Chinese “spy” balloons: advanced tools and difficult to shoot down

THE Chinese “spy” balloons. that the Pentagon has detected flying over the United States and Latin America may be guided by advanced artificial intelligence technology and are very effective since they can easily outwit advanced radars.

As explained by William Kim, a surveillance balloon specialist who is part of the Marathon Initiative think tank in Washington, these devices are powerful surveillance tools that are hard to break down.

Although the appearance of the Chinese globe resembles that of a regular weather balloonthere are things that differentiate them, Kim told AFP news agency.

Its massive and clearly visible “payload” consists of electronic guidance and monitoring instruments, powered by large solar panels.

According to the expert, this balloon may have guidance technologies not yet implemented by the US military.

With advances in artificial intelligence (AI), Kim explained, it is now possible for a balloon to steer simply by changing altitude to reach a suitable spot and find a wind to propel it towards the desired destination.

Before advances in artificial intelligence, you had to guide it off the ground with a wire or “throw it and it would go where the wind took it,” Kim said.

“What has happened very recently with the advancement of AI is that now we can have a balloon (…) that You don’t even need your own means of propulsion. Only by controlling the altitude, you can control its direction,” she said.

According to Kim, satellites are increasingly vulnerable to attacks from the ground and from space. In this respect, balloons have many advantagesstarting with its ability to evade a radar.

“They’re made of materials that don’t reflect light, they’re not metal. So while they can be quite large (…) detecting them is difficult”, he detailed.

If they are small enough, the spying devices and payload may not even be detected.

Balloons also have the advantage of being able to maintain a stationary position over a target to be monitored, unlike spy satellites, which must remain in orbit.

“They can fly over the same location for months”said the expert, who suggested the Chinese balloon may have been sent in the beginning to collect data outside US borders or much higher up, before filing for failure.

“These balloons don’t always work perfectly,” he said, noting that the Chinese device flew about 46,000 feet above the ground (about 14 kilometers), versus the usual 65,000 to 100,000 (20 to 30.5 km) for this type. tool.

“He’s definitely a bit low (…) If the goal was to make him harder to spot, harder to shoot down, it would have made sense to send him higher,” he explained.

hard to break down

Taking these types of devices apart isn’t as easy as it sounds, Kim warned. “These balloons run on helium (…) you can’t just shoot it to catch fire” like an airship, explained the specialist.

“These are not things that explode or pop. If you puncture it, it will deflate very slowly,” he added.

Kim recalled that in 1998 the Canadian Air Force sent an F-18 fighter jet to try to shoot down a deemed hostile weather balloon.

With information from AFP

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