China’s spy balloon may be part of a larger surveillance program. According to a report, this is shown by recently leaked US secret documents.
US intelligence services have identified more suspected Chinese spy balloons. The “Washington Post” reports, citing secret documents from the Pentagon that were made public by a young soldier. Accordingly, one also flew over a US Navy aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific.
According to the report, the documents name the balloons alphabetically after famous US crime bosses: “Accardo-21” after Tony Accardo, “Bulger-21” after James “Whitey” Bulger and most recently the publicly disclosed “Killeen-23” after Donald Killeen. The numbers give an indication of the year of their discovery.
Accordingly, “Bulger-21” circumnavigated the world from December 2021 to May 2022 with sophisticated surveillance equipment. This included a video camera with zoom. “Accardo-21” was similarly equipped. “Killeen-23”, which flew over the USA in January and February and was finally shot down, had sufficient solar cells to use “any” surveillance and reconnaissance technology – including a so-called SAR radar, which was used at night and at night can be used despite clouds.
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