Incident Room

Spy Balloons: Are They Really a Threat? (2023x2)

Air date: Feb 23, 2023

US-China relations remained strained after a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down by the US military in early February. China has denied the balloon was being used for espionage, asserting it was merely a weather-monitoring airship that had blown off course. But what do we really know about spy balloons? And how much of a threat are they? The BBC's Security Correspondent Gordon Corera looks at the evidence.