Important Takeaways:

• Intelligence officials have revealed a Chinese spy balloon that flew across the US for a week in February used an American internet service provider to communicate.
• The balloon had drifted east and entered US airspace over Alaska on 28 January and was tracked as it flew over Malmstrom Air Force base in Montana, where nuclear assets are stored.
• On 4 February, the Air Force sent an F-22 fighter jet armed with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile to take the balloon down over water.
• In a new report from NBC, the outlet cited two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the report as its source.
• The report stated that the balloon was connected to a US-based company and communicating with China about its navigation.
• It further stated that the connection ‘allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time’ to its home base in China.
• The channel has not released the name of the company.
• The unidentified internet service provider company has denied all such claims.
• This comes days after it was revealed that officials in the Biden administration had planned to keep the Chinese spy balloon secret, with a top Air Force commander admitting the balloon exposed gaps in their intelligence gathering.
• A source told NBC: ‘Before it was spotted publicly, there was the intention to study it and let it pass over and not ever tell anyone about it.’

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