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The controversy over the Chinese spy balloon shot down by the U.S. off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday is raising questions about why Beijing would use a seemingly old technology to gather intelligence when more sophisticated instruments exist.
According to Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the Rand Corporation, one reason is that the balloons are hard to detect, giving them an advantage over satellites, which tend to be predictable in their movements.
There are a few reasons surveillance balloons can be hard to detect.
“Newer technologies allow little motors to be attached so you can make adjustments to the position of the balloon and then they can just stay in a place for quite a while,” Heath said.
“Once you’ve identified a satellite in space, you can track its orbit and you can accurately predict when it will pass and when it will not be watching,” Heath said.
This could be partly why China chose to use a balloon: Its movements are more erratic and thus more difficult to track.
