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The United States calls the mysterious balloon from China that they shot down, a spy device. A senior official source said Washington believed the spy balloons were controlled by the Chinese military and part of a fleet of spy balloons that China has sent to about 40 countries on five continents to gather intelligence.
These balloons are clearly old technology, but they seem to have a new role in the world of modern reconnaissance. As quoted by us from the Guardian, several countries, not only China, are looking into the possibility of such balloons for military and security use.
In 2019, the US experimented with using balloons to monitor its 6 states, to monitor and prevent drug trafficking. Last month General Stéphane Mille, chief of staff for the French air and space force, said he was worried about spy balloons.
The higher air areas refer to between 20 and 100 km up, the so-called 'unexploited' zone which was not explored until about a decade ago. That's because the machine can't function at that altitude.
"But today's technology allows sensor-carrying balloons, for example, to use this space. Do we want a balloon sent by the enemy to be over Paris and watching our every move and not be able to deal with it?" he said.
James Lewis, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, considers the use of balloons for intelligence to have weaknesses. "The problem with balloons is they go where the wind takes them. They are wandering, unpredictable and hard to spot static targets," he said.
The reconnaissance balloons are a poor version of satellites and are surprised China is using them. "Any contribution to intelligence reconnaissance is minuscule. Why not just send a man in a van to drive around?" he joked.
However, Jim Himes, a member of the Intelligence Committee from the Democratic Party, believes that balloons have three potential advantages in terms of intelligence. What is clear, for example, is that it does not cost as much as USD 1 billion like a satellite. "Ten of them were shot down, who cares?" said Himes.
Second, the balloon has persistent surveillance capabilities that satellites lack. And the third is, he can spy from a relatively close distance from the Earth's surface.
Beijing may feel compelled to experiment with different platforms and methods to try to compete with US global intelligence capabilities. One of them is with this kind of balloon.