Did you know that the U.S. intelligence community has a number of balloons flying over the United States at very high altitude — e.g., 90,000 fe

More on the High Flying Balloons

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2023-02-04 18:30:09

Did you know that the U.S. intelligence community has a number of balloons flying over the United States at very high altitude — e.g., 90,000 feet? They do. I recommend the following video for your enlightenment. It is by a former U.S. military special operations bubba who knows how to read and decipher air traffic. Meet Mr. Monkey Werx:

What I tried to convey in my previous article was the lack of international agreement governing overflights of a nation’s territory by balloons, fixed wing and satellites. There is an international consensus about aircraft that operate in controlled airspace. And countries such as the United States, Russia and China will shoot down a fixed wing intruder.

Remember Gary Powers? He piloted a U2 spy plane over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960, flying at 70,000 feet. The United States mistakenly believed the Soviets had no weapon system capable of taking out a plane at that altitude. We learned the hard way that our intelligence had some major gaps.

Today that ceiling is even higher. Frankly, any fixed wing spy plane flying on the edge of space could be shot down because the U.S., Russia and China have missiles capable of reaching them. There is no international agreement that I can find (if you come up with one please pass along) that imposes a cap proscribing a fixed wing air flight over a country.