The Newest Spy Gadget – Balloons

Yes, you heard me right.

No, not party balloons, spy balloons.

As countries want ever more spy data but don’t have ever more budget, this is an option they are testing.

Just last week the UK said it had completed trials of an UNCREWED, high altitude set of balloons. The MoD said they were a significant advance.

Reports revealed that Israel has a top secret (well, not anymore) spy balloon program. They are using it to map Gaza’s underground tunnel network, weapons storage and other things.

France, Italy and Australia are also using balloons, but in their cases it is for monitoring wildfires and monitor the client.

Balloons were used by the military as far back as the Civil War.

Why not use planes and satellites. Well, they do, but those are really expensive while balloons are, well, really inexpensive. That means you could launch hundreds or thousands for the same cost as a few satellites.

Balloons can hover over a specific target area. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites don’t rotate at the same speed as the earth so they can only give you data when they happen to be over the area that you care about. Geo-synchronous satellites fly at an altitude of 25,000 miles above the earth. Their images are not as good as those from a balloon flying at 30-40 kilometers above the earth.

In one Army test this year, a balloon hovered over Tucson at 60,000-100,000 feet for a week, taking pictures the entire time. They can stay up there for months.

Balloons are also good for responding to disasters – both natural (like hurricanes) and man made (like wars). They can be launched quickly to provide, for example communications.

And, of course, they can hold all sorts of weapons. They can carry anything that weighs in at less than a few hundred pounds. Use your imagination. Or, if you want to sleep tonight, don’t use your imagination. That could include a suitcase nuke.

Or they could be a decoy for other attacks. Hey! Watch the balloons over here. But don’t watch what I am doing over there.

And, of course, there are the privacy questions. The electronics in these balloons can not only see outside, but also inside.

And there is more.

Credit: Cybernews

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