UK: The UK government is considering the possibility of building its own high-altitude surveillance airship, according to the March issue of Decider, a magazine published by Britain's Ministry of Defence. The controversy over a Chinese "spy balloon" in US airspace just happened recently.
Britain's Defense Ministry reportedly agreed a £100 million ($118.6 million) deal last year to study "stratospheric uncrewed air systems", according to a report in The Times on Monday. It was also said that Britain was considering purchasing a fleet of spy balloons.
According to Ross Corbett, the project's military requirements manager, Project Aether is a research project "to better understand the stratosphere and the high-altitude platforms that might operate there".
The Future Capabilities Group of British Defense Equipment and Support, London's "centre of strategic research and innovation", is in charge of the study.
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Corbett said that exploiting [the stratosphere] effectively could have huge potential profits. He said there was still a lot of testing to be done before Britain could fly the surveillance aircraft for extended periods at 50,000 to 80,000 feet.
According to Corbett the UK armed forces and their NATO allies could use the proposed "high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air systems" for "intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and counterinsurgency activities".
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Project Aether collaborates with British business Voltage, the American Sierra Nevada Corporation and the European joint venture Airbus, one of the top names in the world of aerospace. According to Corbett, the research will give the UK an "operational advantage over our competitors".
It follows a widely reported spat between Washington and Beijing, in which the US accused China of flying a "spying balloon" over American territory and shooting it down with a fighter jet. China criticized the US for "overreacting" and insisted that the offending airship was a civilian one.
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in February that he was ready to shoot down any Chinese balloons if they were seen in UK airspace. Sunak said, "I will do whatever it takes to keep our country safe."
In a statement to the tabloid The Sun, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace claimed that China is "probably spying" on Britain and that "simple things like weather balloons" have been modified to act as sophisticated surveillance mechanisms. can be done.