Following speculation that three Chinese spy balloons went undetected years ago during the Trump administration, retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane confirmed the information with a senior defense official, he reported on "Mornings with Maria" Tuesday.
"This is quite revealing, that there were three balloons that floated over U.S. territory during the Trump administration. I spoke to a senior defense official last night who confirmed what the NORAD commander said. We did not detect those," Keane told host Maria Bartiromo.
"We only know about them now because we asked our intelligence services, after this penetration, to go back and check and see what the history is of China's use of these balloons," the general continued.
On Sunday, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital that "U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration" assesses that "PRC (People's Republic of China) government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time."
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The official told Fox News that "this information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left."
"When Trump officials say, ‘I wasn't briefed on it,’ they're absolutely right," Gen. Keane said. "The national security community did not know that those balloons had violated America's airspace."
The revelation, according to the retired general, could indicate there’s something wrong with U.S. detection systems.
"China released a hypersonic glide vehicle in July of 2021 that circumnavigated the globe, and approached from the South and went back to China, and we were not able to track it with our radar systems. And that revealed a clear security breach that we have," Keane explained. "And this is further evidence that the radar and satellite coverage that we have, to deal with China's modern technology and modern capability, is not what it should be. And that is a serious issue."
Gen. Keane further expressed he’s less concerned about the amount of time the spy flights were within U.S. territory and more concerned about the fact we couldn’t detect them amid a "Cold War" with China.
"The definition is, really, this is a Cold War that we're in and we have to develop comprehensive strategies to counter China. And I think the president should be a lot clearer with the American people in terms of what this relationship really is," he said.
Supporting the continuation of diplomatic efforts, Keane also called for the U.S. to maintain its military, economic, technological and geopolitical power.
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"We can't just slide this off as something that was not consequential. It is very consequential," the general warned. "And in the minds of the American people, I think the psychological impact is significant. People felt vulnerable for a week, we got spy balloons over the United States from China."
After the balloon was shot down by U.S. forces over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, ongoing efforts continue to recover the remnants, while some parts have already been sent to an FBI processing lab in Quantico, Virginia, senior U.S. government sources told Fox News.
Fox News’ Brook Singman and Greg Norman contributed to this report.
