powers over the years particularly during the cold war, they were played around with. there are difficulties with them, which is that it s harder to control exactly where they go, even if they have limited propulsion systems on board. so, while balloons are a niche, they re probably not revolutionary in that sense. it s more a political challenge, and also something that you wouldn t necessarily want to have no answer to in case someone started getting much more creative with what they might try and then do if you had no answer to it, and just let it go unchallenged. so, what are the security risks? in one word escalation. spying happens all the time, but the first rule of espionage is don t get caught, because when you do, it can turn into a problem. the us learnt this a couple of times. there was a major incident in 1960 where soviet air defences shot down an american spy plane flying at high altitude within its territory during the cold war. and more recently, in 2001, a us surv
it may be that there will be more interest in certainly tracking the use of balloons and potentially developing more specialised capabilities to shoot them down more predictably or with lower cost. the flipside is that, you know, this is not a new technology, and spy balloons are something that have been used significantly by most most powers over the years. particularly during the cold war, they were played around with. there are difficulties with them, which is that it s harder to control exactly where they go, even if they have limited propulsion systems on board. so, while balloons are a niche, they re probably not revolutionary in that sense. mm. it s more a political challenge and also something that you wouldn t necessarily want to have no answer to in case someone started getting much more creative with what they might try and then do if you had no answer to it, and just let it go unchallenged. so, what are the security risks? in one word, escalation. spying happens all the tim
a large area, you have to be very careful where you re firing cannon rounds because those will still come down somewhere. it is a difficult thing to solve with military equipment that isn t designed for it. does that mean we re going to have to look at new ways of defending or dealing with balloons, airships, otherthings flying at this altitude? because it sounds like it s possible we might see more in the future. it s not a technology of the past, but one that many countries look like they re developing. it may be that there will be more interest in certainly tracking the use of balloons and potentially developing more specialised capabilities to shoot them down more predictably or with lower cost. the flip side is that, you know, this is not a new technology, and spy balloons are something that have been used significantly by most powers over the years particularly during the cold war, they were played around with. there are difficulties with them, which is that it s harder to cont
particularly during the cold war, they were played around with. there are difficulties with them, which is that it s harder to control exactly where they go, even if they have limited propulsion systems on board. so while balloons are a niche, they re probably not revolutionary in that sense. mm. it s more a political challenge and also something that you wouldn t necessarily want to have no answer to in case someone started getting much more creative with what they might try and then do if you had no answer to it, and just let it go unchallenged. so what are the security risks? in one word, escalation. spying happens all the time, but the first rule of espionage is don t get caught, because when you do, it can turn into a problem. the us learnt this a couple of times. there was a major incident in 1960 where soviet air defences shot down an american spy plane flying at high altitude within its territory during the cold war. and more recently, in 2001,
the use of balloons and potentially developing more specialised capabilities to shoot them down more predictably or with lower cost. the flip side is that, you know, this is not a new technology, and spy balloons are something that have been used significantly by most powers over the years. particularly during the cold war, they were played around with. there are difficulties with them, which is that it s harder to control exactly where they go, even if they have limited propulsion systems on board. so while balloons are a niche, they re probably not revolutionary in that sense. mm. it s more a political challenge and also something that you wouldn t necessarily want to have no answer to in case someone started getting much more creative with what they might try and then do if you had no answer to it, and just let it go unchallenged. so what are the security risks? in one word, escalation. spying happens all the time, but the first rule of espionage is don t get caught, because when yo