Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think (Updated)
David HamblingContributor
In fact, bringing down this type of balloon may be extremely difficult, as it is likely to be highly resistant to the available weapons. It may look fragile, but the sheer size and construction of a stratospheric balloon makes it all but invulnerable.
There is also the problem of getting to it. Such balloons ride high in the stratosphere, far above the airliners. They do this to take advantage of the change in wind direction with altitude to steer themselves to where they are needed like sailing ships, then circling above a point of interest. The U.S. military has its own stratospheric spy balloon program with project like COLD STAR – short for COvert Long Dwell STratospheric ARchitecture, designed to lurk undetected in enemy airspace.
Such balloons typically fly at 80,000 feet or more – NASA’s version cruises at 120,000 feet.. The U.S. Air Force’s F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor both have a stated operating altitude of around 65,000 feet. While they might be able to get close enough to fire a missile, the balloon may be too high for them to shoot.
We know that large balloons are hard to shoot down from previous experience. In 1998 a rogue Canadian weather balloon drifted towards Russian airspace. Fighter jets from Canada, Norway and Sweden attempted to bring it down without success. Two Canadian air force CF-18 fighters hit the balloon with more than 1,000 rounds of 20mm cannon fire off the coast of Newfoundland, riddling it with holes. This was not enough to let a significant amount of gas out, and the balloon continued drifting.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/02/03/busting-that-chinese-balloon-is-harder-than-you-think/?sh=5f2c24f47d6a
How do stratospheric balloons work? Here’s a visual guide.
By Derek Hawkins, William Neff and Dylan Moriarty
If the Chinese balloon over the United States is in fact a spy balloon, James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said there might also be cameras or telecommunications equipment potentially capable of relaying information back to other nations. But it’s difficult to tell exactly what the balloon is being used for without getting a hold of the device itself.
“If you really wanted to know what it was, you’d shoot it down,” Lewis said. “You’d get the sensor package and you’d see — does it collect intelligence? Does it collect weather data?”
The balloon is expected to continue its wavering path across the U.S. mainland for the next few days and posed no serious physical or intelligence threat, according to the Pentagon.
U.S. military leaders said they advised against shooting it down because they worried about civilians getting injured by debris.
It’s not clear what the balloon is using to maneuver through the stratosphere. Some high-altitude balloons are carried by the current, while others may use a semiautonomous navigation system to set their course. In some cases, they navigate by finding a wind current heading in the intended direction and lock into it by moving up or down in the air.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/03/how-spy-balloons-work/