Reporter: Lola Himmaugh

February 7, 2022

         A Chinese Spy balloon traveled from China to Alaska through Canada, and then was first sighted in Montana. The balloon traveled over highly secured and classified military bases and missile silos. Just off the Carolina coast was where the U.S. then shot the balloon down. China’s response was that it was an “accident” that it went over classified sites and that it was simply a     “Civilian airship used for research and meteorological purposes.” China expresses that the decision to shoot it down was an “overreaction.” This is not the only spy balloon sighted. 

The usage of balloons for surveillance dates way back to historical events such as the Civil War, WWII, and cold war.  During the civil war, the Union and the Confederacy used hot air balloons for reconnaissance to determine locations of troops. This innovation was forty-two years before the invention of airplanes. During World War II, Japan used balloons carrying bombs and floated them across the Pacific Ocean and eventually in the U.S. where they dropped on unsuspecting civilians. For the Cold War, balloons were utilized by the U.S. Air Force in order to take pictures of Soviet military sites. The U.S. even sent balloons into Iraq and Afghanistan to keep watch of activities.  

https://www.thedailybeast.com/chinas-spy-balloon-isnt-as-low-tech-as-you-think?ref=scrollhttps://www.faa.gov/about/history/pioneers/media/Civil_War_Ballooning_Article.pdf