Not just space based SBIRS watches for Iranian launches:

Iraq war logs: US spy balloons blew towards Iran
Hi-tech JLens blimps with secret technology used to detect cruise missiles may have dropped into Tehran's lap
22 Oct 2010

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...y-balloons-iran

Losing a balloon is usually a cause for tears, but when it contains high definition cameras and is drifting towards Iran it may prompt more than a good cry. On 24 April 2006 an American JLens balloon broke from its moorings at the UK-run Shaiba logistics base south of Basra, according to an intelligence report in the Iraq war logs.

"Strong gusting SW winds are likely to drive the balloon toward Iran. MTF [more to follow]," said the report. JLens, which stands for joint land elevated netted sensor, is described by its manufacturer, Raytheon, as "providing long endurance (up to 30 days on station), over-the-horizon detection and tracking capabilities required to defeat the proliferating cruise missile threat". Since Iran has no cruise missiles but the US does, the benefits to Iran of the windfall of a JLens landing in its possession are obvious.

In spite of its "more to follow" promise no further information on the balloon's fate is reported in the war logs. What does follow is a second similar incident. On 5 May 2006 another JLens broke from its moorings at Camp Abu Naji in Amara, also close to the Iranian border. It drifted up towards the clouds and once again strong westerly winds blew it towards Iran. The crisis was serious enough for the intelligence report to say an F-18 fighter plane was tasked to try to shoot it down ? "NFDK" [no further details known]. Again the balloon's fate remains unclear.

Worse was to come on 10 October 2006 when controllers in Basra lost a Predator drone, an unmanned surveillance plane, when it was on a flight path that led to the Iranian border. "Air traffic control tracked the UAV as it entered Iranian airspace for approx 8 mins to a depth of 5.5 miles," the report says. Three minutes later they regained control and steered it back to Iraq.

In April 2006 Britain had its security loss. Documents fell out of a Puma helicopter that was flying over Baghdad with the doors open, as is normal so that the machine-gunner could watch the city below. They included several sets of codes, according to an intelligence report headed "compromised classified information". As a result, it goes on, codes, signal frequencies and other secret data all had to be changed.

Left behind during our brilliant exit from Afghanistan:

Taliban Arrests Man Offering American Surveillance Balloon To Iran
04/22/2022

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202204229123

The Taliban said Wednesday they had arrested a man trying to sell an advanced United States military reconnaissance balloon to Iran.

The Interior Ministry in Kabul announced the man, named only as ?Mostafa,? and his still-at-large accomplice ?Alireza? were negotiating over a price well short of the balloon?s cost. The ministry said Mostafa was from the central province of Uruzgan.

The balloon is a tethered aerial detection system known as the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) and is used to detect missiles, drones, piloted aircraft, boats, and ground vehicles. JLENS has surveillance radar scans in all directions and can provide constant, 360-degree coverage extending 550km.

Balloons saw these being launched according to comments about the recent Iranian attack against Israel by a former defense official. That's what brought me to this balloon subject:

Video of the attack on Al Asad Airbase

Footage released by the US defence department shows Iranian ballistic missiles hitting Iraq's Al Asad air base on 8 January 2020. No US military personnel stationed at the base were killed, but more than 100 were later diagnosed with what the Pentagon called "mild traumatic brain injuries", which can include concussions. Iran targeted Al Asad in retaliation for a US drone strike in Baghdad earlier that month that killed the top Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGP7hZQuTL0

__________________
The other day I sat next to a woman who has a profound fear of flying. I wanted to comfort her, so I said, "Don't worry, we're not gonna' crash. Statistically, we got a better chance of being bitten by a shark." Then I showed her the scar on my elbow from a shark attack. I said, "I got this when my plane went down off of Florida." - Dennis Regan