As Navy divers work to recover debris from the downed Chinese spy balloon, the Pentagon is now releasing a report that the balloon was carrying explosives to destroy itself. Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command, told reporters in a brief on Monday that, “We did not associate the potential of having explosives with a threat to dropping weapons, those kinds of things, but out of a precaution, abundance of safety for not only our military people and the public, we have to make assumptions such as that.” “So, I can’t confirm whether it had explosives or not. Anytime you down something like this, we make an assumption that that potential exists,” he added.

Other information gathered from the general’s report included that in addition to potentially carrying explosives, was 200 feet tall, weighed thousands of pounds, and its payload was the size of a jetliner. The debris field is the size of ‘more than 15 football fields by 15 football fields, according to the Pentagon.

World Leaders Brace For Conflict Between U.S. And China

VanHerck said the majority of the downed aircraft had been recovered but warned the public to stay away from the area. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated that , “Our efforts to surveil this balloon and what we will learn from the recovery will prove to be valuable.” “I would like to refrain from getting into any discussions about our intelligence assessments of this,’ he added.

This is a developing story.