Chinese spy balloon over US
 

https://www.yourbigsky.com/billings-...ing-statement/

Harking back to Japanese fire balloons in WWII?!
Not the first time in recent years - and they don't want to take `kinetic action' (FFS, just say shoot it down) because of the danger of debris to those on the ground.

Probably an Alibaba order gone astray.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/i...62bde74004dac5


also last year, sighting over Philippines

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/dipl...outh-china-sea


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c1428c02b.jpeg

cheers

Yes, we had a thread about this somewhere, the airfield and the giant hangar for it, and how it was based on a US military experiment; this was also seen observing Taiwan.

Only 98 more to go.

Balloon is over the Montana Minuteman III silo areas - now has 2 x F-22A + KC-10 tanker heading there

Would be interesting to get hands on the payload.
But I guess too high for any type of drone with scissors...!
Wonder if it'll `drift' south-east over Whiteman...?

Senior Defense Official Holds a Background Briefing on High-Altitude Surveillance BalloonKey points:

Very high confidence aircraft is PRC asset

Aircraft is a surveillance asset

Limited surveillance value relative to other PRC surveillance assets

PRC officials have been engaged “with urgency”

Question raised by that briefing: If they have taken steps against surveillance from the balloon, but LEO satellites provide similar or better coverage then doesn't that run a risk of creating an observable delta? OTOH, It can certainly be a good time for a solid misinformation plan. Are there any secret carrot farms now laid out in the area? Lots of radio chatter concerning Christopher Robin's woodland friend?

The AF is not saying the altitude, but a couple of people with theodolites or sextants could get some known separation to find that out, most easily around dawn or dusk. About 2 -5 miles ought to be enough for non-precision equipment to manage a +/-5% estimate (any school children in Montana looking for a project?) Decent astronomical telescopes should have sufficient precision to get better results. Don't forget to correct for curvature of the Earth!

No nation has yet claimed ownership, therefore it must be a hazard to high altitude navigation and should be removed.:E

IG

If a drone or balloon with a telescope was to hover over my garden I would shoot it down. :cool:

They always blame balloons..
...Its Aliens I tell you !!!

Yeah, Montana being so densely populated......not.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/st...ana-population

behind only Alaska and Wyoming in terms of least densley populated states in the US....

To be fair, at least the Chinese "weather balloons" actually look like weather balloons...

Who is navigating that high except other balloons?

Wonder if its steerable? Photo on BBC seems to show solar type panels hanging below it. Any unusual movements from Chinese vessels in N Atlantic? Wot goes up, must come down.......

The similar Google Loon balloons 'steered' by changing altitude to get into suitable winds. Seemed quite effective for use as a radio relay.

"Google's Project Loon uses controllable altitude superpressure balloons to achieve flights of over 300 days.["

Google Loon is now closed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loon_LLC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpressure_balloon
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/k...loon-balloons/

Very interesting JimJim. So it just needs the jetstream data nobbling before publication.......

Yes, Montana is about 50% larger than the UK in area and has only 2% of the population - about one million. It's a big state - 550 miles east-west and 300 miles north south.

​​​​​​​You could shoot the balloon down with minimal risk of hitting anyone!

Why bother? Its presence is known and knocking it down gives an indication of high altitude defence capability.

Looks more like a university or scientific instrument than a military asset...

How did it get this far before being noticed? Doesn't the US have an ADIZ? I would have thought a 3xbus sized floating o ject would have triggered something before it was over the top of mainland US, and been dealt with before that point.

BBC News reporting that it "flew over several sensitive military installations".

Presumably, being a balloon, then like any other balloon it just went where the wind took it?

Top of my head but isn't most of it is thin plastic? And it would have a very low doppler.

I managed that as they were not marked as such on the half mil map. The discussion with MOD Plod was interesting as they appeared not to know about the omission either. It ended with "now that you know, don't do it again".

:O

Minuteman silos are easily spotted using Google earth - I doubt a balloon would add much info

Stand down - it's a weather balloon :rolleyes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64515033

True, but by the same token if it is feeding intelligence back in real time you don't want it staying aloft.

Presumably, the Chinese (assuming it was them) waited until favourable winds were forecast, and from nearly 20 km up it doesn't have to pass over the targets in order to get a good look at them.

Perhaps it is a stray weather balloon- but the PRC would say that, wouldn’t they? If it is actually spying then it might be more beneficial for the US to intercept its transmissions and decode what it is reporting than it would be to bring it down - if indeed they have the technology to bring down something flying at perhaps 80,000 feet. If they do have the technology they might not want to demonstrate it.

The “sensitive area” claim is a media distractor. While there’s plenty of physical security sensitive areas associated with Malmstrom AFB, there’s nothing sensitive to aerial surveillance. If you want to photograph an ICBM silo, go rent a C172 and snap away. Much more economical than a high-altitude balloon. Anything “sensitive” associated with the Malmstrom ICBM facilities is underground. The locations of the ICBM silos is widely known; e.g., the U.S. is required to provide its ICBM silo geographic coordinates to Russia (and vice versa) under arms control treaties.

​​​​​​​Wouldn't have to range to cross the Pacific.

Spying Over Montana?

Looking at a map I've always got the feeling that Montana is an old man spying on Idaho. Sticking his nose right into Idaho's business

https://media.officedepot.com/images...40_o01/8325540


You can't unsee that now





"If you want to photograph an ICBM silo, go rent a C172 and snap away" - Not so easy to do in the US any more. Not if you're not a citizen at least

If you know it is there, you do not give it any intelligence to gather other than height, pressure, wind speed, temperature, humidity, atmospheric composition, presence of pollutants, incidence of cosmic rays, ozone levels and so on. :=

Lol, good luck getting any government/military organisation to move that quick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb

Maybe it has been drifting around since 1945.

We used to!

Negloble over a 5 mile base line.

Nearly Legober ...... a bit early for that.

Fanger trouble

Not much to reveal as the U.S. routinely tests its various high- and mid-level missile defense systems. The oddity would be employing such a capability from the interior of the U.S. Seems a Patriot would do the job.