"It’s only in the past 10 years or so that military attention has returned to balloons, according to Michael Clarke, a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, “because they see how useful they are, or can be.” "
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What did they attain from the balloon that they couldn't attain from their spy satellites?
Lots. A satellite travels miles out into space and has to compensate for the distortion of the atmosphere at speeds of up to 17,000 miles an hour. It has a very narrow window to surveil. A slow moving balloon at 60,000 feet can use ground penetrating radar to see under ground bunkers and installations, infrared to see if there is heat activity. It can tell whether a missle silo is empty or active. There is technology that you never existed that can gather sensitive information while loitering over military bases and nuclear launch sites.
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All that can be done with spy satellites without the pr damage
