The spy weather balloon.

Balloons are launched every day to record the weather conditions, they are normally much smaller, it is an activity that meteorologists do practically routinely and not only these, large balloons are also launched into the stratosphere, which they fly over at a height superior to the one that commercial airplanes fly, they do it for meteorological studies, scientific analysis or to break records.

Weather balloons can easily be used for espionage, they have some advantages to begin with, you can equip one of these balloons with surveillance equipment such as high-definition cameras, radars, solar panels, as we have seen in the images.

Another advantage it has is that you don't need a rocket to launch it, the balloon reaches the stratosphere by its own means, it normally flies between 24,000 and 37,000 meters, it allows you to monitor an area in detail for longer than a satellite and they are much cheaper that satellites, aside from the fact that they do not pose the risk of spy planes, which is already more than obsolete.

Some countries have used this type of balloon for police surveillance within their territory and for special events. There is an example, Argentina 2018, which used a balloon of this type to monitor security during the Copa Libertadores final.

The disadvantages are that they are not very maneuverable, they cannot be propelled, the only thing that can be done is adjust the height of the balloon so that it takes a current of air through which you calculate that it is going in the direction you want, so, although They are ideal for monitoring a specific region from where they are launched, it is very difficult to make them go to the region of another country that you are interested in monitoring.

Another disadvantage is that, although some experts say that they are difficult to detect, the truth is that with the technology that the United States has, it detected it practically from the first moment it entered its territory, through the Aleutian Islands, at that moment it would have been good to shoot it down since destroying one of these balloons is much easier and cheaper than destroying a spy satellite, which is another disadvantage that these balloons have with a spy satellite you have to launch a missile into space and the problem of creating a cloud occurs of fragments that can end up damaging own satellites, so destroying a spy satellite is a very serious problem.

In conclusion, spy balloons are a somewhat primitive method, especially if we take into account that China has very advanced espionage technologies, both in satellites and in space planes, space planes similar to the X-37b of the United States, in the same way so does India; These look like shuttles or space shuttles, but in miniature and can stay in space for months and carry out scientific research or surveillance operations.

But the doubt exists, since in 2018 the Chinese have tested using these balloons as a hypersonic missile launcher, specifically with the capacity to load 3 hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVS), part of a test is shown in the image.

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