The F-22's first air-to-air kill (and dispelling balloon myths)
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2023
- On Saturday, an American F-22 Raptor shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina using an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. In the days leading up to the intercept, the balloon had traversed the U.S. mainland and portions of Canada, leaving a flood of conspiracy theories in its wake.
Let's talk facts and dispel some of these myths and misconceptions.
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Further Reading
Full Write-Up: www.sandboxx.us/blog/chinese-...
Balloon coverage from Special Forces vet Steve Balestrieri: www.sandboxx.us/blog/china-in...
Balloon Coverage II: www.sandboxx.us/blog/china-is...
China, Taiwan, and US AirPower: www.sandboxx.us/blog/the-us-i...
Citations:
DoD statement on balloon from Feb 2: www.defense.gov/News/Releases...
Sec. of Defense Statement: www.defense.gov/News/Releases...
DoD statement on shooting balloon down: www.defense.gov/News/News-Sto...
F-22 service ceiling: www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Shee...
RC-135 Rivet Joint: www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Shee...
Assessing EMP threat: apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1051...
CF-18s vs balloon: apnews.com/article/268893fddd...
US Balloon program: www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone...
Balloon over Latin America: www.cnn.com/2023/02/06/asia/c...
Congratulations to the F22 pilot on the kill! But it’s still going to be a little weird having a red balloon painted on your fuselage.
Four minutes 40 seconds. How do you block laser links? You can block rf easily. How did they block the laser links? Spray paint the upward facing lasers?
Why use a first tier asset and a missile costing 300+k? An f15 can go to well over 1
65k, and m50 rounds cost $27 each...
@@thebarkingmouse the balloon was shot down at 60k, but the F15 can go to 65.
A lesser heat seeking missile would have struggled since it's not hot like normal jet exhaust. It's possible they actually were able to target the balloon to minimize damage to the payload.
Radar guided would have targeted the payload.
Laser guided with a radar proximity fuse would probably have worked, but IDK if we have anything like that.
@@roflchopter11 my understanding is that a proximity fuse was used but then will we ever know for sure🤷🏿♂️
@roflchopter11 record for an f15 is 98k. I meant to write over 65k, but put 15k in by accident. And the claim that guns would be ineffective is BS. Simply start strafing at 2400 meters. The time self destruct starts at 2300 meters, so there would be a hail of fragments followed by full rounds as the plane got within 2300 meters. If it doesn't go down promptly send another. You could send a dozen for less than the cost of that missile.
The incident with the Canadian weather balloon was different. That weather balloon was made with a mylar envelope and did not have a prestressed skin. Poking holes in it only allowed the helium to leak out through the small holes and it descended only slowly. This balloon had a rubber envelope under presetress. As we saw, the peforation of the envelope with a single Aim-9X (with no warhead) resulted in the bursting of the entire envelope. A single 20mm round would have killed it.
The bigger issue is that the F-22 would have to get pretty close to the balloon while traveling fast through thin air. Under these scenarios, it's hard to ensure the jet doesn't fly through the debris field after the gun shot. The minimum turn radius of an F-22 at 62,000 ft ASL is about 15,000 ft, which means if it started a break turn from 2000 ft range (~the effective range of the M61), it'd only be able to get about 130 ft off its straight line path by the time it merges with the balloon. Considering the Balloon was something like 200 ft in diameter, that'd be cutting it very close. It'd be incredibly embarassing if the balloon scored a mutual kill on the F-22 sent to pop it.
You don't know shiet about balloons
Awesome send my friend
Interesting stuff. 👍
It's interesting that they launched a warheadless Aim9X. Does that mean the missile can be recycled?
Your response seems pretty solid.
But the readon I asked about an inert missile, is because in some footage angles you can actually see a detonation.
I still love that the F-22 has a kill mark now.
In the shape of a balloon no less
kindof like launching an icbm to destroy an ant hill... a little overkill lol. im not sure i would claim that kill. Im sure the raptor could shoot down a bi-plane also
That plane be a balloon killa!
@@zhoubaidinh403 😅😅
That balloon didn't see it coming
Mike Pompeo said that never heard anything about a balloon crossing our borders during his stay in the admin.
Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that wasn’t mentioned here. Seems more like a deflection by the government.
Yeah its obvious this guy is a biden supporter. Parroting his administration's lies
The highest Intercept was done by a Lone F-15 Eagle utilizing a Anti-Sat Missile during the Reagan Admin.
That wasn't "air to air".
@@Mishn0 air to space. Sounds a lot cooler.
@@ferdievanschalkwyk1669 But this claim is for the highest air to air victory. But, whatever.
@@Mishn0 still *some* air in LEO 😆 “technically correct is the best correct”
@@dmacpher Touché, my good sir!
Thank you, I can’t express how appreciative I am for your channel. Your passion not only shows, but many of us who work in your communtiy, I’m presuming of course, are very appreciative for all you’ve done and we hope will do for us in the many years to come. Sincerely. Bill
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
@Bill You should always take anything you get from any source with a grain of salt until all info has been fully backed, verified, and confirmed. Just cause it's US Military based doesn't mean it's accurate or true. Food for thought Bill.....
You can get off your knees and wipe your mouth now
Happy birthday Alex and thank you for a first class brief on the situation.
LOL.... Alex do you work for the CCP?
lol, hell of a birthday present.
a Strike Eagle took out a HIND, an A10 took out two Hips, the Viper and a cow, and now a Raptor took a balloon.
as always, a thoughtful, lucid, rational analysis. great job.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
A-10 took out what?
@@MoonBeamLaser HIP is a Soviet helicopter.
finally someone who his telling the truth. As an retired air force, tons of people were asking me all kinds of questions from totally ridiculous and made up scenarios from the news outlets trying to profit from this to legit concerns. I can now refer them to this realistic and well presented video. Outstanding work, i am now a subscriber
Let me guess these garbage news outlets where Murdoch owned. If its hyperbolic or helping to incite riots on capital hill it be Rupert Murdoch.
"As a retired air force," English is not your first language is it comrade?
This guy has no idea what he is talking about period.
@@pauloakwood9208 Maybe he/she retired from a non-US or allied Air Force? Couldn’t it also be, like so many others these days, that grammar isn’t a priority?
Lmao all y’all have your heads in your ass and just as brain washed as the rest of the sheep. Because we don’t know much yet. Those that do are running cover storie..(aka) “FAKE NEWS” Just another Psyop. I guarantee the u.s knew about it before hand.. 💯 Just like china making a straight up copy of a b21 raider bomber. Maybe china bought the design? Hell they could have financed it!! 🤷♂️ If so it’s not a copy they own the damn patent now. This is what Nobody is talking about. And all these “hardcore “ patriots don’t even realize the extent!! It’s definitely a threat to our national security!! The biggest extent EVER!!.,, Period!! We are literally living in the new “modern” warfare right now!! And it isn’t fought with million dollar aircraft. It’s fought with information!! Don’t fall for it for America🇺🇸 sake!! They have all the information!! We get the propaganda!! And that’s a fact!!
"Fox 2 .... balloon down"😂
This is the first video about this incident I have seen that actually explains anything. Thanks!
Watch Climate Viewer on UA-cam. He does a pretty good job showing the balloon & its path. He is a sky watcher.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
Very well explained like always sir. Thank you!
Nope and not one real fact in the whole video other than the F-22 shot it down. Can't shoot it down it might land on a school or something! Hahahahahahahahahahah
@@punchthem4582 I’m sure you know better? How about you give us an educated response to this whole event? Clearly you know best, don’t you?
@@tie381 Lets see.... We have the a multi ton CCP spy platform flying over the most sensitive military sites we have in the US (8 days), Guam, and Hawaii. Do you really need me to paint you a picture?
@@punchthem4582 yeah I don’t see how that has to do with anything stated. And regardless, spy satellites will be able to track military installations no matter what. We have satellites over iran, Syria, russia, Belarus, North Korea, China, Cuba, and so on. We have systems to shield ourselves from satellite imagery. This is literally 60s-70s technology. If you think something in this video is wrong, I would sure like you to explain it. Because saying “ooohh scary they have satellites over our military bases!!” Is not a reasonable or good explanation to your completely deranged comment. But let me guess, Biden is selling our technology to the CCP, we should’ve shot the balloon down immediately, and the CCP runs the democrats party? Did I hit the jackpot on this one? 🤦♂️
@@tie381 And we have a Brandon voter. Nope, takes a lot to loiter a spy satellite over one spot for any amount of time and is much cheaper for hi res pics and "other" types of sensors that close to the ground. Also serves other functions as well. Will they float a EMP over next time. And no Joe Brandon Biden is not selling secrets Joe doesn't know what day it is but read up on the Pen/Biden center and tell me about Joe and Hunters "business" arrangements. Wake up.
Thanks for answering the one question I had, Finally! I couldn't find any other explanations of why they used a Sidewinder instead of just gunning the envelope. I thought the missile would potentially do more damage to the balloon's surveillance package, and just couldn't wrap my head around it.
They also say the AIM-9X used had an inert warhead to also help mitigate the damage done to the balloon's equipment so they could scavenge more intact stuff from the debris to study.
Also, getting rounds that high might not have been easy for an F-22, at least not without revealing the actual service ceiling of the aircraft and maybe even intentionally entering a stall by shooting through it to get closer and the right attitude. (As much of a waste as it seems to use a missile to bring it down, imagine risking the loss of a Raptor instead. Yes, they'd have plenty of altitude in which to recover, but shit could happen.) Note that the high end of the altitude range the Pentagon gave for the balloon at the point it was shot down was 65k feet, 7k higher than the F-22 when it fired the missile.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
@@flashgordon6670First, I live in the only state bombed by the Japanese during the war. I've heard of it.
Secondly, you're insinuating more tired conspiracies in the comments of a video specifically posted to dispel such conspiracies with actual facts. Take your snide comments elsewhere.
I saw a report yesterday that the -9X could get a lock since it used, not only IR detecting, but could lock on different shades of light. This Winder was inert, no warhead, so the package could be recovered.
At least it wasn’t the 300k version I hope
So basically it was a big dart?
Glad to learn of the 1998 attempt to take a balloon out with 20mm cannon fire. Twitter was awash with 20mm cannon noise. and also the risks of dropping 20mm chunks of metal all over the place.
Yeah, I had the same question but was too lazy to research the answer. Thanks Alex!
@@Anthrofuturism so because, it's not lethal, we should sign up for some 20 mike mike hail?
@@Anthrofuturism ok pal I'll drop quarter pound chunks of copper jacketed lead on your position at around 600 fps... (terminal velocity) lets see you survive a head shot.
@@Anthrofuturism yes dropping a penny from the empire state building can be lethal, same with 20mm rounds, at least the ones that don't self destruct.
@@k.h.1587 FYI...dropping a penny from the Empire State Building isn't lethal. That was a debunked myth. It's terminal velocity, isn't deadly. Unlike say...a brick from the Empire State Building. lol
Happy birthday Alex and thank you for the awesome videos.
It’s always a good day when Sandbox News posts
Happy birthday, Alex! Thanks for taking the time being it’s your birthday week to produce yet another good episode. I’m wondering if the balloon this time around was just a way for the Chinese to not only gauge the U.S. response time, but also to have an “excuse” to engage more aggressively U.S. and allies’ aircraft in the South China Sea.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
What a great point you mentioned at the end of the video. Immediately taking out the balloon would absolutely give away our tactics for taking out a threatening target. Well said
So taking it out after would conceal it???
The F15 owns the record for highest intercept when it shot down that satellite.
Technically doesn't count since that wasn't a test and not against a hostile target. Also since it was an exo-atmosphere it would be a space intercept rather than air. Just my opinion on it. But as far as official kills go, tests and training don't count.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
@@flashgordon6670 Alex is making BS rhetoric statement that all nuclear silos are protected of EMP attack... c'mon we know that!... we are talking about here is the normal people EMP attack will make America go backward for 100 years. all electric substations, water etc will stop....
Question Once a balloon, of any nation, leaves its international borders, does it lose the right as a sovereigns protection? Seems the frequent air challenges over the Aleutian’s and Bering Straits would have settled the question. Thank Alex. Your one of the best. Tom.
That's not how the law of the sea works, and I have to assume airspace would be the same. International airspace is free for the passage of all, same as international waters.
I'll send my comment seperate to ellaborate
Gary Powers anyone?
@@JM800 Exactly. We should've told the Soviets that Powers was just an onboard weather observer. lol
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
I was actually wondering why they didn't pepper the balloon using the Vulcan. Good info, thank you for this video! :D
It is disturbing to the extent that the other three balloons were not discovered until just recently when old data was reviewed.
I dont recall where it was said that the old balloons were only discovered afterward.
But I posed the question of exactly when this balloon was first discovered. Publicly it seems to have been released FEB 1st, but I would like to know when we picked it up visually or on radar.
Great video! Thanks for the timely and quality analysis.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
To disperse chemical or biological weapon, they wouldn't disperse it from 60,000 ft. They would drop canisters to the ground and then disperse after impact...we wouldn't know if some canisters had been dropped already, would we???
Low RCS thermos?
THIS - exactly what I came here to say!
( with the addition that the canisters would not need to physically impact the ground, but disperse from a suitable altitude)
Furthermore, the payload would not have to be bioweapons but listening tech, amplifiers, anything
Happy birthday and fantastic work! I always appreciate your sober and thorough accounting of the facts that we do know and your clear explanations and best guesses for the gaps in our knowledge. Always appreciate a good debunking too!
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
This was so much better than media.
Someone needs to remind NORAD that their mission also includes detection of slow and non-sexy aircraft, not just supersonic and hypersonic aircraft.
If the US was able to jam the balloon's communications, how was China still able to maneuver it?
Right
When I heard all of this from the news, I was suspecting exactly what you were saying. Not only was I right on the money, you informed me on details even beyond what I heard or expected. Thank you for such an incredible video.
Only Chyner has the atmospheric GRAPPLER!
Ok.
I really appreciate the in-depth analysis from your usual videos. I'm not a hyperactive 15 year old, i prefer videos over a minute. Way too many shorts videos ruined my inbox. This ain't Tiktok.
“Then its a dogfight….against a balloon”
*So when its called "chem-trails" its a silly consp theory but when its publicly admitted and called "Geo-engeneering" its stunning and brave?*
@Sandboxx - What I still can't figure out was why the Air Force didn't shoot it down over the Alaskan Continental Shelf. If they've already had these balloons pass over before, what new information would they be trying to gain?
Yeah that’s an issue.
Sandboxx: Lol, happy birthday, Alex! 🎉 We scrambled the F-22s just for you! 🤠
Great informative coverage. To the point and sincere.
Great last point. I haven't heard any other media source stating the benefit of using a delayed response to deny otherwise useful intel on peak reaction times.
I would say either pop it before crossing into Alaska or don't pop it.
Waiting till East coast sounded more like a Bourbon commercial than a political win.
All the time spent floating over Alaska and were going to say we wanted to wait till safe to be shot down makes no sense.
This was a disaster for everything except the pilot painting a balloon on his plane.
Happy birthday!
Also, I am glad you took the time to make this capsule. It's unbelievable how so many weapon 'specialist' has appeared out of no where to spread their BS. Especially since the beginning of the russo/Ukrainian war.
This smells of sarcasm. Difficult to understand if you were making a point here or just upset about something else that hasn't surfaced yet.
Please feel free to elaborate if you so choose to
@@ericluffy7970 No sarcasm toward Alex. He's among the few who can back most of his claims. And the thing that upset me is already described in my initial post.
This guy is a clown and has no idea what he is talking about. Could be a CPP bot talking BS.
@@ericluffy7970 nah he’s talking about people who just got into it and get their information from really unreliable places and then act like they know best. Fortunately nobody here is like that.
@@luigimrlgaming9484 whew. Thanks for explaining it.
Thanks for addressing all of questions I have come across. Also, Happy Birthday!
God it’s so refreshing to have an accurate take that isn’t stupidly politicized
Happy birthday dude!
If the DoD was able to stop all communications from the balloon, how did it continue to alter course? The the DoD say "when" it blocked all electronic communications? That could have meant anywhere between first contact to the AIM missile.
Regarding chemical weapons, a balloon capable of navigating at 65k feet....does not have to remain at 65k feet.
An EMP can be a nuke. Apparently missile defense is perfectly willing to let a balloon loiter for days with no response, whereas a missile might actually be shot down. It's a ridiculous notion....until the time it isn't.
The term "conspiracy theory" tends to be overly if not ironically applied. It's sort of a lazy effort to dismiss speculation in areas with a conspicuous lack of transparency.
Did we actually need to use a stealth fighter for a balloon? Was the DoD concerned that it might be detected by a balloon?
Thanks for providing the official DoD explanation. Now back to the WMD in Iraq.
You ever heard of pre-programmed flight?
@@afriendofafriend5766 Ever hear of a weather pattern that just happened to cover missile silos an airbase, a research facility and a submarine base?
By far the best breakdown I've seen on the balloon thing.
99 red balloons.
Floating in the summer sky.
Quickly becoming one of the trusted, honest, thorough, and accurate UA-cam channels out there. Cheers to you, my man! Your content is incredibly informative, well laid out and very easy to listen to.
Well done, Sir!
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
Except the balloon was first detected over Alaska, not Montana - so there are a lot of holes in Sandbox's story - not least of which is that there have been several such balloons, and none of the Governors were notified. Most of the Military base commanders including the ICBM base commander in Montana stated that he had no knowledge when questioned by the Governors.
This whole episode also remind me the Japanese balloon bombing attempt toward the end of WW2. I cant remember how many launch they did but apparently they did (Japan) compile records back then. They tried this after somebody noticed that the main stream above Japan also roughly cover North America. The Japanese situation was hopeless and already, they knew the potential of damages due to bombing would be minimal but they did anyway. Expecting some kind of trauma to the American public, and hopefully the public would pressure the authorities to stop the war. Pretty hopeless attempt I may say.
Japan did firebomb the US though. Interesting story.
Edit: I took the liberty to had your comment. For some unknown reason I cannot see your comment anymore so I will just paste it here:
A friend of a friend -Japan did firebomb the US though. Interesting story.
@@afriendofafriend5766 Yes. But with very little effect. Apparently. Most balloons and their loads where lost to the Pacific. The very few that reached North America misfired (duds) an/or exploded in relatively un-habited areas (including in Canada). Not a really successful story from the Japanese point of view.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
@@samyfay7786 several people were actually killed but because the USA kept a tight lid on the whole thing the Japanese thought it was a total failure... the systems they used were very clever in the way they worked and considering they were mainly using doped paper for their balloons (some were fabric) it was actually very successful flight wise...
The link to a Wikipedia article, for more detail: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb
Signals intelligence seems so underestimated and misunderstood
All I really want to know is what kind of instruments they equipped on it. Would give hints for what they were looking for or are interested in.
Obv we don't know if/when we'll ever get to know much about it, but if you ever find anything out, i'm interested, Sandboxx. Thanks for your work!
Between you, ward Carroll, and C.W lemoine., We are actually getting some accurate answers to what actually happened, and for that I say thank you to all three of you. For looking at not only the political side of this but actual response and real-world terms based on experience, and research as to why this was done the way it was
Thanks for sharing those other channels. I'm subscribed to them, but always great when folks help get the right names out to those denied by the Algorithm gods.
Note that "Sub Brief" did a good 10 minute video on the mechanics of the balloon itself. Forgive the bubble head LOL, but was pleased with his work on this subject for sure.
@@ericluffy7970 these contributors are exactly why I come to UA-cam University....the top rate professors, who are experts in their fields.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
Happy birthday!
Regarding the rcs, you talked about the balloon but forgot to consider the metal structure payload slung underneath which was over 20m in length.
Very knowledgeable response. Much appreciated.
Regarding bio weapons it could drop a smaller package over a city that would disperse its contents much closer to the ground... It doesn't have to disperse at 65k feet, it just has to travel to deployment there.
@T.J. Kong Which is why you shoot it down.before it makes landfall. I mean, who would think that China would spread a biological weapon against another country??
Thank you, Alex. You have largely laid out my thoughts on the matter. The internet critters at the time were quite the "thick" mess to trudge through. What was disturbing was the seditious talk. Some people seemed quite emboldened.
Thank you for the great military aircraft journalism.
Great video and Happy Birthday. Btw thanks for explaining the gun situation. I didn't know about Canada's experience with one.
Great video at the right time!
Thanks for answering the question why they used a AA missle instead of the canons!
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
I’m just glad Biden finally did something about inflation!
Nice.
Take your upvote, you magnificent bastard.
China Joe let it complete it's mission. He puts America last.
China Joe inflated that balloon to 65,000 feet
The DCS community is having a field day with this story with marvelous F-22 V Chinese Battle Balloon dogfights popping up everywhere in the last 2 days :)
Growling Sidewinder has just release another one which is well worth a look.
ua-cam.com/video/rqF-AEpUkZM/v-deo.html
Happy birthday Alex! Thanks for video!
“Dispersing a biochemical weapon at high altitudes is ineffective.”
Who said anything about dispersing it up there? It could drop a biochem bomb or have the weapon inside, so if it gets shot down the weapon comes down with it.
The Drive just confirmed a U-2 did a bunch of sigint over the balloon 😆 Can’t believe it’s still in use and finding new applications. Also happy bday! Edit: The ASM-135 is likely the highest engagement from a plane, the F-15A 77-0084 destroyed the Solwind P78-1 satellite.
I do not care what SIGINT they think they got off of it. I never want to hear about another Chinese balloon crossing our ADIZ without going through customs first. We do not invite foreign spies to spy on us, just so we can learn what they are doing while they're hear. We prevent them from coming here, or we detain them as soon as they are detected. Nearly all of our spies in China were disappeared just a few years ago, yet strangely, we are absolutely riddled with Chinese spies and Chinese spy tech in all of our electronics, and it turns out dozens of members of Congress and someone's son were on the take from people directly associated with the Chinese head of foreign recruitment, or from the man himself. Why is that? Doesn't that seem like the essentially the exact opposite of what we should want to be the case?
Where?
The U2 is not the right platform for the job. We had rivet joints and other elint and sigint platform is constantly shadowing it and jamming it and intercepting any and all EMF it put out.
@@Gabriel_McMillan “Hello Balloon, papers please”
@@BlackCeII yeah below the balloon - U2 was above it. They have a modified version for elint work - it looks like it’s got a external fuel tank glued to the ventral fuselage on a spar.
The presence of the Rivet Joint is really the tell-all, especially in Canadian airspace. That screams exploitable intelligence and likely offers the clearest reason it wasn't shot down earlier--they wanted to spend all the time they could with it.
It was released after examining the wreckage that it had no ability to transmit.
Thanks, Alex, for a great analysis of what has become a huge media sensation. You and Ward Carroll have put out the best, factual, non-emotive report on this that puts other "journalism" efforts to shame.
Thank you for the great video. Been subscribed for awhile, but just leaving my first comment today. In addition to the RC-135, I'd heard that there were also up to three U-2S aircraft also flying around and even above the balloon at different times. In addition to possible jamming, how could they be used to observe it? Has a U-2 ever observed other airborne objects from above, yet, so close to its own altitude?
They can slave their onboard camera's to the balloon. They would probably be tasked to image the payload to determine the sensor suite it had.
U2s can load electronic/signals intel payloads too
Great job. Thanks. People sure are worked up about this. I've heard that it zigzagged (how?) and hovered (how?) over our secret AFBs and used ground penetrating radar to see our airplanes hidden in bunkers which is surely all hyperbole. China may have predicted favorable wind currents and maybe they changed the altitude to catch a more favorable current but it seemed like there was no propulsion or guidance. Would have been nice to shoot it down over land to preserve the electronics from salt water and make retrieval much simppler.
There has been independent verification of the flight path that shows it circling around sensitive sites. This wasn’t the first time.
@@stupidburp I'm pretty skeptical of this circling or loitering business. It seems like a propulsion system capable of doing this, given the winds at that altitude, would have been visible. Plus, where would it get all that energy from?
@@stupidburp Source? Link? And as @sonictech1000 mentions how?
I think that the reason they used a balloon instead of a satellite was because the balloon could possibly carry ground-penetrating radar to further examine US military bases, something satellites could not carry or do effectively due to the increased distance
You could drive a side scan right by a base.
GPR (all radar really)suffers from the inverse square law for energy dispersion. From that altitude it would just scatter.
I find it more likely this was a "listening" satellite intended to attempt to receive and record US communications that wouldn't reach a satellite.
This feels like such a sputnik situation.
Thank you. I've been wondering about the size of the Balloon's radar cross section.
Thanks Alex for the logical and rational presentation.
Misinformation
@@wst8340 opinion or fact? Unless you explain with facts your comment is null.
I like your videos , very well done.
But gotta disagree on this one.
I just seen the pentagon knew about the Balloon and was tracking it over the pacific. They knew where it was from, what it was , and it's intention. They planned on shooting it down close to the west coast over the pacific, before going over US land.
The Biden administration said not to, because of someone (forgot the name) going to China for political reasons.
The Biden administration wanted it to slip under the rug until the meeting with China was over. The problem was the public could see it from the ground. Which is when they had to say something about it.
The reason the pentagon said anything now, Is cause Biden blamed them . I don't think the people who protect this country like being thrown under the bus. Especially when the person blaming them was the one who told them to stand down.
Also no evidence of any balloons under the Trump administration entering the US. The secretary of defense for Trump , said they would've remembered if that was a thing that happened. Cause that's a big deal. But they said it never did (so that's misinformation being spread).
Even former Generals are baffled why this wasn't immediately handled. That fact knowing it was CCP spy balloon.
Truth - Tucker Carlson debunks the claim of balloons when Trump was in office: ua-cam.com/video/sSwV7li-duQ/v-deo.html
i love how the 9x got spoofed by 1950s or 60s tech a few years ago but at the same time is capable of homing in on the balloon despite its low heat signature
The payload would have a substantial radar cross section, even if the balloon itself doesn't.
Exactly. My question is how did they hit the envelope instead of the payload. You would want the payload as intact as possible
@@sidtp7307 the missile used basically can "see" the target and be aimed after firing ( thats my understanding anyway)
Also, we dont know if the gondola has any RAM (radar absorbing materials) or shapes .
For that altitude, there are a number of coatings that have a dual purpose so you could have plausible deniability about the materials ( but not necessarily the contents of the gondola)
The real question isn't if they handled it correctly. They did.
The real question is - have there been other balloons they did not track? Perhaps smaller units at low altitude? It doesn't take the Goodyear blimp to float a digi-cam and a sat phone.
The Biden Administration seems to be hard at work creating the evidence that there have been balloons in the past.
Google earth must give you nightmares
@@woodchuck003 Or maybe, just maybe, there were.
@@jamesroe2846 LOL GE gives everyone heartburn from time to time at least.
@@jamesroe2846 As discussed in the video, not really the same thing.
Thank you for your sanity sir. With all of the disinformation and conspiracy theories being tossed around today, videos like this are refreshing.
This is definitely my favourite youtube channel at the moment
And happy belated birthday Alex!🎉
Wow. Actual sensible information about the balloon thing. So sick all the silly stories on the internet. Thank you for finally bringing some sane and logical information to the internet! Another excellent video. and happy birthday too. :-)
Narrator sounds like the he's getting a Gov. Check.....
Happy Birthday from Australia and thanks, I enjoy your blogs.
Thank you for an informative video. Information that the mainstream media did not discuss.
The USAF, chalks up its greatest victory to date, versus the terrifying Chinese balloon! 🎈😱 it’s not surveillance that the rascally Chinese are threatening.
You obviously haven’t heard of Japan’s balloon bombs in WW2.
5:40 yeah, the balloon itself has a small RCS, but what about the massive metal truss full of right angles hanging below it?
6:40 yes, because a balloon couldn't possibly drop small submunitions that disperse biological agents at much lower altitude. Per SubBrief, it was carrying numerous "weather sondes" which are dropped with parachute. It'd be trivial to replace the sensor payload with a biological agent, and the target might not be humans, could easily be our food supply.
7:40 so the way we know it wasn't nuclear armed is that we didn't think China though that a balloon would be a good option for a first strike? That doesn't make me feel better.
Few things:
The balloon was followed, trailed, and scanned. If it dropped submunitions, we would have seen it and shot it before it could’ve deployed. Additionally, they would have localized the submunitions and prevented it from spreading.
A nuclear balloon detonation over the United States would have been considered an act of war and we would respond with a full annihilation of China. One Nuke, even over a city, would be recoverable. A full nuclear strike from the US is not. That’s why it would be foolish for China to do something like that. Additionally, for a single nuclear detonation to have significant impact, it needs to be precise. It could mean the difference between killing millions vs killing no one. A balloon drifts way too much to be usable for such an operation.
They could just drone up a civilian jet and load it with a nuclear weapon, and even get proper atc clearances. They know these balloons, the payloads, and probably observed it closely early and could probably tell it's non nuclear. But even without that, there's no reason to treat this like a nuclear threat. There's many other ways to sends a nuclear device too. There's the big picture. Why would China send one balloon with one nuke?
There's also way better, way less observable ways to spread a biological weapon. You don't need as huge balloon to get a small package the size of weather sonde into the US.
Alex, you come off a bit as a Biden apologist here, and I generally love your content. 1) If falling debris was really the concern, then why not just shoot it down over the Aleutian Islands. 2) You said a nuclear tipped missile makes more sense for a first strike because it's more precise. However, ANY missile fired by China would provoke an immediate response in kind. 3) An EMP weapon doesn't need to be precise because its goal is to blacken an area in advance of more precise weapons. 4) Regardless of whether or not the DOD was able to jam the transmissions it made, which we have to take their word on. This whole situation is just a really bad look for the United States. It might be true that there was something to gain by letting it fly and recovering the debris, but it must also be considered what message it sends to the the American people and to the Chinese leadership. Just like pulling the F-15s out of Japan might make sense on paper, to China and to our people these moves scream of WEAKNESS.
I don't think Alex realized that due the the differences in Chinese culture the CCP has taken for this encounter that it is able to send more balloons.
if that's a "kill" then I've destroyed tons of enemy combatants.
F22 engaged in dogfight with balloon. Big achievement!😂😅
You trust the official government statements too much.
you don't believe our military has ablility to determine the capability of that balloon?
@@yaobin1 they absolutely do, but they also lie under the "national security" excuse. The pentagon literally lost a trillion dollar's twice in their budget.
Channel reported for Misinformation
Thanks Alex , your knowledge is awesome!
Thanks for clearing things up
If you believe the government on this one you are a very special kind of gullible.
This is a military assessment of the interception. As a general rule, I don’t trust everything the government says, but this makes more logical sense than any conspiracy theory to the contrary.
Watch the last two minutes again
*If you believe the government about ANYTHING, you're a special kind of gullible.
Fixed it
I love scrolling down the bottom of YT comments on videos like this to see what the know it all contrarian weirdos are saying
@@kingtrav feel free to educate us on how what he said was wrong, then. I'll wait..........
Thanks for the video you confirmed my suspicions as to why this got to the point it did
It surprised me how very few people know how dangerous it would have been shooting it down over land no matter how sparsely populated the area. They constantly kept it within the jetstream for that reason and to make it look like it really was out of their control. If you have any opportunity to study a reflective radar in an area experiencing a tornado, you'd see how far complete pieces of buildings can travel. 30 miles or more depending, and the winds at that altitude are so strong and unpredictable that even steel and glass from the balloon and the missile, could have crossed state lines and remained in the air compromising flight paths of commercial airlines for hours. Updrafts and downdrafts, that's how hail is formed.
F22 bullying a static big balloon is a no brainer.
Great video. Looking forward to your UA-cam Shorts!
Hitting a 150ft target is a no-brainer. Yet the F22 missed and hit the payload.
Alex…thanks for being a calming, rational voice in the bizarre world known as UA-cam.
Just out of curiosity does the F-22 gun have any height restrictions? I saw some posts that seemed to say so elsewhere but can't verify.
What would the military have done if an alien UFO ran through the balloon’s envelope and destroyed it? The military: “What balloon?”
I just saw another documentary where the F-22 pilot stated the plane does not have the point and shoot helmet that the F-35 has. Yet.
Thanks for your calm analysis
Supposedly the missile they used didn't have it's explosives on it. It just ran in to it. They didn't want to damage the electronics of the balloon so they can try to recover it.