China’s balloon that crossed the United States was equipped to collect intelligence signals and was part of a huge, military-linked aerial spy program that targeted more than 40 countries, the Biden administration said Thursday, outlining the scope and capabilities of the huge balloon that captivated the country's attention before the U.S. shot it down.

A fleet of balloons operates under the direction of the People's Liberation Army and is used specifically for spying, outfitted with high-tech equipment designed to collect sensitive information from targets across the globe, the U.S. said. Similar balloons have floated over five continents, according to the administration.

The statement from a senior State Department official Thursday offered the most detail to date linking China’s People’s Liberation Army to the balloon that traversed the United States, with the administration asserting that China has developed a vast surveillance program capable of collecting sensitive intelligence.

“We also said today in the release [...] that we're exploring taking action against PRC entities linked to the PLA that supported the balloon’s incursion into U.S. airspace,” State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed later Thursday. “We'll look at continuing these broader efforts to expose and to address the PRC’s larger surveillance activities that pose a threat to our national security, and that to our allies and partners as well.” 

Price would not detail which other countries were included in China’s aerial surveillance program, saying: “We will let other countries speak to what has happened to them. We what we think is important is for the American public and people around the world to at least have a broad sense of what this was.”

A U.S. missile ultimately shot the plane down off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, this weekend.

U.S. senators also publicly questioned top defense officials about the balloon on Thursday, including why it was allowed to fly over U.S. airspace for several days.

Some were upset the balloon was spotted over Alaska on Jan. 28 but that President Joe Biden wasn't informed until days later, when the apparatus traveled over the continental U.S., according to testimony from assistant secretary of defense Melissa Dalton.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Republican who represents Alaska, called her state "the first line of defense" to threats from Russia and China.

"Seems to me the clear message to China is 'We got free range in Alaska, because they're going to let us cruise over that until it gets to more sensitive areas,'" she said.

Chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, pressed officials about how much the U.S. has gleaned about the balloon's objective.

Jedidiah Royal, the U.S. assistant defense secretary for the Indo-Pacific, said the military has “some very good guesses” about what intelligence China was seeking. 

As for why the military didn't shoot it down sooner, Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, who oversees operations for the joint chiefs of staff, said: "Once you take a shot, you can't get it back."

"We may create something in which is to our detriment," he said, referring to concerns about the balloon plummeting and harming Americans.

Price also said during a State Departemt briefing later in the day that “there was value to us in tracking and assessing the activities of the of the balloon so that we could, in a sense, flip the script so that we could learn more about this capability,” adding: “The president, when he was briefed on this, immediately instructed his teams to develop options and to bring it down when it was safe and responsible to do so, and that's what happened last weekend.”

Officials described it as 200 feet tall and "jetliner size," which could have created a 400-square-mile area of damage on the ground.

"We certainly didn't want to take that chance with Alaskans or any other Americans throughout the flight path," Sims added.

Senators later received a classified briefing from defense officials.

House lawmakers on Thursday also overwhelmingly passed a measure to condemn China for flying the balloon over the United States, dubbing it a "brazen violation of U.S. sovereignty."

New details made public Thursday are meant to refute China’s persistent denials that the balloon was used for spying, including a claim Thursday that U.S. accusations about the balloon amount to “information warfare” against Beijing.

The U.S. official said imagery of that balloon collected by American U-2 spy planes as it floated across the country showed that it was “capable of conducting signals intelligence collection” with multiple antennas and other equipment designed to upload sensitive information and solar panels to power them.

The official said an analysis of the balloon debris is “inconsistent” with China’s explanation that it was a weather balloon that went off course. The U.S. is reaching out to countries that have also been targeted, the official said, to discuss the scope of the Chinese surveillance program.

The official said the U.S. has confidence that the manufacturer of the balloon shot down on Saturday has “a direct relationship with China’s military and is an approved vendor of the” army. The official cited information from an official PLA procurement portal as evidence for the connection between the company and the military.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he discussed the issue with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during their meeting in Washington Wednesday.

At the State Department, Stoltenberg said that the balloon “confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior.”

“China over the last years has invested heavily in new military capabilities, including different types of surveillance and intelligence platforms,” he said. 

“I think it also highlights that security is not regional – security is global. What happens in Asia matters for Europe and what happens in Europe matters for Asia and and also of course for North America.”

Stoltenberg traveled to South Korea and Japan last week in an effort to solidify NATO ties with Asia and address challenges from China.

Chinese officials have maintained that the balloon accidentally drifted into U.S. airspace and was simply used for weather monitoring. 

Recovery of the most recent balloon is ongoing, and underwater rescue teams continued Wednesday using unmanned underwater vehicles.  

The U.S. will release new information about the device in the coming days “as we continue to work to salvage the balloon,” Blinken said.