China has an expansive human spy network and takes terabytes of U.S. data, regularly. But, OK, let’s talk about the balloon.
; several have dozens. For instance, Montana has a Minuteman ICBM site and launch-control center, but this—like the activities at all the other bases—is publicly known.
A former senior U.S. intelligence officer told me that the balloon’s cameras might have higher resolution than those on their imaging satellites. Other devices onboard could intercept line-of-sight microwave signals. In short, the balloon could give China the same sort of information that U.S. surveillance drones retrieve when flying over a place of interest, such as a terrorist camp.
, head of North American Aerospace Defense Command , told reporters that the balloon revealed “a domain-awareness gap that we have to figure out.”quoted one U.S. official describing China’s balloon program as “a massive effort” in which they took “an unbelievably old technology and basically married it with modern communications and observation capabilities.” This may be clever and it was certainly a cost-saver, compared with building and launching more satellites.
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