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Reuters
Reuters
Politics
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

How China's balloon sent the U.S. on a hunt for flying objects

FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force F-16 jet fighter takes off from an airbase during CRUZEX, a multinational air exercise hosted by the Brazilian Air Force, in Natal, Brazil November 21, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker/File Photo

After the U.S. government announced last week that a fleet of Chinese spy balloons had visited the United States undetected in recent years, the military had to admit the obvious: it had an "awareness gap."

So the U.S. military has been adjusting its radar to find flying objects - including balloons - that are smaller, slower and differently shaped than the enemy aircraft and missiles that have long preoccupied the Pentagon.

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