The China Thread (Threat)

JedisonsDad said:
I’ve seen between 50,000 and 67,000.

I’m curious why it’s not reporting location like the project Loon balloons do.
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BloodStripe said:
To add more info: Our jets typically have a max operating altitude around 65 to 70k feet. So you still need to shoot up another 10 to 30k feet. Not a pilot or a WEPS so I won’t pretend to know how hard that is, but it sounds hard.
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Most of our fighters can't get to that altitude with ordnance easily. But the F15 has experience in launching ASAT missiles. Seems like it can be done irrespective of altitude, and that a freaking balloon is easy pickings.
 
BloodStripe said:
To add more info: Our jets typically have a max operating altitude around 65 to 70k feet. So you still need to shoot up another 10 to 30k feet. Not a pilot or a WEPS so I won’t pretend to know how hard that is, but it sounds hard.


Because it’s a spy balloon, regardless of what China says. No different than a ship turning off ASI when they don’t want to be tracked.
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If it's above 80k feet a patriot couldn't get it, as their max ceiling is right around there if IIRC from my time with an ADA unit.

Now, a THAAD has a ceiling well above 100k. Could probably get it with that.
 
Blizzard said:
I think you guys misunderstood how quickly this thing has developed. We're talking a balloon here. It just appeared over Billings and there was simply no time to respond...
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Nope, it just didn't appear over Billings. It's not constructed of stealth material and it's not invisible.

The US military (mostly Navy and Air Force) and CIA flew these same types of balloons over USSR and China during the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and somewhat less used during and after the 1980s.

The first such was Project Skyhook-1947

By 1960s these balloons were capable of floating for almost a month at 30 km (100000 ft). The equipment gondola was between 500-1000 pounds depending on payload.

BTW, the aircraft configured to catch the gondola was catch the parachute it was descending under and not the balloon. The balloon couldn't handle the stress and it rate of descent lacks the predictability of the parachute.

If the aircraft missed the snatch then PJs jumped in to secure the gondola, usually in remote ocean area, but not always. ;-)
 
Marauder06 said:
One of the Air Force guys in the office suggested outfitting one of those C-130 jungle extractor-type planes for the mission. Not sure if that's plausible, but sure sounds interesting.

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The newer C-130s aren't equipped with the tracking devices and the equipment used to do the snatch has been in mothballs since the mid-1980s.

Attached video is of one specific unit tasked to recover film canisters jettisoned from a satellite. But catching equipment gondolas dropped from extreme altitude balloons was routine since 1950 through to about 1980.

 
Johca said:
The newer C-130s aren't equipped with the tracking devices and the equipment used to do the snatch has been in mothballs since the mid-1980s.

Attached video is of one specific unit tasked to recover film canisters jettisoned from a satellite. But catching equipment gondolas dropped from extreme altitude balloons was routine since 1950 through to about 1980.

Click to expand...
Congratulations for posting something others did a few hours ago. We are better for your redundant efforts.
 
Your welcome, but it wasn't a duplicate post or redundant as the video of the Fulton system (posted by another poster) is a ground to air retrieval system that differs from the video of the midair retrieval system (what I posted).

The post giving the link to the Corana info was applicable, but no video. So it's somewhat difficult to see the retrieval differs in aircraft configuration and complexity differences.

The weight of the film canisters jettisoned from satellites were significantly less in weight and bulk than the equipment gondolas jettisoned from extreme high-altitude balloons.

The winch used to haul what's recovered into the aircraft may be the same, but the other equipment and configuration is different.

The Fulton recovery requires the aircraft to fly into a rope suspended by a pretty much stationary balloon tethered to a stationary payload. The midair retrieval requires the aircraft to be flown over the top a descending parachute having a descent rate and a wind drift rate. A beacon tracker (the radome on top of the HC-130) was used (no longer in use after 1987 and removed ca 2007) was used to locate and determine rate of descent and drift rate to do the snatch. A bit more challenging process than the Fulton recovery.
 

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