THE DISCOVERY of a high-flying Chinese observation balloon over the USA caused a blush of red faces in Washington a few weeks ago. It was originally reported over the state of Montana where, surprise, surprise, there are apparently some silos housing one or thirty-two of America’s nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs.
Eventually it was shot down by an F-22 Raptor fighter into the Atlantic off the coast of South Carolina, falling fortuitously into relatively shallow waters which allowed recovery operations to get underway quickly. The bits and pieces of salvaged balloon have been the subject of forensic examination by the relevant authorities. But we should remember that to get there it obviously transited across the whole of the continental USA.
If this was not sufficient unto the day, US embarrassment increased exponentially when it was reported that it was hardly the first time this had happened, with at least three other incursions having taken place under the previous administration. At the time President Trump seems to have taken no action. We also learned that a similar balloon to the one shot down may also have been operating over Latin America.
More recently further interceptions of unauthorised objects have taken place over Alaska, Canada, and again over the USA. American fighter jets have reportedly shot down three more “high altitude objects”, in one case using two Sidewinder missiles at £330,000 a pop to do so. It’s an expensive business keeping balloons out of your airspace it would seem.
US officials were quick to reassure the American public that these objects posed no threat to them and that there was little danger of harm coming from falling debris, although they were concerned enough to close off the relevant airspace while action was being taken. Nor did they think they might be evidence of extra-terrestrial activity or proof of visits from other galaxies. Fans of ET were no doubt disappointed.
We do have to ask ourselves, though, what’s going on here? Well, either the appropriate authorities in the USA, Canada, and elsewhere have hitherto been unaware of these transgressions, which would be worrying, or that they have known all along but have allowed them to continue for some other purposes. Perhaps we will find out which it is in due course.
Typically, the Chinese have rebutted any suggestion of illegal intelligence gathering on their behalf and have mumbled excuses about balloons for measuring meteorological conditions going off course, but nobody’s buying that one. They have also counter-claimed that the USA does exactly the same to them, which may well be true. Nobody thinks the USA is averse to a bit of surveillance from on high, certainly not since Gary Powers and his U2 high-altitude spy plane were shot down over Russia on May 1st 1960. The cat was well and truly out of the bag then.
Here in the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak informed the British public that, apparently, the RAF is ready to “do whatever it takes” to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen over our heads. Bearing in mind recent US criticism that the UK may not even be able to defend itself anymore, such has been the decline in our military, I think we might have to take that one with a pinch of salt.
The flurry of excitement over these incidents has reminded me, once again, of the prescience of the German one-hit-wonder band Nena and their hit single “Neunundneunzig Luftballons” (Ninety-Nine Balloons) back in 1983. Sample lyrics:
“99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it’s red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
The 99 red balloons go by”
My brother officers and I once made the trip from Tidworth on Salisbury Plain, where we were stationed at the time, down to Poole in Dorset to see Nena when they were on tour. The main attraction was their lead singer, whom we all thought was rather cute. Disappointingly, the rest of their repertoire was pretty dire.
Nonetheless, dismissed as harmless anti-war nonsense back in the day, perhaps “Neunundneunzig Luftballons” has become a song relevant to current times some forty years on?
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