There’s a high altitude BALLOON floating around our country with SPY equipment on board. The Chinese claim that it’s a civilian research balloon that went awry.
The existence of this SPY BALLOON flying above our country raises several questions. Why was it not detected as it flew over Alaska? Why did the Canadians not report the balloon flying over THEIR COUNTRY? How is it that China can launch a craft as big a THREE SCHOOL BUSES, let it float across THOUSAND OF MILES of ocean, and we did not detect it? Was it launched from LAND or A SHIP?
The news media is speculating that this SPY BALLOON is looking at our nuclear weapons facilities. I say that’s a bunch of HOGWASH. The Chinese have enough high resolution imagery from their own and commercial satellites that this SPY BALLON would be of little use for that.
The SPY BALLOON is reported (by the Pentagon) to be flying at over 60,000 feet. I would guess it’s more likely closer to 70,000. The ALTITUDE is important. At 70,000 feet the SPY BALLOON would be above the JET STREAM and can loiter for long periods of time. From some of the pictures it appears that the balloon payload has SOLAR PANELS indicating it was designed for a long duration deployment. Once again ALTITUDE IS IMPORTANT.
What can get up to 70,000 feet? An F-16 has a service ceiling of 58,000 feet. Service ceiling is the point at which an aircraft can no long climb at over 100 feet per minute. An F-18 has a service ceiling of 52,300 feet. An F-15 has a service ceiling of 65,000 feet. An F-35 (Fat Amy, the latest multi-role fighter) has a service ceiling of only 50,000 feet. An F-22 has a service ceiling of 65,000 feet. IF the SPY BALLOON is at 70,000 feet we can only send up our latest fighters to take a look see from A MILE BELOW. It would be difficult to “shoot down” the SPY BALLOON from a MILE BELOW with our current inventory of fighters. TWO F-22’s were scrambled out of Nellis AFB in Nevada to look at the SPY BALLOON. but they quickly returned back to base. The F-22’s could get the closest to peeking (not Peking) at the SPY BALLOON.
What are the Chinese hoping to discover? I believe that the Chinese are using this to find out our AVIATION CAPABILITIES. They are prodding to see if we have a new TOP SECRET AIRCRAFT flying. An aircraft with a SCRAMJET could reach those altitudes and I bet the COMMIES would be LOVE to take a bunch of pictures of our LATEST TOP SECRET AIRCRAFT as it intercepted their SPY BALLOON.
I hope our leaders are NOT SO STUPID that they fall for this ruse and show them what we have.
Who knows? The plans for the TOP SECRET AIRCRAFT may have been safely stored in a Delaware garage next to a Corvette.