Chinese balloon's equipment 'clearly' for spying

Images from U2 spy planes showed that the Chinese balloon that flew over the United States last week was unmistakably equipped for collecting intelligence and not weather data, a US official said.

Detailed images taken by high-altitude U2s showed the balloon's payload equipment "was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons," the senior State Department official said.

"It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications," the official said in a statement.

"It was equipped with solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors," the official said, on grounds of anonymity.

A US fighter jet shot the balloon down over the Atlantic on Saturday after it had crossed much of the country, overflying areas where the US keeps nuclear missiles in underground silos and bases with strategic bombers.

The incident led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel an imminent trip to Beijing that had been long in planning and aimed at improving communications between the two rival superpowers.

An official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is tasked with examining the balloon, said that so far only a "very small" part of the balloon's payload of spying and power electronics has been recovered.

The larger part of the payload, including sprawling solar panels, sank in around 14 meters of water after the balloon was shot down.