The Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US military over the Atlantic Ocean was capable of collecting communications signals and was part of a fleet of surveillance balloons directed by the Chinese military that had flown over more than 40 countries across five continents, the state department said on Thursday.

The US used high resolution imagery from U-2 flybys to determine the balloon’s capabilities, the department said in a written announcement, adding that the balloon’s equipment “was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons”. The agency said the balloon had multiple antennas in an array that was “likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications”.

Solar panels on the machine were large enough to produce power to operate “multiple active intelligence collection sensors”, the department said. The agency also said the US government was “confident” that the company that made the balloon had direct commercial ties with the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military, citing an official procurement portal for the army. “The United States will also explore taking action against PRC entities linked to the PLA that supported the balloon’s incursion into US airspace,” the state department said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“We will also look at broader efforts to expose and address the PRC’s larger surveillance activities that pose a threat to our national security, and to our allies and partners.” The department said the company advertises balloon products on its website and has posted videos from past flights that apparently flew over US airspace and the airspace of other nations.

The videos show balloons that have similar flight patterns as the surveillance balloons that the US has been discussing this week, the agency said. Officials do not know exactly what kinds of communications the satellite was trying to collect. Officials say they took steps at nuclear launch sites and other military bases to try to ensure there was no useful information that the balloon could collect. The US government also took steps to protect official communications in the balloon’s path. While officials say they are confident the balloon did not get any sensitive data on US nuclear sites, they are unsure what it did collect.

It would be easy for signals-collection devices to get data on what mobile phones are in use around a military base. Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state, told a Senate committee on Thursday that the episode “put on full display what we’ve long recognised — the PRC has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad”.

New York Times News Service