[News Terms] Why Are 'Jeongchal Balloons' Relevant in the Satellite Era?

Enjoyed heyday during 1940s US-Soviet Cold War
Still enables affordable intelligence gathering
China may have intentionally revealed "ability to penetrate US airspace"

China's "reconnaissance balloon" was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet on the 4th (local time) and is falling into the sea off Surfside Beach, South Carolina.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The detection of a Chinese "reconnaissance balloon" in U.S. airspace and its subsequent missile shootdown by the United States have rapidly cooled the already tense U.S.-China relations. In an era where intense intelligence warfare between countries is conducted using advanced reconnaissance equipment such as reconnaissance satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles, various interpretations are emerging regarding the appearance of outdated espionage equipment that was mainly used during the Cold War era.

According to foreign media reports on the 6th, China has acknowledged that the reconnaissance balloon it launched flew all the way to the U.S. mainland and expressed some regret. However, China emphasized that it was a civilian airship primarily used for meteorological observation and that it deviated from its course due to "force majeure," framing it as a well-intentioned mistake.

However, Patrick Ryder, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, dismissed China's explanation, stating, "We know that the (balloon) is for reconnaissance." The U.S. is reacting more sensitively because the suspected path of the balloon includes key military facilities. The balloon was detected over Montana after passing near the Aleutian Islands close to Alaska and crossing Canada. This area is not far from an Air Force base operating the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Reconnaissance balloons were first used in 18th-century France. In June 1794, during the Battle of Fleurus, France was fighting allied forces including Austria and the Netherlands, and thanks to reconnaissance balloons that monitored enemy movements, France gained the upper hand. During the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, they were used very actively. In the 1940s and 1950s, the U.S. conducted various Soviet nuclear surveillance operations, including the secret "Mogul Project," which involved sending observation equipment on balloons to monitor the Soviet atomic bomb program. It is also known that reconnaissance balloons equipped with cameras were used during the early 2000s Afghanistan war.

With the advent of more advanced technologies such as satellites, reconnaissance balloons were quickly displaced in the field of espionage equipment. However, due to their advantage of being able to collect high-level information at a very low cost, they have continued to be used for specific purposes until recently.

Modern reconnaissance balloons operate at high altitudes of approximately 24,000 to 37,000 meters. This is much higher than the cruising altitude of civilian aircraft (10,000 meters) or fighter jets (20,000 meters), but much closer to the ground than satellites orbiting in low Earth orbit at altitudes of 200 to 20,000 kilometers, making it easier to acquire information. Another advantage is that they can quietly remain in one place for a long time.

The British current affairs weekly The Economist mentioned these advantages of reconnaissance balloons and speculated that China's recent reconnaissance balloon might have attempted to acquire information related to U.S. infrastructure facilities close to the ground. It also introduced an analysis suggesting that the balloon might have been trying to obtain digital information rather than taking photographs using cameras.

However, since the reconnaissance balloon was easily detected even with the naked eye from the ground, some analyses suggest that it might have been deliberately sent to be detected by U.S. authorities rather than to collect specific information. According to a BBC report, Benjamin Ho, coordinator at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, said, "If they wanted to extract information about U.S. infrastructure or anything else, there are better ways. The balloon is a signal sent to the U.S. to see how the U.S. responds."