The center portion of the payload was vaporized, while the large solar panels appeared to remain mostly intact.
Posted on 02/06/2023 9:29:56 AM PST by bitt
Ward gives the details behind the F-22 shootdown of the Chinese Spy Balloon that occurred on February 4, 2023, the first kill by a Raptor in the history of that stealth fighter.
bttt
6 min video
Not much to brag about. An unmanned balloon floating leisurely along is not exactly a dogfight.
Yet the payload appears intact after the hit and only seems to breakup after falling some distance.
The AIM-9X missile, the one that the F-22 used to engage the balloon, has an imaging infrared sensor, which can lock onto a target both by its heat source and by its infrared shape. This is to reduce the ability to decoy the missile with infrared flares, which while being a much stronger IR source than an aircraft, would have a vastly different shape.
The AIM-9X cannot be targeted at the instrument package or the balloon envelope discriminately. Nobody purposely targeted the balloon in such a way as to not be able to recover anything. That's akin to asking the police to shoot the gun out of a bad guy's hand instead of just shooting for center of mass.
The AIM-9X has an imaging infrared sensor that locks onto a heat source, then tracks its shape as it approaches. This is to minimize the ability of hostile aircraft to decoy the missile with infrared flares. The flare would be a bigger heat source, but not match the shape of the initial target at lock-on, so the flares would be more likely to be ignored.
The balloon envelope would be at the same temperature as the background air, so it would not be an easy IR target. The electronics package, however, would be giving off heat.
This was all about SIGINT
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And specifically about ELINT.
“it was targeting in the optical band”
That was in reference to how the video narrator said the missile targeted the balloon, not the purpose of the balloon.
Which means there probably won't be much of value to find in the ocean off the coast."
If it's a ChiCom spying machine wouldn't that be exactly what they would want?
Has anyone wondered how the balloon’s instruments were powered?
I have an idea…hunt: how would NASA power it?
Thanks, that makes sense.
Are you kidding? The payload was turned into a puff of debris. What fell were the solar panels.
Biden allowed surveillance of our strategic assets.
When the public found out, Biden was forced to act after the fact.
If I was a Taiwan resident, I would now know that Biden would act only after the fact if an invasion of Taiwan, and in a cursory fashion at that. I would be looking to GTFO of Taiwan...this inaction by Biden proves that Taiwan is going down.Just like he allowed the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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JOe Biden is a loser. Americans dislike losers. Biden has no hope at all of winning in 2024 s a result.
Biuden will lkely be booed in his SOTU address tonight.
I won’t even watch the lying ba$tard.His actions confirm that he stole the 2020 election.
Why wasn’t an AWACs plane used to jam it, to take control of it, and then bring it down intact?
I haven’t watched. Was there a warhead, or just kinetic?
The center portion of the payload was vaporized, while the large solar panels appeared to remain mostly intact.
I’m sure glad we spent all those billions to build and maintain this fantastic airplane to shoot down balloons.
Great planning, great job.
About like shooting rabbits with a howitzer.
I believe the Spad shot down balloons in WWI. Fresh out of those so go for the Raptor.
Wonder what brave pilot drew the straw on that coveted mission to protect our sovereignty after the fact? A lawful order is all that is required no matter how stupid it is.
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