aerial eavesdropping
Does a balloon spy better than a satellite?
2/4/2023 7:32 p.m
The sighting of suspected observation balloons creates tensions between Washington and Beijing. But how useful and modern are balloons as a spy tool? Experts from different fields sometimes give contradictory answers to this question.
A suspected spy balloon from China is hovering over the United States, and a second has been spotted over Latin America. Experts have different opinions about how valuable such balloons are for interception activities. For some, they belong to the old school. Others emphasize its advantages over satellites or see it as a useful addition.
In an interview with ntv, secret service expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom called the use of the balloon “extraordinary”. He doesn’t know of “any other secret service in the world that uses this relatively outdated tool,” says Schmidt-Eenboom. This could be due to the fact that the Chinese intelligence services are far from being able to deliver the same quality of satellite reconnaissance as, for example, the Americans, British or Russians, he adds. So is the balloon just a replacement for better technologies that Beijing lacks?
William Kim, a surveillance balloon expert at the Washington think tank Marathon Initiative, sees things differently. Balloons would have clear advantages over satellites. Unlike these, balloons are far more difficult to attack, Kim tells the AFP news agency. On the one hand, this is because they can hardly be detected by radar and their payload can easily be overlooked.
Balloon can ‘stay over one spot for months’
On the other hand, balloons would have the advantage that they could stay over a spy target for a relatively long time – in contrast to satellites, which are constantly in orbit and are used by spy agencies to take photos. “These things can stay in one spot for months,” says Kim.
Military expert Ralph Thiele, on the other hand, believes that satellites and balloons can work together in espionage. He is of the opinion that Beijing wants to spy on a global test by the US military that is aimed at “improving leadership skills using artificial intelligence and big data,” Thiele said in an interview with ntv. The information that the balloon collects about the test could be used “to set up additional listening devices such as satellites,” said Thiele.
Whatever its mission, the balloon is straining already strained China-US relations. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the penetration of the “surveillance balloon” into US airspace “unacceptable” and “irresponsible”.
China firmly rejected the allegations, speaking of a research balloon that was thrown off course by “force majeure”. “We do not accept baseless speculation and propaganda,” the Beijing Foreign Office quoted top foreign policy official Wang Yi as saying from his phone call the day before with Blinken. The US Secretary of State has canceled his visit to Beijing, which was expected for Sunday.