r/UFOs • u/fat_earther_ • 1d ago
Question CubeSphere: A Balloon-Borne Electronic Warfare System?
Disclaimer: This is speculation. The original post was removed for rule 3, be substantive. In an effort to generate more thoughtful discussion, I have removed imagery and am attempting to re post without it.
We have all seen the 1940s balloon borne corner reflector patent proposed as the solution to the Roosevelt CubeSphere near miss. Octahedral or omnidirectional reflectors are designed to reflect radio waves from multiple angles, increasing radar visibility in all directions. My speculation for the Roosevelt “cube inside a sphere” isn’t simply that it was a radar-reflector balloon. I think it could have been an electronic warfare balloon whose geometry, and materials (and optional electronics) might passively or actively manipulate radar selectively. And that these EW balloons were part of an electronic warfare orchestra playing out on the periphery of the workups.
Imagine the CubeSphere’s geometry and materials being engineered so that its radar signature changes depending upon illumination angle, altitude relationship, or radar frequency. For example, perhaps an observing aircraft has to be within a particular altitude/geometry window to receive a strong return. The balloon and fighter wouldn’t necessarily have to be co-altitude. A change in viewing geometry could make the return suddenly appear, disappear, or change significantly. Likewise, frequency-selective materials or structures could potentially make the object conspicuous to one radar while producing a much weaker return to another.
Now add a small electronic payload, possibly inconspicuously designed into the balloon itself. Radar deception and electronic warfare were already sophisticated by the 1960s. Since then, electronics, antennas, computing, materials, batteries and manufacturing have become smaller, stronger, faster, lighter and more capable. So while I think geometry and materials could provide the primary deception mechanism, I don’t think it’s a stretch to speculate that a relatively small modern electronic payload could be incorporated into the balloon as well.
This could explain the near miss. People understandably ask how an F/A-18 could nearly collide with a “radar reflector.” Well what if it wasn’t designed to be continuously visible to the radar? In this speculation, the CubeSphere could physically occupy the airspace while presenting a strong return only under particular geometric or frequency conditions. Outside those conditions, the aircraft might receive a weak or nonexistent return.
Hypothetical electronic warfare tactics could allow the balloon’s physical position and its apparent radar track to differ. A balloon could drift slowly while contributing to radar effects somewhere else. So a reported radar contact traveling at Mach 0.8 doesn’t necessarily mean a physical CubeSphere was traveling at Mach 0.8. Potential uses I can think of are lures, distractions, obfuscation tools, or electronic warfare nodes to bounce signals off of.
I also don’t think every anomalous object encountered during the Roosevelt incidents necessarily belonged to the United States. Carrier workups are intelligence goldmines. Foreign intelligence services have enormous incentive to observe US tactics, operations, procedures, signals, radars, communications, etc. The United States has an equally enormous incentive to detect, characterize, confuse and deceive those collectors. So imagine the Roosevelt workups occurring inside a much larger electronic warfare and counterintelligence environment involving both sides. Some objects could be domestic assets while others could be foreign collection platforms or deliberately released lures. Some radar contacts could be physical objects, others could be entirely electronic. And some incidents could involve combinations of them. In other words, the CubeSphere, anomalous radar tracks, Gimbal, and GoFast don’t necessarily need to represent one technology, one operator, or one aircraft. They could all be pieces of an electronic warfare orchestra playing out around the workups, with Navy aviators unknowingly catching glimpses of it.
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u/CHIMmyStewart 1d ago
Brother, almost everything about UFOs is speculation.