The US military has failed to detect at least three flights of Chinese spy balloons over the US in recent years, but this is not an intelligence failure, the Pentagon said.. Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder stressed that the United States has collected a lot of information about Chinese reconnaissance balloons over time and will be able to detect them in the future.. It is reported by NBC News.

“In terms of monitoring and collecting information about them, we have been able to gather a body of knowledge that will allow us to identify them and act. It was not an intelligence failure,” Ryder said..

Ryder also accused China of violating U.S. and other sovereign airspace through what he called a global spy balloon program, but declined to provide more details about previous flights of Chinese airships over the U.S..

US officials have previously said there were at least three Chinese balloon flights over US soil during the former Donald Trump administration and another during the Joe Biden administration..

Ryder did not provide any details about the routes of these flights or other information, but said that the US government later determined that some of these objects were Chinese spy balloons..

“What we know for sure is that in some cases, where some of these balloons were not previously identified, further intelligence analysis allowed us to establish that they were Chinese balloons,” Ryder explained..

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Ryder reiterated that the US administration describes China's balloon program as a global operation with a fleet of observation balloons spotted over North America, Latin America, South America, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Europe.. But he declined to provide more details, including whether the balloons flew over or near U.S. military installations abroad..

Asked if balloons flying in other parts of the world are similar to the one that was shot down over the US last week, Ryder said they are all reconnaissance airships that collect intelligence information, but differ in size and capabilities..

US Air Force General Glen VanGurk, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command, said Chinese balloon threats have gone unnoticed by the US in recent years, calling it a gap that needs to be filled..

“I will tell you that we did not detect these threats. And that's an awareness gap that we need to close,"

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, speaking at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said he expects the administration to have more information about China's observation balloon program soon..

“We will be able to say more about this in the coming days.. We're getting more information almost every hour as we continue to work to save the balloon,"

The Biden administration is working to declassify US intelligence data containing details of Chinese reconnaissance balloon flights over dozens of other countries around the world..

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Earlier it was reported that the Pentagon was monitoring a Chinese high-altitude observation balloon, which was recently seen over the continental United States.. The Pentagon tracked the balloon for several days as it flew over the northern United States.

Beijing denied a request for a call between Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and his colleague over a closed line on the day a US warplane shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon.

The United States said it did not plan to return to Beijing the wreckage of a Chinese reconnaissance balloon shot down by specialists from the Pentagon, even after technical experts complete an analysis of the surveillance capabilities that were on board.