Summary

  • The US military's downing of strange objects in the sky has prompted fevered speculation

  • As the mystery deepens, our experts in the US and UK are answering your questions

  • The White House says three of the objects shot down over the weekend posed a possible threat to commercial flights

  • They were detected after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was destroyed off the coast of South Carolina

  • Sensors from the balloon have now been recovered and are being investigated

  • China has insisted it was merely a weather-monitoring airship that had blown astray

Live Reporting

Edited by Marianna Brady

  1. Thanks for joining us

    Whew, it's time for us to sign off! Thanks for the incredible questions.

    Thanks also to our panel of BBC correspondents and national security experts for being so helpful in bringing you the answers in such a complex and confusing story.

    Today's page was brought to you by Marianna Brady, Jeremy Gahagan, Jamie Whitehead and Adam Durbin.

    If you'd like to read the latest news on the surreal events in the skies above North America, click here.

    Thanks for joining us.

  2. Your Questions Answered

    Barbara Plett Usher
    US State Department correspondent

    It’s a good question, David, especially as the balloon seems like such a throw-back to an old-fashioned era of spy craft.

    And there’s no doubt the core of China’s digital intelligence gathering is still its fleet of more than 260 satellites dedicated to surveillance. But balloons can do things that satellites can’t. They can hover over areas for longer, say US officials, and take clearer images.

    They can also gather information about humidity and air currents that might be militarily useful. And beyond the drama of “Balloon Gate” is a serious focus on the future of modern warfare.

    China’s military researchers have warned about the importance of dominating “near space” – the atmosphere up to 62 miles above the earth.

    According to analysts and Chinese media reports, they are putting new urgency into experimenting with how to do so. That this apparent operation took place so openly at such a sensitive diplomatic moment may show poor communication between the Chinese military and the civilian government, as well technical limits on steering the balloon.

  3. Your Questions Answered

    Why use balloons and not satellites?

    Gail Helt
    Former CIA analyst

    David Anderson asks: Why would China send a balloon to do something their satellites already can?

    A balloon, which can stay above a particular location for long periods of time, can potentially pick up signals from near military facilities that satellites cannot.

    Communications signals, information about communications channels and potentially information that could disrupt military operations at those sites all become easier to intercept.

  4. Your Questions Answered

    What are Chinese social media users saying?

    Kerry Allen
    China Media Analyst, BBC Monitoring

    A satirical film poster for a film supposed to be made by the US government called the "Wandering Balloon". It features a a cartoon weather balloon and fireworks being set off around it.Sina Weibo

    There has been much ridicule over the last week on Chinese social media at the idea that China is using spy balloons in order to mount surveillance over the US.

    Users of the popular Sina Weibo social network have taken pictures of the balloons and photoshopped them to make satirical film posters.

    One such poster features the title: “The Wandering Balloon: a US government film” - a reference to the popular Chinese science-fiction novel and film The Wandering Earth.

    Some have simply drawn smiley faces on the balloons, or have mockingly superimposed them with threatening faces into pictures with US President Joe Biden.

    Since state media have sought to highlight the health and environmental impact following the Ohio train derailment incident, bemusement at the story has turned to anger, with the Global Times newspaper saying that #OhioChernobyl has been a viral hashtag on the platform.

    The paper quotes one user as saying: "If you look at the US media right now, it is all about Chinese balloon stories,” and conspiracy theories are appearing on Weibo suggesting American media are “deliberately hyping the balloon stories to divert people's attention from the real catastrophe”.

  5. Your Questions Answered

    Could balloon be a Chinese Trojan Horse?

    Joel Rubin
    Former deputy assistant secretary of state

    Steve wonders if these balloons could be a Trojan Horse for China's intelligence department? Are they able to be listen in on classified data?

    The alleged spy balloon was absolutely designed to gather information on its targets, but once disabled, can no longer do that, according to everything we're hearing from the US government.

    The balloon was blinded by our craft while hovering over the US, then shot down by a missile, and its payload submerged in sea water.

    It is likely going to be studied in a secure location where any potential communications will be blocked.

  6. Your Questions Answered

    Why use expensive missiles to shoot balloons?

    Rajan Menon
    International security expert

    A question now on the military hardware used to bring the balloons down. Ian in Nottingham asks why a Sidewinder missile was used and not a bullet?

    I take it that you are asking why use an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile (at least $280,000 a pop (£229,908)) and high performance warplanes that are expensive to keep in the air (roughly $68,000 (£55,835) per hour for an F-22 Raptor being the minimum estimate) when a mere bullet might have been enough.

    Bullets would not have sufficed because the balloons were massive—one of them the size of a few school buses—and they could not have been brought down that way.

  7. Your Questions Answered

    Gordon Corera
    Security correspondent

    And states invest huge amounts of effort into intelligence gathering in case war ever comes.

    Some of this will be to provide early warning – for instance understanding the normal behaviour around missile silos or bases so they can spot any change in that and see if that is an indication that something is being planned.

    Sometimes the intelligence gathering is also there to provide tactical advantage if war ever comes.

    In the case of the Cold War, huge effort went into this but it was never actually needed.

    The same is now happening with the US and China.

  8. Your Questions Answered

    Why is China concerned with US missile locations?

    Gail Helt
    Former CIA analyst

    Susan from Cheshire asks: Why is China so concerned with, and needing all of the surveillance balloons data, on sensitive US missile locations? Is it tactical or preparation?

    While anything the Chinese gathered would be used to its advantage in the event of a conflict, I think this was about messaging.

    We formalised an agreement with the Philippines to use four military bases not long before this balloon entered our airspace, the goal being to deter a Taiwan attack.

    A memo from General Mike Minihan of the US Airforce predicted a conflict with China in 2025 and was leaked a week or so before the balloon entered US airspace.

    China is telling us that we may think we have them hemmed in, we may think we can deter an eventual attack on Taiwan – but they have many ways to reach the US outside of traditional military operations.

    China may also be testing our resolve – if we cannot come together and rally around our government in the face of an external threat to the homeland, maybe we lack the ability to rally ourselves to support Taiwan in the event of forced unification. Our reaction told China volumes.

  9. Your Questions Answered

    Barbara Plett Usher
    North America correspondent

    People photograph the suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floats off the coast in Surfside Beach, South CarolinaReuters

    People watch the Chinese balloon from Surfside Beach, South Carolina

    Well, there is a history of Cold War spy craft in the skies. The US sent espionage balloons over the Soviet Union back to the late 1940s.

    In the 1950s President Dwight Eisenhower authorised the CIA to secretly send high altitude U-2 surveillance planes, until a Russian missile knocked one out of the sky.

    That ruptured a long-planned summit meeting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev.

    But there is nothing to suggest the Russians are behind this spy balloon crisis. China has accepted ownership, although it says the balloon is for weather research.

    And US officials told the New York Times they’d begun tracking it from Hainan Island in southern China in late January.

    By the way, when the U-2 plane didn’t make it back to base in 1960, the Eisenhower administration’s first response was that a “weather plane” had gone missing.

  10. Your Questions Answered

    Could balloon be Russian in origin?

    Scott R. Anderson
    Former US State Department lawyer

    James in Texas asks: Could Chinese spy balloons actually be Russian spy balloons designed to look Chinese and cause tension between China and US?

    This may be possible, but I doubt Russia would risk its relationship with China over such a move.

    Generally speaking, balloons and airships are supposed to be coordinated with national authorities when they cross into other countries’ air space to avoid safety issues with air traffic, among other concerns.

    But that does not appear to have happened here.

  11. Your Questions Answered

    What if the other objects are from China?

    Rajan Menon
    International security expert

    Reader Lee asks: What are the potential repercussions if the other UFOs are deemed to be Chinese in origin? Will this be considered an act of war?

    What’s worrisome about the balloon incidents, as you imply in your question, is that they have taken place at a time when US-China relations are already in a very bad state: hostile narratives, postponed visits, shows of force.

    That doesn’t mean that things could spiral into a war; but even a crisis is harder to manage under tense circumstances. Besides, the incidents have already nourished the hostile narratives each has developed to explain the other's conduct and intentions.

  12. Your Questions Answered

    What have Chinese officials said?

    Kerry Allen
    China Media Analyst, BBC Monitoring

    Chinese officials have called the balloons “unmanned civilian airships” and have criticised the use of force in shooting them down as an “overreaction”.

    Foreign ministry personnel have stressed that the airships were for “civilian use”, and regretted the unintended entry of the first airship into US airspace “due to force majeure".

    The second airship had “seriously deviated from its planned route and strayed into the skies over Latin America and the Caribbean," they said.

    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press briefing last week that US use of force in shooting down a balloon was a “clear overreaction… unacceptable and irresponsible”.

    This has been a sentiment shared by other key officials.

    China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng said the decision to shoot the first balloon down would “seriously hamper progress in stabilising ties” between China and the US, adding that China would “resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies”, as well as the “interests and dignity of China”.

  13. Your Questions Answered

    A precursor to biological warfare?

    Joel Rubin
    Former deputy assistant secretary of state

    Andrew Lamont asks: Why has no one questioned the possibility that these balloon excursions could be precursory testing for biological warfare?

    When the balloon was hovering over the U.S., U-2 spy planes were circling it and reviewing what it contained. Those planes and other intelligence assets could determine whether any biological warfare or hazardous materials were contained within the balloons, as some assets have the ability to sniff for such contents. It’s clear that the intelligence community was not concerned about such a possibility.

    In addition, if such a payload were to have been included on the balloon, it would have been immediately recognised as a biowarfare attack against the US, exponentially increasing the likelihood of a harsh American response.

    China would be extremely unwise to conduct such an attack, and therefore clearly didn’t.

  14. Joel and Rajan have entered the chat

    We're kindly being joined by two more experts to discuss your most pressing questions about the surreal last few days.

    Joel Rubin is a US national secrurity and analyst, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration.

    Rajan Menon is a international security expert and former university professor, who is currently working as the director of the Grand Strategy program at the Defense Priorities think tank.

    First, a question for Joel...

  15. Your Questions Answered

    Barbara Plett Usher
    US State Department correspondent

    Continuing on that theme... we have a similar question from Ohio: Aren't the three balloons sighted after the first one way too small to carry surveillance equipment and more likely to be of civilian origin? Even the descriptions by the pilots suggest they were launched by pranksters trying to cause chaos.

    They are certainly much smaller than the Chinese balloon. US officials have said one is the size of a small car, whereas the balloon was 200 feet tall and its surveillance equipment was like the size of two or three buses.

    They say another of the UFO’s was shaped like an octagon but had no obvious equipment attached. None of the three were sending out communication signals, they were unmanned and without propulsion, apparently being moved by the wind.

    So these objects could very well be of civilian origin, even pranks, we just don’t know. We do know that the White House doesn’t believe they’re aliens from outer space. And that they were most likely spotted because the military was looking more closely at the sky.

    After the Chinese balloon incident NORAD, the joint US-Canadian airspace command, adjusted its radar system to be more sensitive so it’s picking up more incursions.

  16. Your Questions Answered

    Scott R. Anderson
    Former US State Department lawyer

    This is certainly a possibility that the government is investigating.

    To my knowledge, none of the amateur ballooning programmes like ARHAB, BEAR or BalloonSat have acknowledged that any of the objects shot down are, or could be, theirs.

  17. Your Questions Answered

    Are the latest objects not just amateur balloon projects?

    Gordon Corera
    Security correspondent

    Andy Smith wonders why nobody has addressed the obvious probability that these new sightings are likely to be high altitude amateur ballooning projects?

    US officials have made clear that the latest three seem different from the first Chinese ‘spy’ balloon.

    They are calling them objects rather than balloons and they were flying lower and were smaller in size.

    It may well be that they are research balloons or something completely different and were only spotted because the radars were adjusted to look more intensely for objects passing over in the skies.

  18. Your Questions Answered

    Barbara Plett Usher
    US State Department correspondent

    It seems likely that the military would have taken photos and videos before shooting the objects down, but would presumably want to investigate first before deciding what to publish.

    It certainly monitored and documented the Chinese balloon while it was in flight and is now analysing the debris.

    Much of that information is classified because it’s about spy warfare with a potentially hostile global power.

    What officials said publicly is that the balloon didn’t pose an active threat to the US citizens over which it was flying. The administration has begun to declassify the information now and is sharing it with Congress and its allies.

  19. Your Questions Answered

    Why a lack of photos?

    Gail Helt
    Former CIA analyst

    Gary Smith wonders why the US has not produced images of what has been shot down other than the initial images of the balloon?

    A couple reasons - one being that the US government probably does not want China to know exactly what it has been able to recover.

    Also, images and descriptions of capabilities of a foreign nation would of necessity be classified – it would be harmful to let China know our assessment of its capabilities as this would give them insight into how we understand them.

  20. Your Questions Answered

    Scott R. Anderson
    Former US State Department lawyer

    I also expect that the government will share more information regarding these objects when available, especially as it is actively making the public aware of these incidents and the actions it is taking in shooting the objects down.

    US officials want to be confident that they have accurate information before going public. There may also be sensitivities with some of the US aircraft and tools being used that might require declassification or set other limits on how much information can be shared quickly.