Air Stats News Today

break tonight, members of congress receiving classified briefings today on chinese spy craft, which floated across the country last week and shot down on the coast of south carolina saturday. we learned the suspended ands far from the only country china surveilled in the exact same way. and we found out exactly where some of the parts on the balloon were manufactured and what the balloon was capable of doing. congressional correspondent iowa hawkeyeaisha has more from the e house. repo...

States. put that other hat on if you would. >> i remember going back in afghanistan and saw the aerostat balloons and our military would say thats our border security with pakistan; right. i created the plan with dhs to bring air stats. theyre going to retire them anyway. put them on the southwest border and make good use out of them. it gave us great visibility on the southwest bored to detect and deter not only immigration threats but terrorist threats as well.

Provide security underground because of tunnels. tunnels. keep in mind that there has been what, 290 tunnels that they discovered going under the walls or fence, should i say for a long time. and then of course sea, because of the coast guard has to play a role. and then air. we need air stats. we need drones. we need helicopters and airplanes. >> but even just to get a deal, as a compromise, would you consider additional fencing? >> well, again, we got to look at what we have right now. right n...

And, so, i think this can all be done in a very more constructive fashion, if you will. but i do think its time to get this done and i just got off the phone with general kelly to talk about how we plan to construct this barrier, if you will, a multi layered one with fencing, with air stats, aviation assets, technologies, all put together. and then how much is that going to cost. because at the end of the day, wolf, congress through my committee and the appropriations committee will have to auth...

>> towers. >> the air stats, observation devices, mounted in certain terrain features. uavs for sure. sensors. in places perhaps that the wall cant be built or wont be built in, you know, any time soon in terms of the effort of that project, but yes, sir. >> finally, the moral of our border patrol is not real good. and i think you know from your leadership experiences that if the moral of your force is not good, then its hard to get the mission accomplished. and i hope -- i know youre aware of t...

Right now as part of the surveillance system on the east coast. when this thing is fully deployed at 10,000 feet it gives you a range and you can see from boston massachusetts to raleigh, north carolina. so these two air stats, they call them j lens but they have counter cruise missile and airplane and drone mode will pick up things as big in an area as big as the state of texas. this critically important because it takes the place of a lot of manned aircraft. these aero stats can stay up about ...