Did the US Air Force take out an Amateur Radio balloon for $470,000?

Perhaps the most challenging question here is "Who is the President?"

 

Never invoke the payload on RCS. It can fall. The RCS increase has to happen on the balloon. Not the payload.

Cloaking is for reducing the radar cross section. As you allude, This is for INCREASING the radar cross section to make the balloon a high probability of intercept (HPI). IOW more easily detected by S-band radar.

You are taking advantage of resonance to enhance the RCS, so large surface area reflectors are not needed Actually not possible given the weight) . And you have little control of the shape, given the balloon is, well, a balloon. You have to add reflection from the bottom of the balloon.

Metallizing a small part of the balloon is sufficient to increase the RCS. Essentially it will look like a chaff profile at S-band. Otherwise, it will look like clutter, if it is borderline detectable as the balloon alone.

Even if you stencil, appropriately, conductive paint on the balloon at partial inflation, the reflection will be sufficient to increase RCS. Conductive paint has very little weight; maybe a gram and a half? Two grams? The issue is to avoid 'crepe' wrinkles at the stenciled paint.

As I said, if I have time , say, later this month, I will stencil one of my balloons and measure the reflection differential to 'no stencil-balloon alone' (I think I have an 8 footer around; can partially inflate in chamber). That is not a direct measure of RCS but is a good proof of concept.

There are more sophisticated ways of enhancing the RCS but as I have mentioned, I am not going to entertain them.

73
Chip W1YW

 

And so it seems, my search for the perfect "a killing-joke!", has its continuity guaranteed.

 

Just checked the K0YO Pico APRS balloon. It still shows it just below the southwest coast of Alaska thus it hasn't reported in, apparently, for quite some time after the shoot down date (this is March 4th). Size of a "small car" might include a 1 meter diameter balloon as seen from a safe
distance by a jet pilot. The Pico had solar panels and a transmitter hanging below it.

 

Andrei, you have lost another submarine... I mean, balloon?

 

the truth is NOTout there

 

It's too bad the envelope of these baloons is a translucnt material. If they could use a crystal clear material they would be near impossible to see.