American F-22 fighter jets have dramatically shot down a possible spy balloon and two other flying objects over North America. On Sunday night, Congressman Jack Bergman from Michigan says that the US military has “taken down” a new object over Lake Huron. It happens at the same time as Canada announces that it has closed an airspace over Ontario, which borders Michigan. The balloon was shot down over South Carolina in the US last weekend, while what was described as a flying object the size of a car was shot down over Alaska on Friday. On Saturday, a cylinder was shot down over the Yukon in Canada. Head teacher Tom Røseth at the Norwegian Defense Academy. Photo: Defense Few details are known, but the Americans believe they are certain that the balloon they shot down was equipped with spy equipment from China. China, for its part, insists that it was a weather balloon that went astray, and has reacted strongly to the downing. Last week there was a statement that the balloon’s presence over the US was due to the wind and was an “accident”, – China has always adhered to international law and respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last week. They stressed that China has no intention of violating another country’s territory or airspace. – If it is true that all three objects come from China, there is reason to believe that they are all part of a Chinese strategy to spy on and provoke the United States, says head teacher in intelligence Tom Røseth at the Norwegian Defense Academy to news. He adds that spy balloons and flying objects towards the US and Canada may be China’s desire to show itself as a great power. Chinese spy program The US claims it has known about the Chinese hot air balloon program for 10 years. The advantage of hot air balloons is that they can fly far in a favorable wind direction from e.g. China. Drones have a shorter range and must be sent up from a vessel in the Pacific Ocean. A balloon is also not so easy to detect on radar if you are not actively looking for them. All such objects fly low, are cheap and get good pictures compared to expensive spy satellites. On board they have equipment to listen to and locate military communications, such as e.g. communication between the pilots of an F-35 fighter jet and the main base, or following radar systems. The balloon was shot down and landed on the coast of South Carolina on February 5. Photo: PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS TYLER TH / AFP The balloons flew over areas in the USA that have enormous radar equipment and where nuclear weapons and large bombers are stored. Large amounts of data can be collected. – This can provide knowledge about the US’s way of encrypting military messages, which radars hit where, or you can find out what level of preparedness the Americans are at at any given time, says Røseth. Great power game The US and China have been rival great powers for a long time. Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and the large-scale Russian war of aggression in Ukraine that began almost a year ago, have led to China being more in the shadows. Sending out spy balloons can be seen as a political message from China that they would like to get more involved again. It is also not certain that President Xi Jinping is directly involved, but that there are hawks in the Chinese leadership who will provoke a reaction, according to Røseth. – Sending a balloon entails a great risk of backlash, but it may represent a desire to make themselves more visible to the US again, he says. The desire to show muscle as a great power goes both ways, says senior researcher Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr of the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUPI). He says the US has China very high on the agenda despite the Ukraine war. Gåsemyr points out that there is a great deal of intelligence activity between China and the US and that the balloon was not so technically advanced that it was suitable for sending a strong political signal to the US. Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr, senior researcher at the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUPI). Photo: Christopher Olssøn / Christopher Olssøn The Chinese reaction that it was a weather balloon that went astray seems unplanned, he believes. But geopolitics in the world is changing and the US also needs to show its muscles. – There is also a need in the US to show China that they have both the technical and analytical capabilities to react, says Gåsemyr. The NUPI researcher believes it will be interesting to see what the aftermath of this week’s spy drama will be. Whether there will be a more aggressive game between the US and China, or whether the level of conflict will be reduced. On Sunday, a spokesperson from the White House says that the latest objects, which have been shot down over Alaska and Canada, do not resemble the Chinese balloon. The person also repeats that the object is much smaller.
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