What has been recovered?
Military teams, working with planes, boats and mini-submarines, are touring the shallow waters off South Carolina. Military images showed the recovery of a large piece of the balloon.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation assumed custody of the remains for analysis.
Operations to recover the second object continue on the sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska. “Arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow and limited daylight” impact operations, the military said.
Recovery teams, backed by a Canadian CP-140 patrol aircraft, are searching for remains of the third object in the Yukon, Anand said Saturday. The Pentagon noted that the FBI is working closely with Canadian police.
What was the purpose of the objects?
US officials say images of the first balloon show it consisted of surveillance equipment that could intercept telecommunications.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said his mission was to “monitor strategic sites in the continental United States.”
A former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, suggested that China, or some members of its military leadership, were intentionally seeking to undermine Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned visit to Beijing.
The United States maintains that the balloons were part of a “fleet” that has traveled the five continents.
Some analysts say it may be the start of a major Chinese surveillance effort aimed at scrutinizing foreign military capabilities in anticipation of possible tensions over Taiwan in the coming years.
Why so many now?
Analysts say U.S. and Canadian intelligence is constantly receiving large amounts of raw data and generally discarding some to focus on the threat of incoming missiles, not slow-moving objects like balloons.
“Now, of course, we’re tracking them. So I think we’ll probably find more stuff,” Jim Himes, the top Democratic representative on the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC.
Officials said three balloons are now known to have briefly flown over the United States during the Trump administration, undetected at the time, and one under Joe Biden’s own administration.
On Saturday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) sent fighter jets to investigate a “radar anomaly” over Montana, but found no related objects.