Vincent J. Curtis
14 Mar 23
In January and early February of this year,
a Chinese balloon floated leisurely across North America. It entered NORAD airspace over the Aleutian
Islands, crossed Alaska, drifted down British Columbia, entered the continental
United States over Montana, sailed across the entire United States before being
shot down by a pair of F-22 Raptors over the Atlantic ocean off the coast of
South Carolina.
Neither the government of the United States
nor of Canada admitted the existence of this balloon until it was sighted and
reported by civilians. The balloon was
so large that it was visible to the naked eye at an altitude of 65,000 ft. When news of this object hit the media,
Americans clamoured for President Biden to shoot it down, which he refrained
from doing until its mission over North America was completed.
Then, in quick succession, three other
balloons were spotted and shot down; the last one over Lake Huron. Prime Minster Trudeau ordered that it be shot
down, and, at an altitude of 40,000 ft, a U.S F-16 complied with his imperious
command.
It turns out that these last three balloons
may have been privately owned. The one
shot down over Lake Huron may have been the property of an amateur radio club,
and was carrying a “pico transmitter”. This
activity is FAA approved. At an altitude
of 40,000 ft the transmission of location, altitude and perhaps temperature
data from the transmitter could be tracked by Hams as far as 100 miles away.
It also became known that Canada had
recovered a number of buoys that were dropped by a Chinese icebreaker attempting
the North West passage. No details were
released on what the buoys could do, but it is reasonable to include the
detection and monitoring of submarine activity in the Arctic ocean is among the
possibilities, and perhaps also a geological survey of the ocean bottom for the
minerals it contains.
The balloon over Lake Huron required two,
count ‘em two, $400,000 Sidewinder missiles to bring down, while the enormous
Chinese balloon only required only one.
The wonder is that they were shot down at all. A U.S. F-16 fighter normally carries an
infra-red guided AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, and a balloon floating for more than
a few hours at high altitude is as cold as the thin air around it. There’s no heat for the missile to home in
on. The Sidewinders shot from the F-16
were essentially unguided, and it’s a wonder to me that the pilot chose
missiles over his guns. Both the F-16
and F-22 are equipped with M-61 Vulcan rotary cannons, and a few dozen 20 mm
holes in the balloon would bring it down to earth. A few dozen cannon rounds are a lot cheaper
than a Sidewinder.
The F-22 was successful on its first shot,
partly out of luck and partly because it could get close enough. An F-22 can reach 65,000 ft. and the Chinese
balloon made a big target. A pico
balloon carrying a tiny radio, is much smaller.
Still, why not use guns?
An issue for the RCAF is that it doesn’t
have, and won’t have, a fighter that can shoot down a balloon at 65,000
ft. The service ceiling of a CF-18 and
of an F-35 is 50,000 ft. Sophisticated,
infra-red guided missiles are useless against a target that is as cold as the
background, and even 20 mm won’t reach a balloon flying three miles above the platform. An AIM-120 AMRAAM radar guided missile,
costing $2,000,000, seems like overkill for a mere balloon.
Like the F-22 Raptor, the F-15 Eagle has a
service ceiling of 65,000 ft, and so one of these can level up at 65,000 ft,
get close, and take the shot with guns.
Quartermasters adore uniformity, but
perhaps this episode might induce the RCAF to ask for a squadron of aircraft
with peacetime, strategic capability,
like an F-15 variant.
-30-
