REPORT: 2023 Chinese Spy Balloon Was Loaded With American Technology

In 2023, the nation watched with apprehension as a Chinese spy balloon transited the entire United States, overflying key areas, strategic sites, and key installations, before the Biden administration finally ordered it shot down off the East Coast — after it had overflown everything of interest to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Now, we have learned that this spy balloon was loaded with American technology.

The Chinese balloon that sparked panic when it flew over the US two years ago was, as long suspected, set up to spy on Americans — but surprisingly with US-made technology, according to a new report.
The 200-foot-tall balloon was loaded with a satellite communication module, sensors and other technology from at least five American firms, two sources with direct knowledge of a classified US military report told Newsweek.
The craft — which floated from Alaska over Canada and into the US Midwest before it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, 2023 — could have collected detailed data on oblivious Americans, the sources said, citing what was discovered in parts of the recovered balloon.
That included tech to survey, take photographs and collect other intelligence data — and even launchable gliders that could have flown on other recon missions, the sources said, citing the classified military report.

That sounds like a very sophisticated reconnaissance asset, not just a weather balloon, a child's toy, or anything else the Biden administration would have liked us to believe. As we learned late in 2023, the Biden administration even attempted to cover up the fact that the balloon was transmitting information, presumably back to China.

Why use American electronics? As it turns out, there's a very good reason.

“A Chinese company would not have given them a full satcom [satellite communications] coverage of the US,” said one of the sources, a former federal intelligence employee.
The technology matched 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, according to Newsweek, which said it was briefed on the report but did not see it directly.
Included in the patent, titled “A high-altitude balloon safety control and positioning recovery device and method,” was a short-burst messaging module called Iridium 9602, Newsweek reported.
Module maker Iridium is a global satellite communications provider whose command post is in McLean, Va. — mere miles from CIA headquarters, the report noted.
The balloon also had a communications system by Iridum, along with tech from four other US companies: Texas Instruments, Omega Engineering, Amphenol All Sensors Corporation and onsemi, the report said, noting other equipment from at least one Swiss company.

Iridium makes a variety of communications technology, including personal satellite phones, personal communications devices, GPS trackers, and broadband terminals.

Previously on RedState: Fresh Chinese Spy Balloon News Reveals Cover-Up Attempt, Biden Doing China's Bidding

BUSTED: Biden Administration Misled About the Chinese Spy Balloon Not Transmitting Data

It serves as an interesting reminder to take a look at this spy balloon's route.

Unsurprisingly the Chinese Spy Balloon, dubbed Killeen-23 by the intel community, contained a load of American tech (NYP).

Here's the map @TieDyeIntel and myself worked up showing just how many military and sensitive sites were in its cross hairs.

1/ https://t.co/zzFPUetSpm pic.twitter.com/a5Cp5DU46S
— TheIntelFrog (@TheIntelFrog) February 16, 2025

Note that the spy balloon transited Alaska, flying just north of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, possibly over Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, then proceeded to fly over the missile silo complexes in the Dakotas and over several military bases in the central and southern United States before being shot down off the South Carolina coast. While a balloon is at the mercy of the winds, prevailing winds very conveniently will take such a balloon on this route if it is launched in the right place.

The inclusion of American technology not only demonstrates a considerable degree of planning and forethought, but it also shows that China is easily capable of obtaining superior American technology — and using it against us. This was a serious intelligence-gathering exercise by a country that is growing increasingly bellicose towards the United States — and our allies.

China is still claiming that the balloon was being used for meteorological research.

“The straying of the Chinese civilian unmanned airship into the US airspace was an accident caused by force majeure,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, told Newsweek.
“The airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into US because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability.”

To put this diplomatically: Horse squeeze.