Recently, a suspicious looking balloon found hovering over military bases has been spotted and shot down by the U.S military. It has been suspected to be a Chinese spy balloon, and president Joe Biden was the person who ordered the balloon to be taken down, claiming it was a hazard for planes. After the balloon was shot down, it was considered a hazard due to citizens being under it potentially getting hit by it. Before it was shot down, it was deemed harmless.

   The balloon had several camera equipment attached to it, confirming it was taking pictures of military bases. After China was suspected to be the culprit of the spy balloon, Beijing explained it was a weather balloon, and it had flown off track and had flown over military bases by accident. Not only was this one balloon found, but there were similar balloons that had gone through U.S territory unspotted, and just now they are seeing them due to the suspicions. 

   This event has provided the military with intelligence that these balloons are part of a huge fleet, all with a surveillance system attached to them. One of these balloons was even spotted in Guam 2019! Again, China claims that they are weather balloons. Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen.  Pat Ryder said “This last week has provided the U.S with an opportunity to learn a lot more about these Chinese surveillance balloons. The U.S recently has been more cautious about the sky, and have been focusing a lot of attention towards them, making sure something like this won’t go unnoticed for so long.