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.
It could also have been recording, not transmitting data and the Chinese or their surrogates or fishing boats were expecting to recover the balloon at sea or some distant place after it transitted the US and made a preprogrammed controlled descent, and get their information that way.
The original is in full color with GPS co-ordinates intact and 12 M resolution.
This smaller lack-and-white has the Top Secret details removed so the public can understand the enormity of the situation.
The Chinese, Russians, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba have been cooperating for years, especially well since 2008 and the Silk Road project. Some of these objects could be Russian.
My guess…. I don’t have a lot to go on. Early on in the South Carolina saga, I saw some amateur photos and news mentions that give me some opinions.
Re. the Sidewinder taking down the Carolina balloon, I saw a picture of the balloon after the missile hit that showed a chunk of the balloon fabric missing. Yes, that loss of lift brought the balloon down. No, the Sidewinder did not blow anything up. I have the impression that it was more like the kinetic energy of the sidewinder grazing the edge of the balloon and just disintegrated off a chunk of fabric.
It’s not transmitting down to the cell network from 60k feet. It’s obviously using satellite uplink, and no, the satellite doesn’t have to be in geosynchronous orbit.
Wonder how many NORAD weather balloons continue to drift around after their useful life expires? Wonder how many of the mystery balloons being shot down by Crazy Joe are old NORAD balloons?
That was tried before years ago and didn’t work. This balloon was 200 ft tall from all reports so imagine a balloon the size of a 20 story building and how many holes it would take to bring it down where you want it. I’m thinking thousand and thousands of rounds, multiple flights of high altitude fighters that would have to land to reload. Maybe we could figure out how to do a mid-air reload but I doubt it.
so much for the SpaceForce...
So far it looks like the balloon has been recovered, but what about the payload?
20lbs blast fragmentation warhead...enough to blow the wing off a jet.
In regard to the small objects, a sidewinder is pretty expensive compared to a radiosonde.
I would suspect that the F-22 pilot would do a target acquisition lock on the balloon itself and fire a sidewinder that has been detuned with minimal explosive, just enough to destroy the balloon without obliterating the payload.
RE: So far it looks like the balloon has been recovered, but what about the payload?
Read the article ( and the title ).
It says ‘windy today with clouds’.
“I believe the warhead was defused on these sidewinder”
Why would you believe that?
I saw a report mentioning it at the time. Went looking but didn’t find it.
I believe it could be correct. The intention could have been to limit damage to preserve as much as possible for recovery.
Not at 60k feet
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