Now that China has lost an important intelligence asset, they need to rely more on other ways to collect data. One is a high altitude balloon system that has apparently been used before and is now drifting above Montana. I’m honestly in the dark about the legality of just going ahead and shooting such a thing down, but the Biden administration has decided against it. Nothing I’ve seen on this has said at what altitude it’s drifting along. If it’s at 100,000 feet, it’d be difficult though not impossible to reach; I believe the F-22 could zoom climb to that altitude, and would of course release a missile (that would doubtless cost many times what the balloon and it’s payload costs) well before then. But if it’s at 150,000 feet (kinda doubtful) then it’d be time to think about hiring Styropyro to slap together a few dozen sketchy laser pointers…
Pentagon tracking suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US
Photo from KSVI-TV shows a massive Chinese spy balloon over Montana. The U.S. military is tracking it pic.twitter.com/BWUBERWO1J
— BNO News Live (@BNODesk) February 2, 2023
Photos taken by coworker, Paul Holzwarth. pic.twitter.com/Ita7e32xWp
— John Martin (@MartinInMontana) February 2, 2023
4 responses to “Chinese spy balloon over Montana”
Of note is the Aug. 31, 1998 issue of The Irish Times..”Runaway Weather Balloon Dodges Canada’s Top Guns.”
They went though 1000 rounds essentially stabbing a jellyfish with a needle.
The thing is probably uploading its data to a satellite. They’re probably listening in and gathering electronic intelligence from the upload to let them learn about Chinese ELINT capabilities. That’s probably why they aren’t shooting it down.
I hope Bob is right, and we’re taking the opportunity to analyze what the thing is doing, but I suspect Jeff is also right.
Does an anti-satellite Standard missile carry a fragmentation warhead able to shred this thing? And wouldn’t the fragments pose a hazard?
Plastic TELEX balloons resisted hail long enough to get readings in electrical storms:
https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/telex/videos.html