US intelligence officials remain convinced that the first suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down was intended for surveillance over sensitive military sites If that proves to be the case, what exactly was it doing and how? 🔎 Analysis by robhastings
That’s what FBI specialists are trying to work out after recovering parts of the destroyed balloonBut from the information that has emerged so far, security analysts are growing increasingly confident that it was designed to intercept communications or evaluate US radar systems, rather than to take aerial photographs, although that also can’t be ruled out.
The intention of a spy balloon, Dr Gustafson explains, could be to assess “how the radars are picking it up, and what other American electronic systems are being directed at it”.. “You can see where all the radars are, you can see what bandwidths they’re in, their frequencies… It makes sense if you are trying to design a stealth aircraft or trying to figure out where the hole is in the radar envelope that you could get something through.
“If they’re using satellite communication, that signal is going to go up and then be re-transmitted to somebody on the ground. If you’ve got a balloon with a bunch of sigint collection devices hanging off it, over where these people are talking, you’re going to be able to intercept those signals,” he tellsOne would expect all these military communications to be encrypted, of course. But “signals intelligence is not just what people are saying,” says Dr Gustafson.
Mr O’Connor is at pains to point out that these spying aims and intelligence technologies are “nothing new. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.” Perhaps for political reasons, or perhaps purely out of fascination and fear about a subject most of us – including many politicians – know very little about, “people are just getting annoyed at it right now”.
National Security Council’s John Kirby has said China’s alleged spy balloon programme has only had a ‘limited’ benefit to its surveillance efforts Air forces may also hope that “disruptive paint schemes” will help disguise the design and details of secret new aircraft, he says, using theWhen this highly unusual stealth bomber – instantly recognisable because of its peculiarly angular shape – was being used in test flights in Nevada’s mysteriousLockheed’s original ‘Have Blue’ prototype aircraft which led to the F-117 stealth bomber looks so ridiculously weird with its multi-coloured paint job was because they were thinking about...
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