The United States was riveted when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the
country. Strange as it was to see, military balloons have a long and storied history that
goes back hundreds of years, back to when balloons were literally the only way to fly.
Manned ballooning was pioneered by the French, with the first successful effort completed over
Paris in 1783. The application of flight to war and espionage came 11 years later. By that time,
the French Revolution had torn through the country and France was engaged in a
series of wars with several European states. The technology behind ballooning had also advanced
to the point where balloons powered by hydrogen gas could retain altitude for longer durations.
The first French Aerostatic Corps was formed in 1794, under the command of
chemist Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle. Their job was to fly over enemy lines and alert their
own forces to developments through signals or dropped messages. Their value was demonstrated
at the Battle of Fleurus, where timely reports by the balloonists helped keep Austrian and Dutch
forces from penetrating the French lines. The Aerostatic Corps saw regular use throughout the
French Revolutionary Wars and was greatly prized by General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan.
Both the Union and Confederate armies had balloon units active throughout the
American Civil War. The balloons used could carry one to five people, depending on size,
and reached altitudes of up to 1,000 feet. Maintaining a connection to the
ground through ropes, those flying the balloons would scout out enemy
troop movements and relay the information with flags or with portable telegraphs.
The Union's balloon corps came under the command of Thaddeus Lowe. Lowe was
a self-taught enthusiast of ballooning who was captured by Confederate forces during a
recreational test flight. After being cleared of espionage charges and sent back north,
Lowe promptly became involved in the very work he'd been accused of. He
was placed in charge of the balloon corps and led them for two years,
never losing a balloon despite repeated efforts by the Confederacy to shoot them down.
"This is professor Thaddeus Lowe. He'll go up in his balloon to direct your artillery fire."
Bureaucratic infighting cost Lowe his corps in 1863, and the unit never saw use under General
Ulysses S. Grant in the final years of the war. Lowe's interests shifted to freezing technology,
and he declined all offers to share his knowledge and experience with other countries
inspired by his success with balloon espionage.
The most iconic vehicles of the Royal Air Force are probably the Spitfires that faced down the
Nazi Messerschmitts during World War II. But any kind of airplane was a far-off dream in
the 19th century when the British Empire was expanding throughout Africa. Then,
the only aerial option for warfare was ballooning. Elements within the British military had an
interest in making use of balloons as early as 1862, according to the Royal Air Force Museum,
but the army didn't begin testing their worth until 1878. Over the following decade,
they were deployed on campaigns in South Africa and Sudan. After 1890, a dedicated section of
the Royal Engineers, with a supporting school, was created to provide aeronautical services.
Three units of balloons were sent to aid British forces in the Boer War in 1899.
According to the Royal Air Force Museum, they were ordered to perform reconnaissance ahead
of the Battle of Magersfontein, but their work was of limited value. This had less to do with
any limitations of the balloons and more to do with commander Lord Methuen's refusal to
wait for them to arrive. By committing to an attack a day before his air cover's arrival,
Methuen probably wrote his own defeat. But in the aftermath, he told his superiors that the
intelligence gathered by the balloonists during the battle after they arrived was invaluable.
The successful use of spy balloons by Union forces in the American Civil War
inspired other nations throughout the 19th century. The War of the Triple Alliance,
a conflict between Paraguay on one side and Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay on the other,
began in 1864. Fighting within Paraguayan territory was complicated by the allied
forces' limited knowledge of often swampy terrain. To counter this, Brazilian commander
Luis Alves de Lima e Silva put a new unit into the field in 1867: the balloon unit.
Among World War I's dubious honors is the advances
in military technology employed by all sides during the conflict.
"Stay still."
This included innovations on the spy balloon. According to the World War I Museum and Memorial,
three types of balloons saw use during the Great War. The tethered balloon,
also called a captive balloon, operated on the same principles as balloons used in the
prior century. Controlled by operators holding the ropes anchoring the balloon,
aeronauts would observe and report on enemy movements and the condition
of the terrain. Advances in binoculars improved on past limits to visibility.
World War I also saw the deployment of what were called free balloons,
or balloons with no tether. They were often used to disperse propaganda.
The third class of balloon used in World War I was the dirigible. Much larger than other balloons
and loaded with engines and equipment, dirigibles were limited in movement. Their main advantage was
that they could maintain a position for longer periods than other balloons and so allow the
crew aboard to gather more intelligence. As the war progressed, their ability to carry heavier
loads also saw them used offensively: A dirigible could be loaded with bombs.
Besides reconnaissance, military balloons were put to another purpose in World War II:
obfuscation. According to the National Air and Space Museum, the use of large
balloons to provide cover against enemy fire began in Europe during the first world war,
but while successfully employed by Allied forces in World War I, the United States
was slow to adopt these barrage balloons for its own military. Besides limited funding,
any advancements in the American balloon program were frustrated by competition among the branches
of the armed forces over control. The situation wasn't resolved until 1941,
when Camp Tyson was formed in Paris, Tennessee to develop America's balloon fleet.
Barrage balloons were used on the home front as a safeguard against possible
follow-up attacks by Japanese forces on the west coast, and on the front lines of Europe.
D-Day saw the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion flying over the landing ships off Omaha Beach.
Espionage services are sometimes called upon to commit acts of sabotage,
and Japanese forces attempted to use military balloons to such ends during World War II. The
project was developed by scientists who realized that balloons loaded with explosive devices could
be sent along a Pacific air stream. If the balloons landed in the Pacific Northwest,
they could cause massive forest fires that might demoralize American citizenry and
cause trouble for any military activities on the west coast.
The Fugo bombs, as they were known, were made of paper and carried 33-pound bombs.
They could travel to North America in a matter of days. It's estimated that
6,000 balloons were deployed during the war. The effectiveness of the campaign, however, is hard to
gauge. The U.S. government prevented any reporting on the bombs, with the aim of frustrating Japanese
efforts to monitor the endeavor. Two incidents in 1945 were reported: One resulted in an entire
family being killed in Oregon and the other caused a temporary power outage for Hanford
Engineer Works in Washington state, where work was being done on the first nuclear weapons.
"From the over 9,000 balloon bombs launched, only about 300 made it across the Pacific Ocean."
A good number of the Fugo balloons landed without detonating, and sightings came
in for decades after the war's end. Some balloons drifted as far inland as Michigan
before coming down to earth. Others came as far north as Alaska. The most recently found
balloon was in British Columbia in 2014. A mysterious collection of debris is found in
the desert, unlike any commonly known technology. Could it be evidence of visitors from beyond the
stars? Or could it be a reconnaissance balloon deployed for the Cold War that went off-course?
The former has excited the imagination of UFO enthusiasts for decades, and is arguably a lot
more fun. But the latter is the more probable explanation for the infamous Roswell incident.
In 1947, the United States began Project Mogul, an intelligence operation designed to monitor
any potential nuclear tests carried out by the Soviet Union. According to Smithsonian Magazine,
a series of large balloons armed with surveillance equipment were launched from
the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico into the ionosphere,
where they rode the jet stream until they reached Russian territory.
But one stray balloon never made it out of New Mexico. It crashed near the town of Roswell,
was discovered by farmers who had no idea what the tin and rubber contraption was,
and examined by local officials equally flummoxed. When the Air Force was alerted,
they considered it more important to cover up any intelligence activities tied to the
growing Cold War than to provide an honest or plausible explanation. A newspaper quoted an
intelligence officer describing the wreckage as a flying saucer, and a legend was born.
"After the Roswell incident,
hundreds of other reports of UFOs and flying saucers came flooding in."
The Cold War fueled paranoias, intrigues, and sophisticated operations. Whether or not they
were helpful or even plausible, the climate of the time demanded that intelligence agencies
have plans and projects at the ready. One such scheme was hatched by the U.S.
Air Force in the 1950s. Christened Project Moby Dick, the operation required hundreds
of unmanned spy balloons to be set adrift from Europe, float over Soviet territory,
take photographs, and be collected in the air once they'd reached Japanese airspace.
Development of the types of balloons used in Project Moby Dick was the American military's
highest priority after the H-bomb. Each balloon carried a small box loaded with camera, film,
padding, and sensors to gauge altitude and manage ballast. There was also an identity
card on each balloon, claiming it was a harmless meteorological instrument
and that a reward would be given for its return to allied authorities unspoiled.
The U.S. recorded 448 successful launches for Project Moby Dick,
but Soviet authorities were quick to notice and protest the unwelcome craft. The balloons were
relatively easy to shoot down when they came into low altitudes, and the vast majority were
either destroyed or crashed. The project lasted less than a month in 1956 before being called
off. A handful of balloons made it back and provided useful intelligence, but the Soviets
were able to gather intel of their own from the balloons that landed in their territory.
In 2011, Wired reported that the U.S. military budget for balloons was $1 billion. As the War
in Afghanistan continued, improvised bombings by insurgents were becoming a greater threat
to NATO forces, and scouting tools like the Predator drone ran up a big price
tag. A large investment in spy balloons would allow troops to cheaply deploy a
greater number of tethered craft with mounted cameras to scope out terrain.
The use of reconnaissance balloons in the War in Afghanistan was labeled the Persistent
Threat Detection Symbols program. Its funding initially came from money appropriated for
military vehicles, putting the Pentagon and the House of Representatives at odds
before the billion dollar budget was granted. In addition to spy balloons,
the army began using decoy craft to tray and draw out insurgent fire.
Spy balloons weren't only used in combat during the War in Afghanistan. In 2009,
The Washington Post reported that a single balloon with live video
feed dubbed "marshmallow man" was used to monitor elections in Kabul.
Public knowledge and interest in spy balloons greatly increased in early
2023 when media outlets began reporting on the presence of Chinese balloons
flying over American and Canadian airspace. According to The Guardian,
neither craft was assessed to pose a danger, though flights out of Billings Logan airport
in Montana were briefly suspended as one of the balloons passed over the state.
"It was loaded with cameras and antennas and powered by solar panels."
China was quick to deny that the balloons were part of any intelligence operation
and mocked American officials for assuming that they would use such an old technique.
The situation escalated when one of the balloons was shot down by American
fighter jets. China renewed its protests against accusations of espionage. According to the BBC,
they claimed that they had verified the balloon's identity as a weather ship and notified the
American government of its civilian nature. They even offered an apology, but the U.S. government
and military remained convinced the balloon was a spy craft. A planned visit by Secretary
of State Anthony Blinken to try and improve U.S.-China relations was indefinitely postponed.