No Export License Needed
Iridium said the 9602 satcom module could be exported to China without a license except for a prohibited end use or end-user, but that would be up to the partner to ascertain. If Iridium were to learn of misuse, it would immediately work with partners, including the U.S. government, to disable it, Hassim said.
The 9602 module, which fits in the palm of a hand, is sold by Iridium as “the critical data communications necessary for truly global solutions”. It can be bought online in the U.S. from numerous providers for less than $150.
The other U.S. companies whose parts were identified in the balloon are: Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering in Connecticut, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation and onsemi, according to the sources. Technology made by STMicroelectronics of Switzerland was also in the balloon. Newsweek reached out to each company for comment. Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics said that they had not known that their parts were in the balloon, but that they respected export controls. The other companies did not respond.
The balloon that crossed America in 2023 was not the only such balloon. China’s neighbors have reported more frequent missions.
Russian Weapons Systems
The balloon is far from the only example of Western tech being used by adversaries against it and against allies. Others have included the U.S. tech found in Russian weapons systems used in Ukraine.
One Newsweek source said that, in a surprise to investigators, the balloon’s tech payload included a low-cost, ordinary foam cooler, one “you would buy at a gas station. But it’s smart because it’s light weight, floats, keeps things dry.” The foam cooler contained hard drives for storing information including images, the source said.
The U.S. export control system was flawed and was not working adequately with China, said James Mulvenon, Chief Intelligence Officer at Pamir Consulting, a Vienna, Virginia-based company.
“The cynic in me would say what we’re talking about is slamming the barn doors as hard as we can after the horse has bolted so that the hinges come off. The Chinese military modernisation revolution started in 1998. It’s 2025,” Mulvenon told Newsweek.
“But that’s not to say that we shouldn’t keep working at it, because what we know is that the Chinese side is very good at stealing things, they’re very good at reverse engineering them, what they’re not good at is understanding the inherent innovation at the heart of the tech so they have to continue to steal them.”
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