Weeks after the US destroyed a suspected Chinese spy balloon over its skies, discussions on the issue are going on in the Indian defence forces as well, which are now preparing the standard operating procedures to deal with such a situation in future.

A similar balloon was sighted over the Andaman over a year ago by the Indian forces also but no action was taken against it insuring three to four days of its sighting over Indian territory before it drifted away. “The discussions on the issue are continuing in the defence forces and more details are emerging. It is now becoming clear that such balloons may be having a steering mechanism and can be stabilised over the area of interest of the owner,” defence officials told ANI.

The discussions are on about how to deal with such balloons in future and if required, what type of weapons or platform would be used to target and bring them down, they said.

The forces are planning to consolidate the planned response and give a presentation to the government for final approval, the sources said.

The forces have also started discussing the use the existing radar network to detect such objects over or near any point in the country, they said.

The forces are also studying international laws related to such flying objects which are operating at above 60,000 feet, the officials said.

Soon after the balloon over American skies was taken down, defence officials had stated, “Quite some time back, we had witnessed the balloon-type white object over the Andamans and high-resolution pics of the object were taken by our people from ground.”

However, the intent or the origin of the balloon-type object was not clear. It was also not clear whether it had come from Myanmar or China but it moved away from there after three to four days, they had said.
It was also felt at that time that it could have been a meteorological balloon as many such balloons come over India from the Pakistan side too due to winds, they had said.

“The officials said that if such an object appears again over the Andamans or any other region, it would be studied carefully and if it is found to be a spying object, it can be brought down,” the officials added.