The DoD has released photos of the recovery operation off the coast of South Carolina to gather the CCP spy balloon debris.
Credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson
pic.twitter.com/ODRoS8I3iu
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 13, 2023
Posted on 02/13/2023 8:39:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Let’s start with the balloon whose story is the most clear, i.e. the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the US this month. That balloon was shot down over the ocean off the coast of South Carolina. You may have seen photos of portions of the balloon being pulled into a boat. These images were taken last week.
The DoD has released photos of the recovery operation off the coast of South Carolina to gather the CCP spy balloon debris.
Credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson
pic.twitter.com/ODRoS8I3iu— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 13, 2023
Today the DOD released even more photos of the ongoing recovery effort.
New images of the Chinese spy balloon recovery off the coast of South Carolina
pic.twitter.com/dzoVfZ0XvO— Liz Friden (@Liz_Friden) February 13, 2023
JUST IN: NORTHCOM releases photos of ongoing Chinese spy balloon recovery operations in South Carolina.
@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/K93wq5MMVH— Micaela Burrow (@micaela_burrow) February 13, 2023
All of this material appears to be part of the skin of the balloon which was a couple hundred feet across. But the bigger news is that we’ve now recovered a major piece of the payload that was hanging under the balloon.
A crane ship on the scene where a Chinese surveillance balloon went down in waters off South Carolina has raised from the ocean bottom a significant portion of the balloon’s payload, a U.S. official said Monday.
Officials have said the payload measured as much as 30-feet-long and had all of craft’s tech gear and antennas.
So the good news is that we’ve probably a good chunk of the Chinese spy device, minus the solar panels that likely broke off when it hit the water. Now our experts will take a look and we’ll have a very good idea what this balloon was designed to capture. But as you’re also aware, the US has shot down 3 more balloons (or objects) in the past three days. Here’s a map showing where each one was found (2nd image below).
Mystery objects.#AFPGraphics map of North America showing places were mystery objects have been shot down from the sky since the downing of a Chinese balloon on February 4
pic.twitter.com/BWBeN5StsO— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 13, 2023
This evening CNN is reporting some additional details about the balloon shot down Saturday (Feb. 11) over Canada:
The unidentified flying object shot down in Canadian airspace on Saturday appeared to be a “small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,” according to a Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Monday and obtained by CNN…
The object crossed near “US sensitive sites” before it was shot down, the memo said…
The memo said that “recovery/exploitation” efforts were underway to retrieve the object shot down in Canada’s Yukon territory, noting that both US and Canadian officials were attempting to identify debris…
“It should not be assumed that the events of the past few days are connected,” the Pentagon noted in the memo.
So possibly not connected to China or to spying in general. It may just be that, in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon, NORAD is now looking for them.
A defense official said that the radar used by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was adjusted after the initial high-altitude balloon sighting. “We continue to refine detection settings, and that won’t stop just because we have identified these smaller objects,” the official said.
Maybe we’ll get an idea what the Feb. 11 balloon was about if they can find the debris. Canada is taking the lead on that investigation but the FBI is working with them. The object shot down over Lake Huron yesterday is also mentioned in the same memo. It descended slowly into the lake and may be recoverable as well. However, both balloons were much smaller than the Chinese spy balloon so there’s a lot less material to find.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said today at the White House that, for the moment, we don’t know what the other three objects/balloons were or where they came from. He was also asked if this is the new normal:
A reporter asks if people should assume "this is the regular number" of balloons or if this is are unusual
Kirby: "There are things flying at high altitudes for various purposes … we think we're seeing more because we're looking for more." pic.twitter.com/5lSwVLc89J
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 13, 2023
Finally, China is trying to turn this around, claiming the US has sent multiple spy balloons over their territory:
China said Monday that high-altitude balloons belonging to the United States had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since early last year.
“It is nothing rare for U.S. balloons to illegally enter other countries’ airspace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing.
“The U.S. should first reflect upon itself and change course instead of smearing other countries,” he added…
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded on Monday by saying, “We are not flying surveillance balloons over China.”
I’m sure we’re keeping all sorts of eyes and ears on China all the time. And who knows, maybe we did send a balloon at some point. But I also know that China is embarrassed about this story and is probably desperate for any way to turn their obvious failure into some kind of story where they can claim to be equally outraged.
bttt
Does anyone know if a sidewider explosion destroys the “object” or is there anything left that is recoverable?
Good point.
I don’t know that this is true, but on Warroom today they said one of the “objects” we shot down was allegedly one of our own weather balloons.
That would be fitting.... a 400k missile to shoot down a National Weather Service balloon. You can’t make this stuff up so it’s probably true.
How about Alaska, Yukon, Montana, or Lake Huron?
Wimps.
In the wreckage, did they find a sign that said: “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!!” /s
Matter is not “destroyed” by an explosive. I believe the sidewinder gets close and the warhead explodes (proximity fuse?) sending fragmentation or peppering the target with metal fragments.
“Matter is not destroyed by an explosive”
Picky, picky.
After detonation of a Sidewinder missile warhead, does the resulting damage to one of these “objects” make them unsuitable for analysis?
About like a shotgun blast, the further away, the fewer fragments hit.
A lot of balloon stuff, so where are the pics of the electronics hanging from it?
I believe the warhead was defused on these sidewinder, to minimize damage.
> In the wreckage, did they find a sign that said: “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!!” /s
I thought it was “happy valentine’s day eric! from fang fang”
:)
It is just not safe to be an alien right now. USAF is trigger happy.
Bkmk
Inflicting Damage: WDU-17/B Warhead
In addition to fighter jets, you’ll also find Sidewinders on attack helicopters, like this AH-1W Cobra.
The current Sidewinder, as well as its replacement, the AIM-9X, carries the 20-pound (9-kg) WDU-17/B warhead. The WDU-17/B consists of a case assembly, a good amount of PBXN-3 high explosive, booster plates, an initiator device and nearly 200 titanium fragmentation rods. When the target detector senses the enemy aircraft, it activates the fuze mechanism, which sends an explosive charge through the initiator (a train of low-explosive material) to the booster plates. The explosive charge from the initiator ignites low-explosive material in the booster plate channels, which ignites explosive pellets surrounding the high-explosive material. The pellets ignite the high explosive, causing it to release a huge amount of hot gas in a short amount of time.
The powerful explosive force from this expanding gas blasts the titanium rods outward, breaking them apart to form thousands of metal pieces, all zipping through the air at top speed. If the warhead goes off within range of the target, the speeding titanium fragments will break apart the enemy aircraft’s fuselage. In some cases, the missile may go right up the target’s tailpipe, demolishing the aircraft from the inside. The WDU-17/B is referred to as an annular blast fragmentation warhead because the explosive force carries the metal fragments outward in all directions, in an annular, or ring-shaped, pattern.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/sidewinder8.htm
Oh no pics of that - the pics shown are a complete joke
Last week a couple of reports said the balloon was 200 feet tall. So not your typical weather balloon.
It’s been rumored that one of the items recovered so far was a huge shrink wrapped pile of very good counterfeit US currency somewhere in the millions with a note that said, Thanks Big Guy.
I, for one, am glad to see those lads out there removing all that one-time-use plastic from the sea.
Someone should issue Pres. Diaper Pail a ticket for littering.
“ I believe the warhead was defused on these sidewinder, to minimize damage.”
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Do you have a link to that information? I hadn’t heard that before.
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