The House this week passed legislation calling on DoD to submit a classified report on the incidence of the violation of U.S. airspace since Jan. 20, 2017 by unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and requesting a report from the State Department, the Director of National Intelligence, and the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations on a strategy for mobilizing global opinion against Chinese balloon surveillance.
The measure also requires the Commerce Department to consider export controls for U.S. technologies used by the People’s Liberation Army in aerospace programs for intelligence and reconnaissance purposes.
Introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Feb. 24, H.R. 1151–the Upholding Sovereignty of Airspace Act or the ‘‘USA Act”–would require the reports within 180 days of enactment. The bill is now before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The House passed the bill on Apr. 17 on a vote of 405 to 6.
“According to the Department of State, surveillance balloons owned and operated by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have entered United States airspace multiple times since 2017 and have violated the airspace of more than 40 countries across 5 continents,” the bill said.
H.R. 1151 permits the White House to impose sanctions, including the seizure of U.S. property and U.S. visa blockage, for any “PRC individual the President determines is directly managing and overseeing the PRC’s global surveillance balloon program.”
In February, Raytheon Technologies [RTX]-built AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles fired from fighter jets took down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina and three other unidentified objects off the coast of Alaska, in the Yukon territory of Canada and over Lake Huron (Defense Daily, Feb. 16).
The incidents have led to “Chicken Little” statements by lawmakers, casting of blame on the Biden administration for allowing the balloon to pass over the breadth of the country before shooting it down, defense of the administration for allowing intelligence analysts to see what capabilities the balloon had, and a piling on by both the GOP and Democratic parties in their condemnation of China and their clamoring for improved technologies to counter the PRC.
Analysts, however, have said that the February incidents may actually reveal the low quality of China’s space-based ISR of the U.S. and may have been a ruse by China to cause political turmoil in the U.S.
The Biden administration “didn’t shoot it [the balloon] down until 7 days later, until it had crossed the entire breadth of the United States of America,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said on the House floor on Apr. 17. “China is determined to topple the United States of America. Xi Jinping will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. We have known this for years, but in February, we saw the proof with our own eyes… Congress needs to step up and send a clear message to the Chinese Communist Party. It will not be allowed to violate our sovereignty, to use American technology for its own military purposes, or to spy on American citizens.”
Mast is a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician who lost both legs in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2010 to an improvised explosive device.
Unlike Mast, Meeks, the sponsor of H.R. 1151, praised the White House allowing DoD “to collect the [Chinese surveillance balloon] debris [in the calmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean] and learn more about the PRC’s surveillance program and capabilities.” An Air Force F-22 fired the AIM-9X that brought the balloon down in 50 feet of water off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
“I have been deeply concerned by Beijing’s response,” Meeks said. “Instead of apologizing, Beijing has resorted to denials and absurd misinformation and propaganda. Instead of making amends, Beijing has exacerbated tensions between our nations.”
The DoD fiscal 2024 budget request reveals a Pentagon effort to bolster ISR to counter China.
The U.S. Air Force, for example, has said that it is considering reuse of the previous Over the Horizon Backscatter (OTH-B) radar sites to augment the U.S.-Canadian North Warning System (NWS).
In fiscal 2024 the Air Force wants more than $423 million for rapid prototyping of OTH-B to supplement NWS, including funds to satisfy a classified U.S. European Command requirement, $360 million to fund the first two OTH-B sites in the U.S., and funds for the detection of stratospheric balloons and unidentified aerial phenomena (Defense Daily, March 30).
OTH-B is to have transmit and receive arrays 40 to 120 miles apart in four areas of the country–the Northeast, Northwest, Alaska and the South.
“Funds were added in FY24 to evaluate and develop improvements to the [OTH-B] sensors tracking algorithms to increase probability of detection of high altitude air vehicles such as stratospheric balloons and other unidentified aerial phenomena,” per the Air Force budget request.
The Air Force began looking into OTH-B in 1966.
General Electric [GE] began developing a prototype for the then AN/FPS-118 OTH-B in 1975, but it was not until 1990-1991 that OTH-B was ready for fielding in Moscow, Maine; Columbia Falls, Maine; Christmas Valley, Ore.; and Tule Lake, Calif. The AN/FPS-118 OTH-B was to detect threats up to 1,800 miles away by bouncing signals off the ionosphere and then off of incoming targets. When the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991, the relevance of OTH-B for detecting Soviet bombers and low-flying cruise missiles receded, and the sites were eventually dismantled.
U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has submitted a fiscal 2024 wish list that includes $55 million to accelerate testing for OTH-B to field it within the next five years rather than within a decade.