There are a couple of mistakes in this article.
The FAA controls airspace, not the DOD. Yes, the FAA has granted control of many areas of airspace to the DOD throughout the country, but the DOD has to periodically renew their requests for special use airspace.
Airspace above 600000 feet is uncontolled.
Professional pilots and air traffic control have been talking about the balloon for some time. It has been seen by the naked eye and by air traffic control radar for some time.
RE: Airspace above 600000 feet is uncontolled.
Didn’t you just add a zero in the above figure for the spy balloon?
RE: Airspace above 600000 feet is uncontolled.
Didn’t you just add an extra zero in the above figure for the spy balloon?
“The FAA controls airspace, not the DOD.”
In a regulatory sense that’s correct. In plain English, maybe less so. If somehow the US military could detect a fleet of 50 Chinese bombers flying into US air space, FAA would be irrelevant, any any “control” would be done by DoD. Again, assuming the bombers could be detected and that DOD has any capability of defending against bombers.