The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: Timber Rattler on February 04, 2023, 11:12:18 pm
-
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-22-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-carolinas-with-missile
The U.S. has shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina as multiple assets have entered the area to recover its debris.
The saga that began with the balloon's appearance high above Billings, Montana, on February 1 reached its climax Saturday with an explosion and the balloon's subsequent fall from high altitude. Videos of the shootdown showed an F-22 Raptor launching an air-to-air missile at the balloon for the kill. This would be the F-22's first 'kill.'
In a statement after the shootdown, Secretary of Defense Gen. Lloyd J. Austin, III said fighters assigned to U.S. Northern Command shot down a "high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in U.S. airspace."
"On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path," Austin said. "After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload. ... Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty."
Austin also thanked the Canadian government for its assistance in tracking the balloon in its part of North American Aerospace Defense Command. In remarks to the press pool, President Biden confirmed he ordered the balloon shot down on Wednesday once it could be done without risk of collateral damage.
KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft, as well as F-22 Raptors were observed loitering in the area, along with a U.S. Navy P-8a Poseidon patrol aircraft. A U.S. Coast Guard HC-130 search-and-rescue plane also flew off Wilmington.
The F-22s flew with the call signs "FRANK01" and "FRANK02", a possible homage to World War One flying ace and U.S. Army Air Service Medal of Honor recipient First Lieutenant Frank Luke Jr, better known as the "Arizona Balloon Buster."
(snip)
- An F-22 Raptor from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base fired a single AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that downed the balloon from an altitude of 58,000 feet. The balloon was as high as 65,000 feet.
- The shootdown occurred at the first available opportunity to do so without threat to those on the ground.
- The U.S. took steps to stop and mitigate the balloon's collection, neutralizing its intelligence value and preventing it from sending data back to China as it passed over sensitive sites.
- There were three previously undisclosed intrusions by Chinese surveillance into U.S. airspace, but never of this duration. Two of these incursions came during the President Donald Trump administration, with the third early in the Biden administration. The Chinese explanation for this balloon's flight lacked credibility.
- The balloon entered the Alaska Joint Operation Area on January 27, Canadian airspace on January 30, and the continental U.S. over northern Idaho on January 31.
- This is not the only surveillance balloon operating in the western hemisphere, with another operating over south and Central America as part of a fleet at the People's Liberation Army's direction across five continents.
- What was an air operation to shoot the balloon down is now a recovery operation in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the debris' chain of custody.
- Debris from the balloon fell in only 47 feet of water, much shallower than expected. There are multiple Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the area but no timeline for recovery from a debris field spanning seven miles.
EXCERPT
-
The U.S. took steps to stop and mitigate the balloon's collection, neutralizing its intelligence value and preventing it from sending data back to China as it passed over sensitive sites.
Yeah, right.
-
Yeah, right.
I would like to believe that, and with almost any other administration I would have believed it. But with Biden, I simply cannot accept that statement on blind faith.
-
US airmen flying missions in and around disputed Chinese airspace better be watching their six.
The ChiComs aren't going to let this go so easily.
-
US airmen flying missions in and around disputed Chinese airspace better be watching their six.
The ChiComs aren't going to let this go so easily.
We need a new ace.
-
We need a new ace.
@Wingnut, yes, yes we do!
One can only "hope" that the PTB permit this to happen.
Disclaimer: Hope should never be a plan, just an "option".
-
The F-22 is one of two US fighters with a maximum service ceiling above 60,000 ft.
Being able to analyze the sensors in the package will at least give folks an idea what they are looking for.
-
The F-22 is one of two US fighters with a maximum service ceiling above 60,000 ft.
Being able to analyze the sensors in the package will at least give folks an idea what they are looking for.
Except it looks like they shot the payload instead of the balloon.
-
Except it looks like they shot the payload instead of the balloon.
The AIM-9 is an infrared homing missile. It will go for heat. Likely the payload was hotter than the envelope.
Who'd think, in this day and age, we'd need a weapon to shoot the gas bag on a balloon?
If we really want to know what they are snooping we need one or to adapt an existing platform to do the mission. Not many planes can operate at that altitude and deliver a missile, either. Guns might be better, but the question is one of whether the aircraft can get high enough and close enough to do a shot. (The missile adds altitude to reach the target.)
-
The AIM-9 is an infrared homing missile. It will go for heat. Likely the payload was hotter than the envelope.
Who'd think, in this day and age, we'd need a weapon to shoot the gas bag on a balloon?
If we really want to know what they are snooping we need one or to adapt an existing platform to do the mission. Not many planes can operate at that altitude and deliver a missile, either. Guns might be better, but the question is one of whether the aircraft can get high enough and close enough to do a shot. (The missile adds altitude to reach the target.)
Do we have a jet fighter that still has guns that can fly at 60 thousand feet?
-
Do we have a jet fighter that still has guns that can fly at 60 thousand feet?
The F-15E has a 20mm cannon, and ceiling of 65,000 ft.
The F-22 has an m61 vulcan cannon, internally, the door has to open to shoot. Operational ceiling is listed at 50,000 ft.
-
Except it looks like they shot the payload instead of the balloon.
@DB
Fighter pilots are NOT stupid people. They shot the payload instead of the balloon because that is what they were ORDERED to do.
BTW,is it possible some of the local radio enthusiasts MAY have picked up and recorded the orders for the pilots to target the payload instead of the balloon?
If so,I sure hope they make them public!
-
@DB
Fighter pilots are NOT stupid people. They shot the payload instead of the balloon because that is what they were ORDERED to do.
BTW,is it possible some of the local radio enthusiasts MAY have picked up and recorded the orders for the pilots to target the payload instead of the balloon?
If so,I sure hope they make them public!
I wasn't blaming the pilots. I expect they did what they were told to do.
The balloon was a big target that bullet holes would have brought down fairly slowly. It is certainly possible the payload was rigged to self-destruct if it descended below a preset altitude but that in itself would have given away the lie that it was a "scientific exploration" balloon. As it is, it is pretty unlikely anything definitive can be determined from what's left - and apparently that's the way the US government wanted it.
-
Yep, the payload whether espionage or inert, will make the biden clown show look like they are either idiots or cowards either way.
Their best strategy is for it to be left a "mystery"
-
I wasn't blaming the pilots. I expect they did what they were told to do.
The balloon was a big target that bullet holes would have brought down fairly slowly. It is certainly possible the payload was rigged to self-destruct if it descended below a preset altitude but that in itself would have given away the lie that it was a "scientific exploration" balloon. As it is, it is pretty unlikely anything definitive can be determined from what's left - and apparently that's the way the US government wanted it.
@DB
Well,that IS where the money is. Don't believe me,ask Fauci and his wife,Mitch the Bitch and HIS Chinese wife that is probably half his age,etc,etc,etc.