The US has finished its efforts to recover the remnants of the large balloon that was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, and analysis of the debris so far reinforces conclusions that it was a Chinese spy balloon, US officials said Friday. Officials said Navy, Coast Guard, and FBI personnel collected all of the balloon debris off the ocean floor, which included equipment from the payload that could reveal what information it collected. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that a significant amount of debris was recovered and that it included "electronics and optics" from the payload, the AP reports. He declined to say what, if anything, the US has learned from the wreckage so far.
US Northern Command said in a statement that the recovery operations ended Thursday and that the final pieces are on their way to the FBI lab in Virginia for analysis. It said air and maritime restrictions off South Carolina have been lifted. The announcement capped three dramatic weeks that saw US fighter jets shoot down four airborne objects—the large Chinese balloon on Feb. 4 and three much smaller objects about a week later over Canada, Alaska, and Lake Huron. They are the first known peacetime shootdowns of unauthorized objects in US airspace, per the AP.
The officials said the search for the small airborne object that was shot down over Lake Huron has stopped, and nothing has been recovered. The US and Canada have also failed to recover any debris so far from the other two objects shot down over the Yukon and northern Alaska. The Biden administration has admitted that the three smaller objects were likely civilian-owned balloons that were targeted during the heightened response, after US homeland defense radars were recalibrated to detect slower-moving airborne items. Due to their size and the remote areas where they were shot down, it's unlikely debris will be recovered, officials acknowledge. Those last two searches, however, have not been formally called off.
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