Russian special military operation in Ukraine #38

China is mocking America, by Daria Volkova for VZGLYAD. 02.12.2023.

For the third time in recent days, a balloon has been shot down over the territory of North America - this time in the airspace of Canada. “The Chinese made the Americans look like complete idiots,” experts comment on what is happening and explain exactly what military and political tasks China is solving in this way in confrontation with the United States.

Another unidentified flying object was shot down on Saturday by the North American Joint Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) over Northern Canada. The first reports of "air spying" in the skies over the North American continent noted that NORAD was tracking the movement of one or two objects, but in the end only one ball was shot down.

Canadian National Defense Minister Anita Anand said the object was flying at an altitude of approximately 40,000 feet (12.1 km), intruded into Canadian airspace and posed a real threat to the safety of civilian flights. According to her, the object was shot down about 100 miles (160 km) from the Canada-US border over Canadian territory in the central part of the Yukon region. An operation is underway to search for the downed object, an investigation has been launched, in which members of the Canadian Armed Forces and the National Police are involved.

According to CNN , the White House issued a statement saying that US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the shooting down of the object by a NORAD fighter on Saturday.

It is worth noting that this is the third similar balloon discovered over the North American continent over the past few days. All three flying objects, according to the American media, were shot down by an American F-22 fighter with an AIM-9X missile.

The first Chinese balloon was shot down on 4 February. Before that, he "traveled" in the sky over North America for nine days. China responded by protesting the use of force by the United States to attack a civilian unmanned balloon and said  that Washington's decision to shoot down the balloon damaged relations between the two countries. According to Beijing, the balloon had a purely civilian purpose (meteorological research) and flew into US airspace by accident.

Last Friday, the White House announced the shooting down of a second flying object over the territory of Alaska. The report noted that Washington did not know which country the device belonged to, but it was much smaller than the previously downed Chinese balloon. The US administration noted that they expect to pick up the wreckage of the destroyed apparatus and study them.

Commenting on the shooting down of the first flying ball, military expert Vasily Kashin, in a conversation with the VZGLYAD newspaper , noted that it was hard to believe in the plausibility of the version of the American side that the object was shot down as soon as it ceased to pose a danger to people on earth.

“If the United States could successfully aim a missile at a Chinese balloon, they would shoot it down before it even approached the American border. In addition, he flew over very sparsely populated areas, and not over Singapore or the Netherlands, ” said the interlocutor.

Why could the first US aircraft not be shot down for so many days, and the next two were shot down literally in a matter of hours? Where could so many mysterious flying objects over North America come from in such a short time, and who could benefit from this?

As for the very possibility of shooting down an apparatus, it critically depends on the height at which it is located. Balloons often fly in the stratosphere, that is, at an altitude of more than 25-30 km. This height is not accessible to modern fighters, nor to the weapons placed on them. The balloon discovered in the sky of Canada was immediately shot down precisely because it was at a height of 12 thousand meters convenient for destruction. In addition, there are difficulties with the possibility of aiming missiles at devices of this type.

And of course, experts have little doubt that all these devices (and not just the first one) were launched from China with a high probability.

“Judging by the published photographs and recalling military history, it is obvious that these are reconnaissance probes that have been actively used since the 60s of the last century. By the way, at that time the Americans launched them over the territory of the USSR, ”military analyst Mikhail Onufrienko tells the VZGLYAD newspaper.

“The principle of operation of such reconnaissance probes is simple: the equipment located on them allows you to take data on the operation of radar stations. Radars turn on in active mode when such objects are detected and begin to track their flight, ”the source said.

“In addition, those stations are connected that do not work in normal mode and are not recognized. Part of the guidance stations goes into active mode to eliminate the object. That is, such intelligence allows you to hack into the enemy’s air and missile defense system, ”the expert argues.

“You can also track enemy air defense vulnerabilities, establish concentration sites and understand much of what is not clear in cases where enemy radars operate in a passive mode. And besides, to understand in general the system of work of NORAD: how they react, how decisions are made, and so on. It is impossible to avoid opening the system with such intelligence, since it is obliged to respond, ”he believes.

“Since now, due to the situation with Taiwan, relations between China and the United States have deteriorated significantly and tensions are growing, it is logical from the Chinese position to make a dozen or two of these balloons, especially since they are very inexpensive, and launch them over the territory of the States,” notes Onufrienko.

“This allows Beijing to get a lot of benefits. They took some intelligence information, disturbed the enemy without approaching the exchange of nuclear strikes. In addition, the Chinese also made the Americans look like complete idiots, ” the expert concluded.

The authors  of the Telegram channel "Russia in Global Affairs" believe that "Chinese balloons are being inflated into a huge threat." “Beijing, they say now, is watching the whole world from them, and the ball over the United States is only the tip of the iceberg. I wonder why no one has noticed them until now? Maybe they are invisible too? - the authors of the channel are ironic.

Thus, incidents with unidentified flying objects over the United States may well be an attempt by the Chinese to open the air defense systems of the United States. However, in addition to purely military, they also have a significant military-psychological significance - for the first time in a very long time, the United States found itself in the position of defending, not attacking, reacting to the enemy's initiative, and not imposing its own. High-altitude balloons have proven to be an extremely effective instrument of pressure on the United States - and at the moment with almost impunity.

https://vz.ru/world/2023/2/12/1198914.html