Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—
The news that the Pentagon is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the continental United States raises a series of questions.
A U.S. official said the flight path of the balloon, which was first spotted over Montana on Thursday, may pass through “many sensitive sites,” adding steps to “protect it from foreign intelligence gathering.” says he is teaching.
However, it is not clear why Chinese spies would use balloons instead of satellites to gather information.
It’s not the first time a Chinese balloon has been spotted over the United States, but it appears to behave differently than before, a US defense official said.
“It looks like they’re hanging out longer this time, [and is] More persistent than previous instances. That will be one differentiator,” the official said.
The use of balloons as spy platforms dates back to the early days of the Cold War. Since then, the United States has used hundreds of them to monitor adversaries, according to former Royal Australian Air Force officer Peter Layton, a fellow at Australia’s Griffith Institute for Asia.
However, the advent of modern satellite technology has made the use of surveillance balloons obsolete, making it possible to collect intelligence data from space above.
Or at least until now.
Recent advances in miniaturizing electronics mean that floating intelligence platforms could make a comeback in modern espionage toolkits.
“Because of the reduced weight of balloon payloads, balloons are smaller, cheaper, and easier to launch than satellites,” Layton said.
Despite their slow speed, balloons aren’t always easy to spot, says Blake Herzinger, an Indo-Pacific defense policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
“They have very low signatures and low to zero emissions, making them difficult to detect with traditional situational awareness and monitoring techniques,” said Herzinger.
Balloons have some things that satellites cannot.
“Space-based systems are just as good, but more predictable in orbital dynamics,” Layton said.
“The advantage of balloons is that they can be steered with the wind using an on-board computer and can ascend and descend within a limited range.
“Satellites can’t roam, and it takes a great many satellites to crisscross an area of interest to maintain surveillance,” he said.
According to Layton, the suspected Chinese balloon is likely gathering information on US communications systems and radars.
“Some of these systems use very high frequencies at short ranges, can be absorbed by the atmosphere, and have very directional line-of-sight. , balloons could be a better collection platform than satellites,” he said.
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton, a military analyst for CNN, agrees.
“They could be scooping up signal intelligence. In other words, they’re looking at our cell phone traffic, wireless traffic,” Layton told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
Information data collected by the balloon could be relayed to China in real time via a satellite link, Layton said.
Analysts also noted that Montana and neighboring states are home to US intercontinental ballistic missile silos and strategic bomber bases.
US officials say they have taken steps to prevent the balloon from collecting sensitive data. They decided not to shoot down due to the danger to life and property from falling debris.
Also, if the United States can bring the balloon down within its own territory without destroying it, the balloon could reveal some secrets of itself, Layton added.
However, it may not contain secrets or espionage. This could be a mere accident where the balloon was blown off course or the Chinese operator somehow lost control.
“This was a mistake and there is at least some chance that the balloon flew where Beijing did not expect it,” Helsinger said.
China, meanwhile, said it was investigating.
“We are aware of the reports [of the balloon] We understand the situation and are trying to confirm the details of the situation,” a foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. “I would like to emphasize that deliberate speculation and hype will not help us handle matters before it becomes clear what happened.”
