A suspected Chinese spy balloon has been tracked flying over the United States for a couple of days, prompting officials to take action.
US fighter jets were readied, but military leaders advised President Joe Biden against shooting the balloon down, fearing debris could pose a safety threat.
Experts suggest that spy balloons have been used for centuries and that their use is likely to increase in the future.
This comes as the US military is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude balloon that has been flying over US sensitive sites for intelligence gathering.
The Guardian reports that the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground, while Reuters informs that the use of high-altitude balloons for spying dates back to World War II. The Sky News contends that spy balloons are just the "tip of a revolution" in the development and use of new high-altitude surveillance craft.
The US military claims that it has "very high confidence" that the balloon is Chinese, flying over sensitive sites to collect information; however, China has not yet denied that the balloon belonged to them, according to Sky News.
Experts fear that this incident is a sign of an arms race for high-altitude surveillance craft, and that China's capabilities may encourage the US to invest more in similar projects, as reported by Sky News.