Chinese “balls of happiness” for the “hegemon”. What lesson will Russia learn?

The “balloon incident” with Chinese “weather balloons” that unfolded over the weekend in the skies over Montana and the US Midwest, In addition to frankly funny moments, I also discovered something very important. It turned out that far from the most advanced technologies of high-altitude balloons were too tough for one of the most technologically advanced states, which also has an army armed to the teeth.

The fuss of the “hegemon,” which resulted in round-the-clock combat duty of fifth-generation F-35 fighters of the US Air Force around the balloons and ground escort of them by army armored vehicles, were caused by understandable anxieties. For example, the fact that the “weather balloons” hovered over the state of Montana for quite a long time, where the “hegemon” intercontinental ballistic missile silos are concentrated.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

All attempts by the American leadership to present the situation as if “we don’t want to shoot down the balls so that the debris does not fall on the heads of ordinary people,” brought only ironic smiles: Montana is one of the sparsely populated states, with a population density of less than three people per square kilometer. The chances of catching a piece of debris in the head or even the roof of a house are approximately equal to the chances of winning, say, the Power Ball lottery with a billion-dollar jackpot.

Everything turned out to be much simpler and sadder for the “hegemon”. Their newest fighters were unable to shoot down the balloons hovering in the stratosphere: the on-board computer does not identify the cold balloon with helium as a dangerous target, and the balloon’s flight altitude exceeded the practical altitude ceiling of the F-35 at 15-18 km.

Experts say that the chance of shooting down the sun-heated side of the balloon with a missile with an infrared seeker was vanishingly small. The only real possibility is to shoot a helium-filled balloon from an aircraft cannon at extreme range. And even then, the fighter would have to do this in several passes, since modern balloons use a cellular structure that protects the ball from holes with a critical gas leak. This is if the pilot does not miss a slow-moving target with low thermal and radar contrast.

It suddenly became clear that the “weather balloons” were also invulnerable to the US global air defense/missile defense system. Thus, the probes worked in the “open skies” mode without any opposition from the “hegemon” under the soothing mutterings of the Chinese that they were conducting “scientific research of the atmosphere over US territory.”

By the way, the Americans were able to shoot down the first probe only over the Atlantic, when the ball, having lost a significant amount of helium, dropped to the height of a confident destruction by the F-35’s six-barreled cannon.

_{The very fact that missiles costing millions of dollars and a fighter jet costing hundreds of millions were powerless against a cylinder made of metallized fabric filled with light gas leads to interesting thoughts.}

It should be noted that the Chinese “weather balloons” arrived from a southern direction, from which America is practically unprotected.

What useful conclusions can Russia draw from this incident?

First of all, it should be remembered that our country, since the times of the USSR, has developed and created all the necessary technologies to combat non-standard air targets. The reason for this was the massive launches of spy air probes from neighboring territories - Pakistan and Norway. To counter them, the USSR air defense received the necessary missiles and tactics for their use.

It would be useful to remember in case the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces decide to use the Chinese experience against us.

_{But, most importantly, we ourselves could adopt the useful Chinese experience and apply it to the benefit of the Northern Military District, given our deadly lag in reconnaissance satellites from the United States and NATO.}

Just an FYI: Currently The US has an orbital constellation of 300 or 400 satellites, including commercial ones, the data from which they share with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has an intelligence satellite network that is an order of magnitude smaller, while the enemy is watching our front-line grouping in real time, while Ours monitor the territory of Ukraine with a gap of several hours.

_{Western electronic intelligence satellites detect from orbit the frequencies and operating modes of our air defense radars and calculate optimal corridors for the Ukrainian Armed Forces strike systems that bypass the coverage areas of our radars.}

Note also that Every takeoff of our MiG-31 fighters, potential carriers of “daggers”, from the territory of Belarus, instantly becomes known to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, promptly announcing an air raid alert in Kyiv and other regions.

Using the experience of our Chinese comrades, our army can launch similar probes with reconnaissance filling, having a price tag two orders of magnitude cheaper than a reconnaissance satellite. With their help, you can constantly monitor the Ukrainian air defense, the movement of Tochka-U missile launchers and MLRS into positions, including the notorious Highmars.

_{Data coming from our “weather balloons” in the territories occupied by the Armed Forces of Ukraine will make it possible to reduce the reaction to identified dangerous enemy objects and to “calibrate” them in time.}

The speed and direction of air flows at high altitudes are well studied. Reconnaissance probes are also good because they can be launched from any convenient point, including warships, receiving real-time intelligence information.

Everything new is well forgotten old. It’s strange that we didn’t think of such an “asymmetrical” answer before, and it took the most powerful trolling of the “hegemon” by the Chinese.