Zitat U-2 Spy Planes Snooped On Chinese Surveillance Balloon
U-2 Dragon Ladies had the ability to actually fly above the balloon and gather multiple types of intelligence about it from its perch. byJoseph Trevithick, Tyler Rogoway| PUBLISHED Feb 6, 2023 3:12 PM
he U.S. Air Force's U-2S Dragon Lady spy planes were among the assets tapped to monitor and collect intelligence on a Chinese government surveillance balloon during its recent trip across parts of the continental United States and Canada. An F-22 Raptor stealth fighter finally shot down the balloon with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, and efforts are now underway to recover the wreckage from the Atlantic Ocean. Readers of The War Zone can first get up to speed on what we already know about this incident, and its conclusion, in our past reporting here.
A U.S. defense official confirmed the use of the U-2S as part of the broader response to the Chinese spy balloon to The War Zone today. It's not immediately clear all the points along the balloon's voyage that U-2s were present. ... The War Zone has separately learned that at least two U-2Ss helped monitor the balloon while it was over the Midwest, using the callsigns Dragon 01 and Dragon 99. At least one Dragon Lady was also in contact at times with the Air Force's Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS), also referred to by the callsign Huntress. EADS is part of the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and is responsible for safeguarding the airspace over roughly the eastern half of the contiguous United States
On top of that, each U-2S can be configured to collect multiple types of intelligence simultaneously, as you can read more about here. One common sensor loadout for the Dragon Lady consists of the Senior Glass signals intelligence suite, components of which are spread between bays in the fuselage and two underwing 'Super Pods' when it is installed, together with either the Senior Year Electro Optical Reconnaissance System-2 (SYERS-2) or Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) in the nose. SYERS-2 is a multi-spectral camera system that can produce high-resolution imagery of a target, even at night. ASARS-2 also produces images, but by using a radar operating in a synthetic aperture mode, giving it an all-weather capability.
Yesterday, Politico reported that the U.S. Intelligence Community had previously assessed that smaller balloons detected off the coast of Virginia in 2020 were carrying some kind of radar-jamming payload.
In 2019, The War Zone laid out a detailed case for how previous reports of sightings of cubes with spheres inside off the eastern coast of the United States could have been balloons with radar reflectors and electronic surveillance payloads that could be used to gather critical intelligence about U.S. military capabilities. There is a historical precedent for this, as you can read more about here.
At that time, the 'cube-in-sphere' sightings had been labeled as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), more colloquially known as unidentified flying objects (UFO). The Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the United States and the disclosure that multiple incidents have happened previously over U.S. territory, including over the continental United States, has prompted renewed questions about whether other sightings of balloon-like objects may have been foreign intelligence assets, too. The War Zone has presented an in-depth analysis in the past of how some UAP sightings of various kinds are likely instances where people have spotted intelligence-gathering platforms belonging to foreign adversaries, usually operating in highly sensitive test and training areas.
In addition, while the Pentagon says that prior Chinese balloon incidents stretch back to President Donald Trump's time in office, U.S. officials only determined within the last two years or so that they were linked to the Chinese government. Details about how these assessments were made remain unclear, but this does seem to corroborate statements from various Trump administration officials that they were unaware of this during their tenure.
Zitat von Johanes im Beitrag #2Das Youtube-Video ist schon nicht mehr verfügbar.
Das hat sich im letzten Jahr so entwickelt - auf dem PC werden YT-Videos nicht mehr angezeigt & nur noch ein Link eingespielt "Auf YouTube ansehen"; auf dem Telefon wird es problemlos eingebettet. Auf meinem Telephon läuft es (bislang noch) einwandfrei; das Video ist also noch verlinkt.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Steganographie. Ich schlage Hans Magnus Enzensbergers spätes Florilegium "Fallobst", 2019, aufs Gratewohl auf, und es springt mich auf Seite 335 das Ezzerpt aus Strindbergs "Blaubuch" von 1907 an:
"Lösungen im Luftmeer: 10,000 Meter, oder eine neue Meile; das ist die oberste Grenze, die wir ungestraft erreichen können. Mehr wissen wir nicht!"
Was daran erinnert, wie sehr solche imaginären Begrenzungen über die letzten Jahrhunderte die Grenze des Machbaren markiert haben. Die erste war der Äquator, zu Zeiten Heinrich des Seefahrers, vor mittlerweile 600 Jahren. Die Stratosphäre. Die Schallmauer.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat Brian Everstine@beverstine NORTHCOM commander: Debris field from Chinese balloon is about 15 football fields by 15 football fields.
Balloon 200 feet tall, payload about the size of Embraer ERJs 7:19 PM · Feb 6, 2023
The military doesn't typically have the ability to collect intel in the US, but "in this case, specific authorities were granted" to collect intel against the balloon.
Won't go into specific assets. Trackers saw Combat Sent, Rivet Joint
Gen. VanHerck ends speculation on the warhead being removed. Absolutely there was a warhead on the missile, there was an explosion you can see
VanHerck: AIM-9X picked because of closer range and smaller warhead to limit damage vs AIM-120
"We assess from an effectiveness standpoint that it was going to be highly effective and that was proven on Saturday."
Interesting, at least to me, that NORTHCOM/NORAD wasn't aware of the AIM-9X being fired at such a high altitude before or any tests against a balloon. Not that either of those would have been an expected use for the Sidewinder
Ended up beign a "we'll do it live" kinda thing
Guys, it is NORAD. Their job is to monitor airspace. Not sure why it is so weird to make a comparison to an aircraft that is common in US and Canadian airspace.
And it is South Carolina, they’re speaking to locals. Probably the only thing that would be more clearly understood was if they measured the debris field in NASCAR tracks
Zitat Mysterious Russian satellites are now breaking apart in low-Earth orbit "This suggests to me that perhaps these events are the result of a design error." ERIC BERGER - 2/8/2023,
On Christmas Day, 2013, the relatively small Russian Rokot rocket launched from the Plesetsk site in the northern part of the country. The mission carried three small military communications satellites, but observers noted that the mission appeared to eject a fourth object into orbit.
A few months later Russia confirmed that this object was a satellite, and it came to be known as Cosmos 2491. To the surprise of many sky watchers, this satellite then began to perform novel orbital maneuvers, such as raising and lowering its orbit, that demonstrated rendezvous and proximity operations.
Then it happened again. In May 2014 another Rokot booster carried three communications satellites into orbit as well as a fourth object, which was designated Cosmos 2499. Finally, this happened a third time in April 2015, with a third mystery satellite known as Cosmos 2504.
These satellites, which became known as "Object Es" as they were the fifth object cataloged from these launches in addition to the upper stage and three communications satellites, have interested the US national security community. However, it is not entirely clear what the purpose of these satellites is, or to what end the Russians aim to use these rendezvous and proximity operations. Some of these maneuvers are cataloged, in detail, on the Russian Space website. ... There is no evidence they were part of a weapons test, experts say. However, the Object E satellites are now causing a more significant concern in low-Earth orbit. In 2019, Cosmos 2491 shed about 20 pieces of debris. Then, on Monday, the US military's 18th Space Defense Squadron confirmed that Cosmos 2499 had broken apart in early January. This breakup occurred at an altitude of 1,169 km and resulted in 85 pieces of trackable debris, said the military squadron, which is tasked with tracking all human-made objects in Earth orbit.
Brian Weeden, an expert in space debris at the Secure World Foundation who has studied the Object E satellites, said he did not think the debris-shedding events on both Cosmos 2491 and Cosmos 2499 were caused by collisions in orbit. Rather, they appear to be part of a repeating pattern.
"This suggests to me that perhaps these events are the result of a design error in the fuel tanks or other systems that are rupturing after several years in space rather than something like a collision with a piece of debris," Weeden said.
Zitat US shoots down ‘high-altitude object’ over Alaska, White House says The incident comes a week after a Chinese spy balloon was shot down over South Carolina Richard Hall 2 minutes ago
The US military has downed an unidentified object over Alaska, the White House said.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in a briefing on Friday that the “high altitude object” was tracked by the Pentagon over Alaska airspace in the last 24 hours.
“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight. Out of an abundance of caution, at the recommendation of the Pentagon, president Biden ordered the military to down the object,” he said.
Speaking at 2.30pm Eastern Time, Mr Kirby said that the object was down by fighter aircraft with the Pentagon’s Northern Command within the last hour.
Nachtrag. Das abgeschossene "Objekt" flog in 40.000 Fuß Höhe / 12,5 km. Abgeschossen wurde das bei Alpine - das ist ganz oben an der Nordküste; eine reine Werkssiedlung für Erdölbihrarbeiter; etwa 250 davon. Die Siedlung gibt es erst seit 2000; das ist die verlassenste Ödnis, die man sich in den USA nur denken kann. Es kann also ein paar Stunden dauern, bis ein Heli-Team in Schutzanzügen vor ort ist, sichert und dann birgt.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
Zitat Exclusive: US developed method to track China’s spy balloon fleet within last year, sources say - By Natasha Bertrand and Katie Bo Lillis, CNN Updated 1:27 PM EST, Fri February 10, 2023
The US intelligence community has developed a method to track China’s fleet of surveillance balloons that was only discovered within the last year, six people familiar with the matter tell CNN.
After President Joe Biden took office in 2021, a Chinese spy balloon briefly transited the continental United States, as administration officials have acknowledged. Afterwards, the intelligence community ran some of the balloon’s signals through the US’ intelligence holdings and other data to see where and when they may have popped up in the past.
The findings have allowed the US to develop a consistent technical method for the first time that they have used to track the balloons in near-real time across the globe, the sources said. The existence of this method could further inflame criticism from Republican lawmakers that the administration didn’t act quickly enough to prevent the balloon from entering US airspace last week.
Officials were also able to use the information collected from the earlier balloon alongside other sources to discover that similar surveillance balloons had transited US territory undetected at least three times under the Trump administration. Officials declined to say how the signals were collected, and it is not clear how long it took the intelligence community to develop the new method, which was first used in 2022.
But the new method is important because the balloons are extremely difficult to track without it – they are slow-moving and can fly extremely high, in some cases as high as much as 60 miles up, and can evade the more traditional radars that are oriented toward detecting fast-moving missiles and counterterrorism threats, a lawmaker familiar with the intelligence told CNN.
Officials emphasized that the balloon’s signals were an important key to discovering a tracking method, but not the only piece of the puzzle. One Defense Department official described the process by which the US was able to identify past instances of these so-called high-altitude balloons – what the Pentagon now refers to as HABs – as “piecing together” different clues from different sources of intelligence.
The revelation that the intelligence community only within the last year developed a reliable way to track China’s balloon fleet – which officials now say has flown dozens of missions worldwide – helps explain why Trump administration officials have stridently claimed to have had no knowledge of the three alleged flights over US territory during the former president’s time in office.
"60 Meilen" / 96 km halte ich für blühenden Blödsinn. Der höchste offizielle Rekord für einen unbemannten Ballon steht seit 1972 bei 51,8 km / 170.000 Fuß; höher dürfte ein Aerostat aus physikalischen Gründen kaum gelangen können. In 50 km Höhe beträgt der Luftdruck der Atmosphäre nur noch 1 Millibar; 10x weniger als auf dem Mars.
Zitat OSINTdefender @sentdefender An F-22 utilizing an AIM-9X was reportedly used to down the Aircraft which makes this the 2nd Air-to-Air Kill for the F-22 with the 1st being the Chinese High-Altitude Surveillance Balloon last week. 9:21 PM · Feb 10, 2023
Zitat Dan Satterfield @wildweatherdan I back forecasted the latest "Balloon" shoot down in AK. Based on the location and time, it tracks back to near the Kotzebue NWS Rawinsonde site. Did we shoot down an NWS Weather balloon?? There is no data for the 12Z launch from that site and all the rest worked. #Chinaballoon 10:41 PM · Feb 10, 2023
NWS = National Weather Service. Das wäre dann Kotzebue Air Force Station. Rawinsonde ist eine Kontraktion aus Radio, Wind & Sonde für eine Funksonde unter einem Wetterballon.
Zitat Dan Satterfield@wildweatherdan Pentagon says they are confident that the object did not belong to the USA Govt. That would rule out a NOAA rawinsonde balloon. Suspect they will need to recover to know for sure. Nome launches their balloon at 12 and 00Z. That is 3 AM and 3 PM local time in Nome. 11:51 PM · Feb 10, 2023
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
CNN spielt gerade in der Tonart "huch, die Außerirdischen...!"
Zitat F-35 fighter jets were sent up to investigate after the object was first detected on Thursday, according to a US official. Kirby told reporters that the first fly-by of US fighter aircraft happened Thursday night, and the second happened Friday morning. Both brought back “limited” information about the object.
But the pilots later gave differing reports of what they observed, the source briefed on the intelligence said.
Some pilots said the object “interfered with their sensors” on the planes, but not all pilots reported experiencing that.
Some pilots also claimed to have seen no identifiable propulsion on the object, and could not explain how it was staying in the air, despite the object cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
The conflicting eyewitness accounts are partly why the Pentagon has been unable to fully explain what the object is, the source briefed on the matter said.
In a statement Saturday, US Northern Command said the command has no new information to share about the object’s “capabilities, purpose or origin,” but noted that recovery efforts are being affected by Arctic weather conditions, “including wind chill, snow and limited daylight.”
The statement added that “fighter aircraft” downed the “high altitude airborne object” on Friday following an order from Biden and said recovery operations for the remains of the object continue Saturday in coordination with the FBI and local law enforcement.
“We’re calling this an object because that’s the best description we have right now,” Kirby said. “We don’t know who owns it – whether it’s state-owned or corporate-owned or privately-owned, we just don’t know.”
Zitat Idrees Ali @idreesali114 Canada's defense minister says the UFO shot down today was a small cylindrical object that was flying at 40,000 feet. 1:35 AM · Feb 12, 2023
PS. Uups. Da war der Anschluß falsch. Es handelt sich um ein DRITTES Objekt.
Zitat U.S. fighter jet shoots down unidentified, cylindrical object over Canada
WASHINGTON/OTTAWA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - A U.S. F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified cylindrical object over Canada on Saturday, the second such shootdown in as many days, as North America appeared on heightened alert following a week-long Chinese spying balloon saga that drew the global spotlight.
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first announced the shootdown over the Yukon territory in the country's north and said Canadian forces would recover and analyze the wreckage.
Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand declined to speculate about the origin of the object, which she said was cylindrical in shape. She stopped short of describing it as a balloon but said it was smaller than the Chinese balloon shot down off South Carolina's coast a week ago, but similar in appearance. She said it was flying at 40,000 feet and posed a risk to civilian air traffic when it was shot down at 3:41 EST (2041 GMT).
The Pentagon said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening. U.S. fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation.
"There is no reason to believe that the impact of the object in Canadian territory is of any public concern," Anand told a news conference. The Pentagon said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening. U.S. fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation.
"A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities," Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement. U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the U.S. military to work with Canada to take down the high-altitude craft after a call between Biden and Trudeau, the Pentagon said. The White House said Biden and Trudeau agreed to continue close coordination to "defend our airspace."
"The leaders discussed the importance of recovering the object in order to determine more details on its purpose or origin," the White House said in a statement.
A day earlier, Biden ordered another shootdown of an unidentified flying object near Deadhorse, Alaska. The U.S. military on Saturday remained tight-lipped about what, if anything, it had learned as recovery efforts were underway on the Alaskan sea ice.
The Pentagon on Friday offered only a few details, including that the object was the size of a small car, it was flying at about 40,000 feet and could not maneuver and appeared to be unmanned. U.S. officials have been trying to learn about the object since it was first spotted on Thursday.
"We have no further details at this time about the object, including its capabilities, purpose, or origin," Northern Command said on Saturday.
It noted difficult arctic weather conditions, including wind chill, snow, and limited daylight that can hinder search and recovery efforts.
Entschuldigung, aber WAS ist hier los? Nr. 4? Diesmal Montana.
Zitat Matt Rosendale@RepRosendale I am in direct contact with NORCOM and monitoring the latest issue over Havre and the northern border. Airspace is closed due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic — the DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning. 2:23 AM · Feb 12, 2023
Zitat Ian Servin@airplaneian New temporary RA NOTAM is out: Centered over Havre, MT. Surface to 34,000ft. Could be another imminent shoot down of a balloon or other object. 1:38 AM · Feb 12, 2023
Zitat BREAKING: FAA closes airspace around Havre, Montana, near Canadian border, for defence-related reasons By Chris King • 12 February 2023 • 2:21 Airspace near the Canadian border has been closed by the FAA around the city of Havre in Montana. UPDATE: At the time of writing, Matt Rosendale, the Republican representative for Montana, tweeted @RepRosendale: “I am in direct contact with NORCOM and monitoring the latest issue over Havre and the northern border. Airspace is closed due to an object that could interfere with commercial air traffic — the DOD will resume efforts to observe and ground the object in the morning”.
Zitat China Spots Unidentified Object Flying Near Port City: Paper
By Chi Yui Siu 12. Februar 2023, 12:30 MEZ
China is getting ready to take down an unidentified object spotted flying over waters near the port city of Qingdao, The Paper reported.
An employee at the marine development authority of Qingdao’s Jimo district said “relevant authorities” are preparing to bring down the object, the report said. The employee was not informed what the object was.
The person said fishermen in the area have been told to be careful about safety, the report added.
The US and Canada brought down three high-altitude airborne objects this month, including one Washington said was sent deliberately by China for surveillance. Beijing countered that it was a harmless weather-monitoring device that blew off course.
Zitat von Johanes im Beitrag #16Schlechter Zeitpunkt, grade einen Ballonausflug zu machen, oder?
Überhaupt nicht. Man muß nur die normalen Regeln einhalten, die in der Zivilluftfahrt gelten. Das bedeutet: Radartransponder oberhalb 10000 Fuß (ca. 3km). Hintergrund ist folgender: Bemannte Luftfahrzeuge oberhalb dieser Höhe brauchen gewöhnlich eine Energieversorgung an Bord, um die Besatzung am Leben zu erhalten. Also können sie auch einen Radartransponder betreiben. Andererseits ist man in den Höhen schneller und weniger wendig unterwegs, so daß Kollisionen zu spät zu vermeiden sind, wenn man nur auf Sicht fliegt. Aus diesem Grund gibt es auch Höhen, oberhalb derer man nicht mehr nach Sichtflugregeln fliegen darf.
An all das haben die Rotchinesen sich mit ihrem Ballon nicht gehalten, daher brauchen sie sich nicht zu beklagen, daß die USA ihr Air Policing durchgeführt haben.
Zitat White House says a leading explanation for the 3 downed unidentified objects is that they were commercial or benign These three objects have not yet been recovered, said Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who explained that the conditions to access the debris are very difficult.
WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday that the U.S. intelligence community is considering that three most recent unidentified objects shot down over North America were being used for commercial or benign purposes.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the evaluation is based on what the U.S. knows from images of the three objects and cautioned that the assessment is preliminary because no debris from any of them has been recovered.
"One thing we have to consider, and we believe the intelligence community is considering as an explanation, is that these could be balloons tied to commercial or research entities and therefore totally benign," Kirby said.
He added, "I want to caveat that we haven’t found the debris. We’re still doing the best we can with the observations that were made by the pilots, with the flight profile data that we’ve tried to collect."
The U.S. has shot down four objects this month beginning with a suspected Chinese spy balloon on Feb. 4. Since then, three more unidentified objects have been shot down over North America: one on Friday over Alaska, one on Saturday over Canada and one on Sunday over Lake Huron.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley confirmed during a separate news conference Tuesday with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Brussels that no debris from any of the objects shot down in the last week has been recovered. Milley also revealed that when targeting the object shot down Sunday over Lake Huron, the first U.S. missile missed. Fox News was the first to report that the first missile aiming for the object over Lake Huron missed.
Milley indicated the missile that missed the fourth object Sunday "landed harmlessly in the water of Lake Huron" and the U.S. military tracked it on the way down. He emphasized that officials made sure that airspace was clear of commercial or civilian aviation traffic.
Milley said that no debris from those three objects has been recovered due to rocky terrain and other difficult conditions.
"Two, three and four are not yet recovered. They are in very difficult terrain," Milley said. "The second one off the coast of Alaska, that's in some really, really difficult terrain in the Arctic Circle, with very, very low temperatures in the minus 40s. The second one is in the Canadian Rockies and the Yukon. Very difficult to get that one and the third one is in Lake Huron, probably a couple 100 feet depth, so we'll get them eventually, but it's going to take some time to recover those."
Die New York Times ist hinter Zahlschranke. Ich nehme das mal von SkyNews, die das von da übernehmen.
Zitat von Tuesday, February 14th, 2023 5:49amThe US military's northern command said in a statement: "Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure."
The White House says it has determined that China has a "high-altitude balloon programme" for intelligence gathering.
The US had been tracking the balloon as it lifted off from Hainan Island in southern China in late January, the New York Times reported.
China has said US high-altitude balloons have flown over its airspace more than 10 times over the past year - a claim that Washington rejects.
Zitat von Ulrich Elkmann im Beitrag #21Die New York Times ist hinter Zahlschranke. Ich nehme das mal von...
...der SCMP, die das lesbar bringen.
Zitat Downed Chinese balloon aimed for Guam but was blown off course, US official says The craft shifted course abruptly as a cold front moved in, and its flight over the continental US might not have been intentional Balloons and other unidentified objects have been previously spotted over Guam, a strategic hub for the US Navy and Air Force
US officials believe a Chinese balloon that was shot down after crossing the continental United States originally had a trajectory that would have taken it over Guam and Hawaii but was blown off course by prevailing winds, a US official speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday.
The balloon, which Washington accuses Beijing of using for surveillance and China says was a civilian research vessel, drifted across Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, then Canada and the central United States before it was shot down by the US military off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
US military and intelligence agencies tracked the balloon from when it lifted off from Hainan Island near China’s south coast, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The report, citing US officials who were not named, said the balloon had shifted course abruptly over the Pacific Ocean as a cold front moved in, and that analysts were looking into the possibility that its flight over the continental US might not have been intentional.
It is unclear how much control China retained over the balloon once it veered from its original trajectory.
A US official told Associated Press that the balloon could have been externally manoeuvred or directed to loiter over a specific target, but it is unclear whether Chinese forces did so.
Zitat President Joe Biden’s key adviser on China policy will leave the administration after the suspected Chinese spy balloon fiasco early this month, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing White House officials. Laura Rosenberger, special assistant to the president and the White House National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan, will depart the White House next month, the report said.
While her exit comes just after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese vessel believed to be surveillance aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean, Bloomberg noted that her “exit plans have long been in the works and are not related to the ongoing feud” between the U.S. and communist China.
Bloomberg also reported that the special assistant to the president and the NSC’s senior director for Russia and Central Asia, Eric Green, is also leaving his post in the administration.
Zitat February 16, 2023 The US Airforce may have shot down an Amateur Radio Pico Balloon over Canada
Since the famous takedown of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, US jets have shot down a total of three more unidentified balloon objects, now confirmed to have been 'commercial or benign'. There is speculation that at least one these three objects may have been an amateur radio 'pico' balloon.
One part of the amateur radio hobby is launching high altitude balloons with various radio and other payloads. Larger amateur radio balloons launched in the USA require FAA clearance, need a radar reflector attached, and usually continually transmit APRS telemetry before naturally popping and falling back to earth after a few hours, just like a weather balloon.
However there is also the simpler 'pico' ballooning hobby, which involves the use of mylar helium party balloons to launch small solar powered payloads that are only a few grams in weight. They typically transmit low power WSPR at HF frequencies and can only transmit whenever there is sufficient solar power available. Amateur radio or SDR hobbyist stations around the world can pick up these transmissions, and report them on amateur.sondehub.org and/or wsprnet.org. Well built balloons can totally circumnavigate the globe several times over several months before degrading.
While termed 'pico', the party balloons used can still be roughly a meter in diameter on the ground, with some latex balloons potentially expanding further at high altitudes due to the low atmospheric pressure. These balloons can be legally launched from almost anywhere in the world. In particular in the USA there is no FAA clearance required to launch them due to their payload being much less than the limit of 4 lbs (1.8kg).
There is speculation that at least one of the objects shot down over Canada, Yukon by a US Air Force jet may have been amateur radio pico balloon K9YO-15 which was launched from Illinois on October 10 2022. It was on it's seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days.
The launch blog post indicates that the K9YO-15 balloon was flying a silver mylar 32" sphere SAG balloon which appears to be this one from balloons.online. Unlike latex or rubber weather balloons which inflate and stretch as they rise into lower atmospheric pressures, these mylar balloons can't stretch, so their fully inflated ground size will be the same as their size at high altitudes, meaning the pico balloon won't get much bigger than 32". The payload was a GPS module, Arduino, SI5351 used as a WSPR and APRS transmitter and a solar panel, all together weighing 16.4 grams. A pentagon memo notes that the object shot down over Canada was a "small metallic balloon with a tethered payload" which fits the description of the pico balloon exactly.
The K9YO-15 balloon ceased all WSPR telemetry transmissions while flying just below Alaska since Feb 11 00:18 UTC (just before sunset in Alaska when the solar panels would stop working).
By using NOAA wind models and the last known location by Alaska, K9YO-15 was projected to have been over Yukon when the US Air Force shot down the unknown balloon object at Feb 11 20:41 UTC (3:41 PM EST / 1:41 PM Yukon time according to Canadian Defense Minister Anand). Reports put the altitude of the shot down object at approximately 40,000ft (~12000 meters), which matches the projected ~11500 meters of K9YO-15. Based on the previous days transmission times, it is suspected that if it were operational, the balloon would have begun transmitting again sometime later in the Yukon afternoon when the sun was stronger, but no transmissions have been seen.
Over on Reddit @ikluft (KO6YQ) has also written some insightful information:
Zitat I see you're all talking about my tweet. Yes, we are still watching to see if K9YO-15 transmits any telemetry today.
So far K9YO-15 has not sent any new telemetry since Friday before sunset over Alaska. Some have misread confusing data presentation on Sondehub which lists last known telemetry as covering a time range from then to now. Currently the last we've heard from K9YO-15 was Friday Feb 10 before sunset over Alaska (00:48 GMT Feb 11). But the map on Sondehub does show the last reported position.
These floater balloons often use only solar panels, no batteries. Batteries were dropped from the projects early on because they have limited charging cycles before they stop accepting a charge, especially in the harsh temps at altitude, -40F/-40C or worse. When the battery stops accepting a charge, it ends telemetry from the mission. So they only report telemetry during daylight, when the sun is at a high enough angle to illuminate the tiny solar panels. In the Arctic winter, the days are short and the sun might not get high enough to wake up the electronics. So it stays dormant for one or more days until it drifts back down to lower latitudes where there's more sunlight. So K9YO-15 was in a period where watchers didn't expect to hear from it for a few days. But we expected it today. So far nothing. As I write this, daylight is almost done way up there for Tuesday, Feb 14.
Willkommen im Zeitalter der Angst und Panik. Wer sich einen Spaß erlauben will, schickt einen selbstgebastelten Ballon über die Grenze, der wird dann von der USAF von einem Kampfjet mit Luft-Luft-Missile abgeschossen; der Einsatz kostet vermutlich eine halbe Million Dollar...
Kleine Randbemerkung (nicht, dass ich das tatsächlich vor hätte, räusper... ): Ich hatte mich zuletzt ja gefragt, wie komplex es ist einen Ballon zu basteln der 10km Höhe erreicht... ich hab von der Thematik nicht die geringste Ahnung, hätte aber vermutet, dass so ein Gerät schon sehr, sehr vernünftig konstruiert sein muss um im Steigflug nicht irgendwann auszugasen bzw. einen Hüllenbruch zu erleiden, wg. niedrigem Druck / Temperatur. Aber anscheinend ist das kein Hexenwerk, wenn man das richtige Material benutzt...
Nachtrag. Moment mal: Amateurballons für Flüge in die Stratosphäre!? Und dann:
Zitat Wetterballon 1600 Artikelnummer: 100150 249,00 € Komplettset Wetterballon-Komplettset Fallschirme Fallschirm 800 Fallschirm 2500 Elektronik Datenlogger STRATO4 Datenlogger STRATOmini Space Cam "Apeman" GPS Tracker STRATOfinder SPOT Gen4 SPOT Trace STRATO4case 9V-Batterie für Datenlogger Versandgewicht: 1.7kg Beschreibung Dieser Wetterballon ist für maximale Flughöhen optimiert und erreicht eine maximale Platzhöhe von 36.000m! Damit ist er unser Bestseller. Mit einer Nutzlast von bis zu 1600g kann er auch mehrere Kameras mit auf eine Reise in die Stratosphäre nehmen. Wenn Du wissen möchtest, wie viel Helium Du benötigst, gibt es hier unseren Helium-Rechner.
Christoph Neulinger – 7. Juli 2021 Bereits vier erfolgreiche Missionen in Folge mit diesem Wetterballon. Einfach mal lieben Dank für das tolle Projekt, die ausführlichen und hilfreichen Anleitungen sowie die Erreichbarkeit, falls doch mal eine Frage auftritt. Unserem Projektkurs hat es sehr gut gefallen und wir werden das Projekt auch in 2022 wieder an unserer Schule anbieten.
Jasoon – 9. September 2018 Alles bestens gewesen. Der Wetterballon hat ohne Probleme mehrere GoPros tragen können. Kann dieses Projekt und den Shop jedem Abenteurer und Weltraumfan weiterempfehlen!
Space-Star – 15. April 2016 Toller Wetterballon, hat unsere Sonde sicher auf 34.780 Meter (mit einem Datenlogger gemessen) getragen und uns tolle Aufnahmen geliefert!
D.h. für 250 Schleifen plus x für Helium kann ich mir in Wochenfrist etwas besorgen, daß allen Ernstes mit Außerirdischen verwechselt & von der Air Force abgeschossen wird? Nena wußte gar, wie sehr sie vor 45 Jahren recht hatte.
"Les hommes seront toujours fous; et ceux qui croient les guérir sont les plus fous de la bande." - Voltaire
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