Australia's air force chief says he's confident the defence department could detect any spy balloons that enter the nation's airspace.
Air Marshal Robert Chipman told a parliamentary inquiry the department had sought briefings from the US about four unidentified objects sighted in their airspace, including one spy balloon which was shot down.
"We would like to know what the source of the unidentified object is," he said on Wednesday.
"We would like to know how the US has responded to it so if we had something similar in our airspace, then we can take advantage of the learning from that."
Air Marshal Chipman said he had directed the air commander to determine what capabilities Australia had to detect high-altitude objects.
"We're confident that we can detect balloons, but I don't wish to disclose how and with what systems we can detect them."
Defence Minister Richard Marles said he was confident "we could not only track it, but deal with it".
Mr Marles said he wasn't aware of any surveillance balloons in Australia's airspace.
