UK PM Rishi Sunak Promises To Do 'Whatever It Takes' To Defend Country From 'Spy' Balloons

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that his government will do "whatever it takes" to keep the country safe from spy balloons.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks on surveillance balloon threat

Source : PTI

New Delhi: The issue of the ‘spy’ balloon seems to have become a matter of international concern with now the United Kingdom putting the military on alert to review the security after the US shot down a series of flying objects recently. 

According to the BBC, Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak said that his government will do "whatever it takes" to keep the country safe from spy balloons. He added that a "quick reaction alert force" of RAF Typhoon jets was on stand-by 24/7 to "police our airspace". 

 However, BBC mentioned, that Sunak did not dive into details citing "national security matters". 

Reportedly, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is conducting a security review after the US military shot down several high-altitude objects in Western airspace. Wallace said on Sunday that the UK and its allies would "review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security".  

"This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse," the BBC report quoted the Defence Secretary. 

On 4th February, the US military shot down a suspected Chinese ‘spy’ balloon after it travelled over sensitive military sites across North America. Later, China claimed the object was a weather balloon gone astray. 

Since then, three more "unidentified objects" have been downed across North America, including shooting down the latest one over Michigan on Sunday. 

Last week on Friday, the US military shot down an unknown "car-sized" object flying in US airspace off the coast of Alaska. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said that he ordered a US fighter jet to shoot down an unidentified object that was flying high over northern Canada. 

Addressing the concern of safe and secure airspace, Sunak said, "People should be reassured that we have all the capabilities in place to keep the country safe." 

"We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important," he added, quoted BBC. 

UK On China Surveillance Threat 

Earlier, UK Transport minister Richard Holden suggested that it was "possible" that Chinese spy balloons might already have flown over the region. 

According to BBC, he said the UK government was "concerned about what's going on" in the US and had to be "robust" in how it dealt with Beijing. 

Downing Street said in a statement that the UK was "well prepared" to deal with security threats to British airspace, with threats judged on a "case-by-case" basis. 

 The prime minister's official spokesman said, "China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests."  

"It is a challenge that grows more acute as it moves to even greater authoritarianism, " the spokesperson added. "You will know we are updating the Integrated Review and it will take into account some of these evolving challenges we are seeing," the spokesman said, as quoted by BBC. 

Reacting to the incident, Conservative chairman of the Commons defence select committee Tobias Ellwood, said that China was "exploiting the West's weakness" with the potential spy balloons.