French fighter jets practiced shooting down high-altitude balloons as the battle for near space heats up

• French fighter jets shot down high-altitude balloons with air-to-air missiles in a recent test.
• France warned that the battle for near-space is heating up and pointed to China's spy balloon over the US.
• Its defense minister said it must figure out up to what altitude its weapons can still work.

French fighter pilots shot down high-altitude balloons during a test amid renewed concerns over spy balloons and as France warns that the battle for near space is on.

Sébastien Lecornu, France's defense minister, said last month that Rafale and Mirage 2000 aircraft executed the first MICA missile launches at stratospheric balloons operating at very high altitudes.

The test was part of France's strategy to operate in near space, a strategic and contested area where nations like China have launched suspected spy balloons. The balloons, which can be massive, hundreds of feet tall, and carry advanced surveillance equipment, are points of concern and interest for the West.

Lecornu said very high altitudes were becoming an "area of conflict," calling the recent test a first milestone for his armed forces' strategy for that area.

French military officials, as well as MBDA, the multi-national European group that makes the MICA IR air-to-air missile used in the test, define very high altitude as the atmospheric area between 12.4 and 62.1 miles above the Earth.

Lecornu said the tests "pushed the technological limits of the aircraft, its pilot, and its weaponry" beyond an altitude of 12 miles. Both of the jets involved have a maximum altitude of around 10 miles.

"We must ask ourselves up to what altitude our weapons systems can still operate effectively," Lecornu said.

The "very high altitude" region where the recent test occurred is also known as "near space" and is the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere, well above where most planes fly but below where outer space begins.

France's armed forces ministry called this "a coveted space" that has operational advantages but, by the same token, can be used to challenge countries' sovereignty. Lecornu called it "a gray area, still poorly regulated," but said it was already "at the heart of the strategic ambitions of several powers." It's an area that's seeing emerging threats and challenges, like spy balloons, and that's getting more and more military attention.

Spy balloons

France's armed forces ministry said one of the "most emblematic episodes" of how poorly regulated yet coveted this area is was when the US intercepted a Chinese surveillance balloon in 2023.

The French ministry noted that it was flying over US territory for several days before it was intercepted.

The Chinese balloon, identified by the Pentagon as a surveillance asset, traveled over North America for a week, moving across Alaska, Canada, and the contiguous United States, before it was shot down by a Sidewinder air-to-air missile fired from an F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft off the Atlantic coast.

"This incident dramatically illustrated the difficulty of detecting and intercepting threats evolving in this atmospheric layer, while revealing the strategic potential of very high altitude for intelligence and discreet protest," the ministry said.

Gen. Alexis Rougier, who oversees very high altitude operations within the French Air and Space Force, said last month that he spoke to US F-22 pilots involved in the shootdown and that what they shared helped with preparations for the French test.

Though there are concerns about unwanted surveillance, especially of sensitive military sites, Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel who now serves as a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider that the balloons, at least for now, pose mostly a political problem.

He said the problem the US faced with the 2023 Chinese spy balloon incident was when to shoot it down, because "the problem is: where does it land and who does it land on?"

"It's really the political side that's sensitive," he said. Warfare experts have speculated that the spy balloon was intended as a political message, for China to show it could penetrate US airspace and also to test how the US would react.

US military officials advised against shooting the Chinese balloon down over land, warning that the debris could harm people and infrastructure. The delay in intercepting it sparked domestic debate and blame. When the American military finally shot it down, there were discussions of the deep cost-imbalance of using a fifth-generation fighter and air-to-air missiles costing around $400,000 each to bring it down.

High-altitude spy balloons are not a new capability. They've been around since the 1950s. The technology is relatively cheap and deniable, easy to present as meteorological research tools rather than surveillance assets. Amid the Chinese spy balloon incident, Beijing said the balloon was a weather balloon that had gone astray.

Balloons, though now notably improved over the early models, persist because of their altitude, endurance, low cost, and ambiguity of purpose. The balloons offer options outside of spy planes, like the American U-2 Dragon Lady, and satellites. Modern spy balloons are a mix of established technology and ongoing innovation.

Newer balloons can carry much more advanced surveillance capabilities, such as high-resolution multispectral sensors, signals and electronic intelligence options, and more.

High-altitude spy balloons can cause a host of problems, from hoovering up intel to forcing an adversary to expend significantly more expensive weaponry to bring them down.

China, which previously boasted about the ability of its fighter pilots to shoot down spy balloons, has had balloons not only fly over the US but also over Taiwan.

India has also experimented with spy balloons, and the US Army still sees value in balloons on the battlefield, opting earlier this year to advance a $4.2 billion program to develop balloons for a persistent tethered surveillance system.

Countries, like France and the UK, among others, are exploring how best to beat these and bring them down.

A fight for near space

Lecornu revealed a new "Very High Altitude" strategy in June for France's military, the purpose being to detect and identify objects maneuvering in that 12.4 to 62.1 mile altitude range.

The strategy includes air defense radars, new long-range and ultra-high frequency radars, and satellites for detection, as well as an "interception" component that uses fighter aircraft and missiles, according to France's armed forces ministry. France is also looking into developing surface lasers for space.

The new balloon test was part of the new strategy, MBDA said.

MBDA described the altitude as "an increasingly contested area of conflict" in a statement on Monday. It called the tests "unprecedented" and said they "demonstrated the feasibility of neutralising this new type of threat." It said the threats in those layers of the atmosphere include espionage and surveillance. Other potential threats beyond balloons include drones and hypersonic missiles.

The jets used in the recent test were both French: Mirage 2000s are multi-role, delta-winged fourth-generation fighter jets manufactured by French company Dassault Aviation, the same company that makes the Rafale, which is considered a 4.5-generation fighter.

France, unlike many of its allies, prioritizes its domestic defense industry and does not fly foreign fighters like the advanced US-made F-35s that a number of other European nations have bought.

France's armed forces ministry said France intends to occupy the very high altitude area "with national platforms, in a spirit of technological sovereignty." This aim includes accelerating some projects, like the BalMaN, France's own developmental spy balloon, and the very long-range solar drone Zephyr.

The ministry characterized the near-space region as "legally unclear— neither fully governed by air law nor entirely covered by space law." It said that the uncertainty "fuels growing competition between powers in an area where technical capabilities to detect, intercept, or operate remain limited."

Lecornu said it was important to start working in this space to avoid falling behind, like many Western countries have been on drone technology. "This is not about reliving the delay in drones. We must be present in this emerging space now," he said.