A Chinese Spy Balloon?

[Jager52]

Clarification requested. I am not that familiar with the AIM9 missile details. But looking at the take-down video when the AIM9 initially punctured the balloon, there was no explosion. There was a plume of gas rapidly escaping the punctured balloon. The balloon envelope was not shredded. The electronics payload fell away in one piece. It too was not shredded by the missile. If the objective was to salvage the balloon and electronic payload, would the AIM9 exploding warhead be removed or immobilized and just let it puncture the balloon envelope and let it fall?

 

[Denniss]

Should be possible to replace the explosive load with ballast, even the russians are capable to do so with former nuke missile sent to Ukraine to distract their air defense from fully-equipped cruise missiles.

 

[GrauGeist]

Clarification requested. I am not that familiar with the AIM9 missile details. But looking at the take-down video when the AIM9 initially punctured the balloon, there was no explosion. There was a plume of gas rapidly escaping the punctured balloon. The balloon envelope was not shredded. The electronics payload fell away in one piece. It too was not shredded by the missile. If the objective was to salvage the balloon and electronic payload, would the AIM9 exploding warhead be removed or immobilized and just let it puncture the balloon envelope and let it fall?

The missile was like a huge bullet, passing through the envelope.

This is one of the reasons it wasn't shot down over land, because the missile would eventually fall to earth, putting populated areas below in danger.

In this case, the missile fell into the ocean.

 

[T Bolt]

My wife heard someone speculating about the possibility of a balloon like that carrying something that could generate an EMP. Now I don't know what kind of device could generate an EMP (other than an atomic detonation) or if it would be light enough to be carried by a balloon but the fact that this one was able to travel completely across the country unmolested makes the thought off something like that rather scarry.
Any thoughts

 

[cammerjeff]

Also the AIM9 could have been a practice version, or Blue version, that way there would be no warhead to detonate. Just a thought.

 

[MIflyer]

"Next, trying to shoot a missile at the balloon, which has next to no RCS, would be complicated,"

Reportedly they used an AIM-9X, which although "heat seeking" actually has a rather wider homing spectrum than that. They've had AIM-9's that could hit an airplane from the front, rather than home on the tailpipe, for over 40 years now, and they did not stop with that improvement, either.

 

[SaparotRob]

After the balloon was shot down, I voted NO don't it down.

 

[Shinpachi]

Baloon surplus of Beijing Olympic

Source: Ari balloon at Olympic Park

 

[hawkeye2an]

So, not knowing as much about missiles as some of you, a few questions. Does the F-22 pilot have the ability to tell the missile to not use radar or thermal imaging and just shoot at what he's looking at? It did not appear to explode, so just "Hey, Hit It".

 

[syscom3]

The missile was like a huge bullet, passing through the envelope.

This is one of the reasons it wasn't shot down over land, because the missile would eventually fall to earth, putting populated areas below in danger.

In this case, the missile fell into the ocean.

It looked like it exploded.

 

[syscom3]

So, not knowing as much about missiles as some of you, a few questions. Does the F-22 pilot have the ability to tell the missile to not use radar or thermal imaging and just shoot at what he's looking at? It did not appear to explode, so just "Hey, Hit It".

It was a Sidewinder. Thus IR only, unless there is a secret radar version of it.

 

[syscom3]

My wife heard someone speculating about the possibility of a balloon like that carrying something that could generate an EMP. Now I don't know what kind of device could generate an EMP (other than an atomic detonation) or if it would be light enough to be carried by a balloon but the fact that this one was able to travel completely across the country unmolested makes the thought off something like that rather scarry.
Any thoughts

For an EMP to work properly, you have to be in low earth orbit. 12 miles up isn't effective.

 

[syscom3]

I can see a new RFP being typed up right now. A drone that can fly up to 100K in altitude and can carry 2X Aim-9's.

 

[GrauGeist]

It looked like it exploded.

No explosion, the force of impact caused a vapor cloud, but the missile literally popped the balloon.

 

[MIflyer]

No explosion, the force of impact caused a vapor cloud, but the missile literally popped the balloon.

I wonder if the proximity fuse used in the AIM-9 would activate under those circumstances. I would guess it would but they could have deactivated it.

 

[syscom3]

This is the AF shoulder patch for the team that shot down the balloon.

Notice the Winnie the Pooh character. Guess who he represents, LOL!!!

 

[Greg Boeser]

Oh, bother!

 

[GrauGeist]

Oh, so now China "reserves the right to deal with similar situations"?

So here we go with the Putin-esque outrage when called out for f**kery.

China says it 'reserves the right' to deal with 'similar situations' after US jets shoot down suspected spy balloon | CNN

China has expressed its "strong dissatisfaction and protest" against the United States' decision to shoot down its high-altitude balloon, accusing it of "overreacting" and "seriously violating international practice."

www.cnn.com

 

[hawkeye2an]

It was a Sidewinder. Thus IR only, unless there is a secret radar version of it.

Granted it is wiki, but this is what i was going off of.

 

[hawkeye2an]

From defense daily briefing:
WASHINGTON — Chinese high-altitude balloons have previously floated near or across parts of the US without being detected because US Northern Command does not have the correct mix of sensor capabilities, according to the commanding general responsible for homeland defense. Last week's balloon mania reached an apex Saturday when an F-22 Raptor fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at what the Pentagon said was a Chinese "surveillance balloon" that had floated across the American heartland for days. After the strike, the craft's payload crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the southeast US coast. White House and Pentagon officials said today it will take time to sort through the debris and figure out the payload's capabilities, but the incident already has highlighted an apparent blind spot in America's air defenses. "It's my responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those [previous] threats, and that's a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out," Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of USNORTHCOM and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told reporters today. The four-star general, a staunch proponent of beefing up US sensing capabilities to include over-the-horizon radars, did not disclose the number of past detection failures or where the balloons had flown. John Kirby, the White House National Security Council's coordinator for strategic communications, said today that the Biden administration discovered three incidents during the Trump administration when "surveillance balloons, by the [Chinese government] transited US airspace" for "brief periods of time." On Saturday a senior defense official old reporters there had been another incident earlier in Biden's presidency. None were for the duration of last week's saga. VanHerk said it was the intelligence community that later discovered evidence of the other flights. "The intel community, after the fact … assessed those threats through additional means of collection and made us aware of those balloons that were previously approaching North America or transiting North America," VanHerck said. He noted that USNORTHCOM does not have the authority to collect intelligence inside US borders but was able to track the movement of last week's balloon because it was granted "specific authorities." Despite the Pentagon's disclosure of Trump-era balloons, some top Trump administration officials, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have said this is news to them. Kirby said the administration is preparing to brief "key officials" from the Trump administration about the balloon intelligence.
As the balloon political drama continues to play out in Washington between the two administrations and some members of Congress, Beijing is maintaining that the downed balloon was a civilian weather vessel — a story no US official appears to be buying — and said Washington overreacted. "We solemnly protest this move by the US side and reserve the right to take necessary measures to deal with similar situations," Senior Col. Tan Kefei, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement released on Sunday. VanHerk said the Pentagon is ready to "exploit" the balloon's remnants once sailors on the USS Carter Hall finish collecting what they can from the 1,500 meters by 1,500 meters debris field. He also said the FBI was working with the military "as we collect this under counterintelligence authorities."