believed to be more difficult to detect. Aerostats have been used by US and coalition military forces in Iraq and in Afghanistan. In 2022, World View Enterprises was in talks with the U.S. Army Pacific Command about using balloons to "operationalize the stratosphere" and develop persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Their modern balloons are large, having a volume the size of a college football stadium. Made of a polyethylene plastic, they do not create a heat signature and are hard to detect with radar, electro-optical, or infrared sensors. The balloons can loiter within a 40 kilometer area for four days to provide streaming video at 5 cm resolution for persistent monitoring of the movement of people, goods and vehicles. During the same year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences publicly disclosed balloons of similar design, but instead claimed they were for scientific purposes. In 2023, suspected Chinese surveillance balloons were blown off course to North and Central America. During Russo-Ukrainian War Russia launched ‘Military Balloons’ with corner reflectors into Ukraine to exhaust its air defenses. The balloons were believed to have radar reflectors intended to increase their visibility. See also Aerial warfare History of aerial warfare Balloon (aeronautics) Balloon propaganda campaigns in Korea Barrage balloon Fort Omaha Balloon School – home of World War I training program Incendiary balloon – history of balloon bombs launched by Japan against the United States in World War II Observation balloon Operation Outward – British World War II programme to attack Germany by means of free-flying balloons Roswell incident - A military balloon crash that was claimed by the army to be a conventional weather balloon, gave rise to conspiracy theories of a flying saucer Thaddeus S. C. Lowe – father of military aerial reconnaissance in the United States Union Army Balloon Corps 2023 Chinese balloon incident References External links Royal Engineers Museum Royal Engineers and Aeronautics Royal Engineers Museum Early British Military Ballooning (1863) Balloons (aeronautics) Ballooning Ballooning