If you thought that the relationship between USA Y China I couldn’t get more tense, I’m sorry to tell you that you were wrong. In recent days, Americans have gone mad to detect an alleged Chinese spy balloon prowling the northern region of its continental territory. It is not the first time that a case like this has occurred, but this has attracted special attention because it has been easily seen from the ground in some cities, such as Billings, Montana.
The US Department of Defense did not hesitate to point to China as responsible for sending the balloon for reconnaissance tasks. And the authorities of the Asian giant They have recognized that it belongs to them.; Nevertheless, They have denied that it is a spy balloon. According to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is a meteorological research device that was diverted from its route due to strong winds since it does not have instruments to maneuver.
For now, the United States sticks to its hypothesis that it is a Chinese spy balloon, and claims to have “acted immediately” to prevent the collection of sensitive information. Although he has not explained how. It has also been stated that, since the equipment is flying very high, it does not affect civil aviation or represent a danger to the public.
Beyond that, the case has sparked a new debate about whether it is possible to bring down this type of device. And the answer is no, as incredible as it may seem..
US has no way to shoot down Chinese ‘spy balloon’
How is it possible that one of the most heavily armed countries in the world does not have some kind of means to shoot down the supposed Chinese spy/weather balloon? The naval expert and ex-aviator Brynn Tannehill explained it in a very interesting Twitter thread. The problem is not the lack of availability of weapons, certainly, but that they have not been designed to work against this type of “adversaries”.
The specialist explained that the first thing to take into account is the altitude that this type of balloon can reach, that are capable of flying at more than 27,000 meters high. Today there are no aircraft that are capable of reaching them; Let’s not forget that the Lockheed U-2 (which has no weapons) has a service ceiling of just over 80,000 feet. While the mythical SR-71 Blackbird reached 26,000 meters.
Tannehill indicates that not even an F-22 Raptor – which reaches 20,000 meters above sea level – would be able to intercept the Chinese spy balloon. And even if you were to operate at the highest possible altitude, their weapons could not reach it because of the difference in height between them. And it would not be possible by launching air-to-air missiles like the AIM-9X Sidewinder or the AIM-120 AMRAAM at it either.
Sidewinders are infrared tracking missiles, commonly known as “heat seekers”; while AMRAAMs are guided by radar. Since the Chinese spy balloon does not emit a heat signal and is virtually inconspicuous in the clouds and wind, these weapons they can’t “see” it to target and shoot it. In addition, in the specific case of the AIM-120, the ex-aviator mentions that the missile is not prepared to fly at an altitude of more than 27,000 meters. If you try, your control surfaces will be damaged.
And why not shoot him from the ground? It’s also not a feasible option, according to Tannehill. Not even using long-range surface-to-air missiles like the MIM-104 Patriot. «[Los Patriots] they can knock things down at high altitudes, but, again, they’re not meant to hit objects that don’t have motion relative to the wind,” he added.
Tensions rise between China and the United States
The case of the alleged Chinese spy balloon has once again raised tempers between the White House and the Xi Jinping government. To the point that, according to NBCNewsthe United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkensuspended a trip to Beijing that he had agreed for the next few days.
Going back to the attempts to bring it down, there is another variable to take into consideration: where their remains can fall if successful. Despite the fact that current conditions make it impossible to shoot down the equipment flying over the northern United States, there is no way to determine where its parts would spread if its height decreased and it would be possible to hit it. This would pose a serious risk, especially in populated areas.
“The balloon poses almost no risk to people on the ground. 20mm cannon shells and AIM-120 missiles that miss (or pass through) the globe pose a non-trivial risk to civilians on the ground. There’s no need to make a bad situation much worse,” said Brynn Tannehill.
On the other hand, the Pentagon assures that it is not the first time that balloons of this type have entered US airspace. And we must not forget that the use of stratospheric balloons for espionage missions dates at least from the beginning of the Cold War. If even the Americans themselves used them to spy on the Soviet Union.
As we already said, in this case the situation has taken on another notoriety: due to the tense relationship between the countries involved; because the apparent spy balloon of Chinese origin has been clearly visible to the general public —which would imply that it is huge, or that it has flown below the reported height—; and because it has been hanging around in a region where some of the launch sites of Minuteman III ICBMs from United States.