The U.S. Air Force moved F-22 Raptor stealth fighters into position to be ready to shoot down what American officials say is a Chinese government high-altitude surveillance balloon over Montana. The balloon remains in U.S. airspace after the decision was made not to destroy it, at least for the time being. The Pentagon has downplayed the overall significance of the balloon's presence and stated that this has happened multiple times before. The latter is new official information as far as we can tell at this time.
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The senior U.S. defense official noted that not shooting down the balloon is also offering an opportunity for "tracking what abilities it could have." Though they did not elaborate, it's also worth noting that surveilling the craft and its payload both visually and electronically at close proximity would be critical to assessing its capabilities. If shot down prior to this, that intelligence could be degraded or lost.
Meanwhile, you do whatever you can do minimize your vulnerability in terms of intelligence it can collect. This means emission control procedures and possibly even dealing with assets that are visible if it is equipped with EO sensors. Having one of these soaking up intel...
— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) February 3, 2023
Countries have been doing this sort of thing since the dawn of human flight, and certainly it's been taken to an art form since the start of the Cold War...
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| This guy wrote a book*, BTW. |
With the improvements in satellite technology for photo reconnaissance and the availability of an array of aircraft designed to soak up and analyze radar transmissions, the US has largely abandoned direct overflights...or have we? I mean, officially we have.
We can assume everyone else is playing the same game to the best of their abilities.
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| Turn on your SAM radar and this guy will soak it up and use the info to make our SEAD that much better. |
It's a bit embarrassing for Beijing to get caught with its hand in the cookie jar so blatantly.
*...and the book got him fired from his test pilot gig at Lockheed. He died in '77 in a chopper crash working as a news helicopter pilot in LA.
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