Of late, there have been reports of Chinese spy balloons—the surveillance programme run by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—targetting different countries, including India, Japan, and the US.
In a bid to counter such surveillance measures, a Chinese spy balloon-like target was shot down by the Indian Air Force (IAF) using a Rafale fighter jet.
According to news agency ANI, defence sources said the IAF shot down a Chinese spy balloon-type target flying at an altitude of over 55,000 feet over Eastern Air Command some time ago.
The balloon was released into the air with some payload before it was shot down. It was smaller than the Chinese spy balloon which the US shot down last year.
In February 2023, the US had said it had shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. America's F-22 Raptor with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile had shot down the balloon.
“These balloons are all part of a PRC (People's Republic of China) fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations, which also violated the sovereignty of other countries,” a senior US defence official had then said.
According to the US Department of Defense (DOD), "Military and commercial entities in China have been researching and developing high-altitude systems, including high-altitude balloons, since at least the mid-2000s."
John Culver, a former East Asia analyst for the CIA, was earlier quoted as saying that the Chinese balloons were "specially designed for these long-range missions" and some of them have "apparently circumnavigated the globe".
