The U.S. incidents over the weekend, as well as the downing of the China spy balloon the weekend prior, have the British reviewing their security and vowing to down airspace "intrusions" in their country.
"People should be reassured that we have all the capabilities in place to keep the country safe," U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday, according to BBC News.
"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."
There might have already been balloons flying over the United Kingdom, experts told The Telegraph.
"The U.K. and her allies will review what these airspace intrusions mean for our security," Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the paper.
"This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse."
The newspaper reported the security review would be used to help decide whether changes need to be made to the surveillance of British airspace.
Asked about the U.K. review during a regular briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said: "We have already stated our position on the incident in question. All parties should look at it objectively and stop playing up the issue."
Sunak declined to comment on national security when asked by reporters whether he was aware of any spy balloons being spotted over Britain, but said Britain's capabilities included its Quick Reaction Alert force whose Typhoon jets police U.K. airspace.
The spectacle of the Chinese balloon drifting over the United States caused political outrage in Washington and brought into sharp focus the challenge posed by China to the United States and its allies.
Asked on Sky News on Monday if it was possible Chinese spy balloons had already been used over Britain, junior transport minister Richard Holden said: "It is possible."
"The government is concerned about what's going on," he said. "China is a hostile state, and we need to be aware of that and the way it acts and behaves."
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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