EMP and the Chinese balloon

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Possibly the only detailed survey of America's Cold War spy balloon program, "The Moby Dick Project: Reconnaissance Balloons over Russia" (1991) by the late Smithsonian aerospace historian Curtis Peebles. No better way to contextualize today's flights.








The Moby Dick Project: Reconnaissance Balloons over Russia (several links to download the 80MB PDF file)



I been to the Tillamook Balloon Hanger which is now an Air Museum. Very cool place.

A Brief History of Project Moby Dick, the Cold War’s Least Believable Surveillance Strategy

The U.S. once launched hundreds of balloons in an attempt to spy on the Soviets.



On January 13, 1956, a specially modified Air Force C-119 roared over the Sea of Japan in pursuit of a high priority target. The plane, callsign “Center 39,” suddenly made visual contact with what looked like a huge, translucent teardrop floating 50,000 feet in the air.

The crew quickly typed out a “cut down code” and watched a box drop from the bottom of the teardrop before deploying a set of parachutes. After a painfully tense series of unsuccessful passes, the crew finally succeeded, at 9,000 feet, with the difficult task of snatching the object with a grappling hook extended out of the rear of the aircraft.

This daring aeronautical maneuver was a part of one of the Cold War’s most incredible intelligence gathering stunts. In an effort to gather information from behind the Iron Curtain, the U.S. Air Force launched hundreds of spy balloons to float over the Soviet Union, collect photographic coverage, and hopefully reappear in friendly airspace for midair recovery.

In the days before reconnaissance satellites, balloons were seen as a safer alternative to proposals for manned overflights, and less provocative than plans to attach cameras to cruise missiles. But the audacity of the balloon program also reflected the tremendous appetite for recon information in Washington. In his 1991 history of the Moby Dick program, as it was known, Curtis Peebles describes how “the reconnaissance balloon had the highest national priority of 1-A. The only other project to share this priority was the hydrogen bomb. Knowledge is power.”
...



Still, even the most optimistic assessments admitted that there was a possibility that some of the balloons would veer wildly off course. To aid in recovery, a cartoon and multilingual placard was included, encouraging them to be brought to U.S.-allied bases for a reward. 

“THIS BOX CAME FROM THE SKY
IT IS HARMLESS
IT HAS WEATHER DATA IN IT
NOTIFY THE AUTHORITIES
YOU WILL RECEIVE A REWARD IF YOU
TURN IT IN AS IT IS”

The program officially commenced on January 10, 1956, with eight launches from Incirlik, Turkey, and one from Giebelstadt, West Germany. Wave after wave followed over the coming weeks, quickly racking up some 448 successful launches.

More details: A Brief History of Project Moby Dick, the Cold War’s Least Believable Surveillance Strategy


Here is a related CIA file from Dec 10, 1953 that details Balloon Recon over USSR, a study of high-altitude wind currents, released on September 28, 2009: RAND Corp TOP SECRET U.S. AIR FORCE:
PROJECT RAND: EXPECTED COST AND PAYOFF OF A HIGH INTENSITY BALLOON PIONEER RECONNAISSANCE CAMPAIGN OVER THE U.S.S.R.

Our resident balloon experts know all about wind currents at various altitudes and their respective (Black projects) crash retrieval teams know all about recovery.