On 16 December 1784 – barely a year after the first crewed flight – a British cartoonist published a sketch entitled The Battle of the Balloons, depicting airships belonging to the leading powers of the day firing cannons at each other from among the clouds. In his book Falling Upwards, Richard Holmes adduces the drawing as evidence of the intimate relationship between balloons and military competition, with, for instance, the first French company of aeronauts formed on the remarkably early date of 29 March 1794. Today we might contemplate another…
Tag: Espionage
US shoots down ‘octagonal’ flying object near military sites in Michigan
The US military has shot down a third flying object over North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet. The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday. It is understood to have been the same item that was picked up by radar over Montana on Saturday. At the point it was struck by an air-to-air missile…
What do we know about the four flying objects shot down by the US?
The downing of a huge Chinese balloon off the US coast, followed by the shootdowns of two smaller objects over Alaska and Canada – and another over Michigan on Sunday – has raised concerns about North American security and further strained relations with China. Here is what we know so far: What were the four objects? The story begins in late January, when a giant Chinese balloon – which US officials have said was a surveillance balloon – drifted for days through US skies before being shot down on 4…
Schumer says Chinese ‘humiliated’ after three flying objects shot down
US and Canadian military are continuing to search by sea and land amid hostile weather conditions in a scramble to recover portions of three flying objects shot down over North American airspace in the past week. The Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that officials were now convinced that all three of the flying objects brought down by air-to-air missiles this week were balloons. He put the finger of blame firmly on China. “The Chinese were humiliated – I think the…
Chinese balloon was ‘clearly’ for spying, says US official
The Chinese balloon that flew over North America for more than a week before being shot down over the Atlantic was carrying equipment capable of intercepting and geolocating communications, the US government has claimed. A senior state department official said on Thursday that equipment was identified by a U-2 spy plane sent up to scrutinise the balloon. “The high-altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons,” the official said. “It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and…
Chinese-made security cameras to be removed from Australian government buildings
The federal government has committed to removing Chinese-made security cameras at government buildings across Australia, admitting there is a potential security problem that needs to be addressed. An audit of surveillance equipment, conducted by the shadow cybersecurity minister, James Paterson, has confirmed that more than 900 products built by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua are installed at government locations. The US and the UK have already banned these products at government locations, with the US Federal Communications Commission warning of an “unacceptable risk to national security” due to possible espionage…
Downed balloon one of a ‘fleet’ of Chinese surveillance devices, US alleges
China has a “fleet” of surveillance balloons of different shapes and sizes, which it has deployed over five continents, US officials have claimed. The allegations on Wednesday came as salvage work continued off the South Carolina coast for the debris from a high-altitude Chinese balloon a US jet fighter downed on Saturday after it had crossed the whole of the continental US. “We’re not alone in this,” said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken. “We’ve already shared information with dozens of countries around the world both from Washington and…
‘Hot air’: Marjorie Taylor Greene in State of the Union balloon stunt
Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to tee up a State of the Union stunt on Tuesday, patrolling the halls of Congress with a large white balloon in reference to Republican criticism of Joe Biden over his handling of a flight over US territory by a Chinese surveillance dirigible. “Just an innocent white balloon everybody,” the Georgia extremist said, hours before Biden’s address to Congress, attempting to keep aloft the balloon saga which ended when it was shot down off the Carolinas on Saturday. Greene did not discuss the Pentagon disclosure that…
As US-China rivalry heats up, can Australia defuse the risk of superpower conflict? | Susannah Patton
As spy stories go, the recent foray and ultimate demise of China’s surveillance balloon across the United States is not very promising. Beijing probably did not learn any state secrets, and the eventual downing of the unmanned aerial system once it was safely over water is hardly the stuff of Le Carré. Yet the balloon incident is a powerful illustration of why Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has been calling for the US and China to put in place “guardrails” to manage their competition responsibly. Coming only months after…
White House rejects Republican fire over wait to down Chinese spy balloon
The US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, on Sunday rejected Republican criticism of Joe Biden over an eight-day wait to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon which flew over US military sites. “The president gave instructions to have it shot down in a way that was safe,” Buttigieg told CNN’s State of the Union, of the operation off the Carolina coast on Saturday. “The debris field that was created by this balloon which was shot down, it’s about seven miles long. And so any time the military is considering an…