Why The World Is Scrambling To Secure Airspace
The recent incident of a Chinese weather balloon being detected over the nation's northern border has prompted the US military, Homeland Security, and other allied nations to secure airspace.
Every sovereign nation in the world currently has its eyes wide open and is watching intently the outcome of the Chinese balloon that was flying over the United States last week. One of the most important areas of a country’s defenses is to keep control of its airspace. The rule of thumb is that whoever controls the air space of a country has the upper hand in any potential conflict and would have the other country on its knees begging for mercy.
It is imperative for military and homeland security strategy to secure airspace at a time when the Chinese government has been labeled as a hostile state by the western world. On top of that the United States has had to shoot down three additional flying objects over US air space in the last week. This has everyone wondering if this has been going on for a while and how much information did China get?
China is claiming that it was a wayward weather balloon that was pushed off course by unpredictable high winds. If that were the case, it would be logical to assume that these types of accidents would happen all the time with weather balloons but this is the first instance (at least that the public has heard about) of it happening after about a century of weather balloons being in existence. According to NDTV, “The spectacle of the Chinese balloon drifting over the United States caused political outrage in Washington and brought into sharp focus the challenge posed by China to the United States and its allies.”
This incident is causing many nations around the world to revisit their protocols around airspace intrusion and what it means for their security. Britain’s defense secretary said, “The UK and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security. This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse.” When Britain completes their security review, it will then use the information that is obtained to decide on whether or not changes need to be made to its surveillance of British airspace to ensure that they don’t have flying objects that are potentially spying on its country.
When asked Junior Transport Minister Richard Holden did not deny that it is possible that British airspace could have previously been encroached on and that the government might not have known about it occurring. That is a scary thought that with all the satellites circling the globe and all the technology that we have at our disposal that is possible that we might have been completely oblivious for who knows how long. China is considered by all the western aligned countries to be the biggest and most powerful potential threat to global peace and prosperity.
A Chinese government spokesman in Beijing commented that the United States is overacting and that it was a simple accident and not like the press’s current attempt to blow this situation out of control. If it was a spy balloon, we would know soon enough because we have it in our possession and US officials will get to see exactly what they were doing out there.
The fact of the matter is whether it was a spy or weather balloon over our airspace is inconsequential because neither government will not release the results of its investigation because it will have on our Homeland Security Council and the security of our nation. All we can hope for is that whichever they do find out about it that the people in the know that we have elected can design policies that will better help protect us in the future.
