---
title: "The Pentagon Is Launching Mass Surveillance Balloons Over America"
description: "The Pentagon has 25 mass surveillance balloons that can monitor and track individual vehicles as they travel across states."
date: "2019-08-02"
modified: "2019-08-02"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-mass-surveillance-balloons-america"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "military technology"
  - "privacy"
  - "surveillance"
  - "the digest"
---

# The Pentagon Is Launching Mass Surveillance Balloons Over America

![The Pentagon has 25 mass surveillance balloons that can monitor and track individual vehicles as they travel across states.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pentagon-mass-surveillance-balloons-america.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: ilitephoto/Flickr\</em\>*

## Eagle Eye

The Pentagon is launching spy balloons over the Midwest to monitor and track individual people and vehicles.

The point of the balloons is "to provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats," [according to documents](<https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=233815&x=.>) filed with the Federal Communications Commission. But, as *[The Guardian ](<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest>)*[reports](<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest>), that also means everyday people will be subjected to sweeping government surveillance — without their knowledge or consent.

## 99 Red Balloons

The surveillance experiment began in mid-July, according to *The Guardian,* and will run at least through September. The balloons will carry sensors that track every vehicle within a 25-mile radius.

The initial fleet will be 25 solar-powered balloons monitoring several U.S. states including Iowa and Missouri.

## Military Surveillance

While the Pentagon touts the balloons as a way to quickly spot threats, civil liberties groups have a different view on the matter.

"We do not think that American cities should be subject to wide-area surveillance in which every vehicle could be tracked wherever they go," Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told *The Guardian*. "We should not go down the road of allowing this to be used in the United States and it’s disturbing to hear that these tests are being carried out, by the military no less."

**READ MORE:** [Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US](<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest>) \[*The Guardian*\]

**More on privacy:** *Professor: US Surveillance State Is a Lot Like China's*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

## More

- [The Military Is Buying People’s Location Data From Popular Phone Apps](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/military-buying-peoples-location-data-popular-phone-apps.md>)
- [Group of Dudes Fear the Pentagon May Have Shot Down Their Balloon](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/group-of-dudes-pentagon-may-have-shot-down-balloon.md>)
- [Cops Are Using Military Spy Planes to Surveil BLM Protesters](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/government-spy-planes-are-circling-above-heads-of-blm-protesters.md>)
- [DARPA’s Balloons Could Hover at the Edge of Space Indefinitely](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/stratospheric-balloons-darpa.md>)
- [The Army Is Developing a Way to Spoof Soldiers’ Electromagnetic Signatures](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/army-developing-way-spoof-soldiers-electromagnetic-signatures.md>)
- [AI-Aided Video Surveillance Will Watch and Silently Judge Us](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-video-surveillance-watch.md>)
- [Pentagon: New Laser Tech Can Make People Hear Voice Commands](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/pentagon-transmit-messages-laser-head.md>)
- [Senator Says There’s a Secret Program Spying on Americans’ Money Transfers](<https://futurism.com/senator-spying-money-transfers.md>)