Solar-powered military spy balloons are being used across the Midwest

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(KMOX) - Unmanned surveillance balloons are being launched to conduct "persistent surveillance" for narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats over six Midwest states. Missouri and Illinois are among the states that these 25 high-altitude, solar-powered balloons will fly over possibly through Sept. 1. 

According to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, a Nevada-based national security and aerospace contractor was approved for "experimental special temporary authorization" for the balloons on July 12. The Sierra Nevada Corp. balloons were launched in North Dakota and can reach a maximum altitude of 65,000 feet above ground, according to the filing.

The balloons' radars will track vehicles through the day and night. It's sensors and communication gear are capable of detecting every vehicle in motion in a 25-mile range beneath the balloon. The balloons can also capture video, according to the FCC filing.

According to The Guardian, the tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

It's unknown if the tests are connected to any active investigations and if vehicle data would be stored or passed onto other agencies.

More from The Guardian: 

Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”
The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States.
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