“Moreover, any information the balloon collects would have "limited additive value" compared with China’s spy satellites.”
A balloon the size of three school buses was spotted over Billings on Wednesday and drifted across the country for days before a fighter jet popped it off South Carolina on Saturday. China called it a civilian weather airship blown off course. The Pentagon’s own line was that it added little beyond what China’s satellites already see. Blinken postponed his trip to China indefinitely over a spy tool the Pentagon calls nearly useless.