Translation by George Hoskins

After a good deal of research we have discovered a device capable of being the one used today for the technical production of "UFOs". Without a doubt, this equipment would also be perfectly suitable for the creation of crop circles by means of a microwave beam. It did not, of course, appear suddenly from one day to the next, and one may suppose that several generations of similar and increasingly sophisticated devices preceded it over the decades, in parallel with the growing complexity of the UFO phenomenon.

This equipment is the result of the American research programme "High-Altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE)", the objective of which is to simulate high in the atmosphere the use of laser beams intended to destroy enemy ballistic missiles in their boost phase. Before being ultimately put into orbit around the earth within the framework of the "Star Wars" programme or on board an aeroplane, these lasers are attached to stratospheric balloons, which rise to an altitude of 30 kilometres or so, in order to test their technology at least cost (fig. 7-a). This programme is directed by the "Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate" from the Kirtland airbase in New Mexico on behalf of the "Ballistic Missile Defense Organization". The tests being conducted involve the location of the target, its tracking and its destruction by means of a laser.

Fig. 7-a : implementation of the HABE programme photo courtesy of US Air Force, Kirtland AFB

According to the Air Force, stratospheric balloons have many advantages:

The balloons can be followed continuously with the help of the GPS (Global Positioning System).

The Sagebrush Technology corporation, based near the Kirtland facility, is the firm responsible for building the support structure and orientation system for the laser cannon used in the HABE programme (see fig. 7-b). A gyroscopic system allows considerable stability in the focusing of the impact point on the target in spite of the movements of the balloon, whose speed can reach up to 70 metres per second parallel to the equator (remembering that the missile being aimed at is itself moving). The electronic system on board has to ensure a constant correcting of the angle of firing during the latter, the firing itself only needing barely a second before the laser succeeds in piercing the nose cone of the missile. The directional precision of the laser is within 10 micro radians, which is altogether remarkable.

Fig. 7-b : support structure and laser cannon photo courtesy of Sagebrush Technology

This piece of equipment weighs around 4 tons and can function between +40°C (104°F) and -50°C (-58°F). At the end of a mission the device is recovered by severing the cable connecting it to the balloon and deploying its parachute. It can withstand a shock of 10g (1g = 9.81 m/s²) when landing on the ground or in the sea.

The reader will easily understand that this sophistication of technology is more than sufficient to achieve the desired results. One need only replace the laser being used by a maser, in order to draw crop circles, or by a small particle cannon capable of generating "UFOs", and to reprogram the steering of these devices as required. Microwaves and particle beams are also weapons which greatly interest the military and which are bound to be tested from an aerial platform before being put into orbit. If it is somehow difficult to conceive of the military developing a technology specifically for the production of UFO phenomena, it is thus much easier to think that this technology could represent nothing more than the "reprocessing" of advances originating in other areas of research.

The advantage of using a stratospheric balloon over a dirigible balloon is that the former, with its scientific role, is authorised permanently to overfly those countries which have signed international agreements, when it moves parallel to the equator, without the need for giving precise details as to the kind of tests being carried out. This may allow the American military to make crop circles in the south of England or to set up a wave of UFOs above Belgium without having to explicitly inform the allied government concerned. New perspectives of investigation thus become apparent. It would be very interesting, for example, to research a correlation between the overfly of Belgian territory by foreign (or Belgian) balloons and the many sightings of "triangles" during the wave of 1989-1993, since the Belgian military, very co-operative with ufologist investigators, seems to know nothing about these appearances (see first part chapter 4). Could it be a case of balloons originating from American bases in Germany? And where France is concerned, we would like to know the nationality of all the balloons which were flying over France on the 5^th November 1990 at around 7 pm. It is regrettable that this kind of information is considered "defence material" and classified.

A stratospheric balloon normally circumvents the earth in less than a fortnight, with greater rapidity the higher the latitude, where the distance travelled is obviously shorter. In the northern hemisphere it moves eastwards in summer and westwards for the rest of the year. Its trajectory is easier to predict in summer, since it is regular and oscillates only between + or - 5° latitude. It is therefore wholly possible to pass several times directly above southern England during the period of the year in which crop circles appear. A small calculation becomes necessary, however, with regard to the creation of these circles, which has to be carried out in less than a minute according to certain of the witness statements which have been gathered (see first part chapter 5). During this elapse of time, our balloon will have been able to travel a distance of 60 sec x (up to) 70 metres per second, i.e. a distance of about 4 kilometres. Since it is at an altitude of around 30 kilometres, that represents an angular movement of Atn 4/30 = around 8°, or around 4° on both sides of the vertical of the crop circle, which does not pose any particular problem. Indeed, when compared with the height of a stalk of ripe wheat (around 90 cm), that implies a maximum inaccuracy of tan 4° x 0.90 cm = around 6 cm for the design on the ground. The creation of increasingly sophisticated crop circles therefore constitutes a very good test of the precision capabilities of the equipment being used. And, while they are about it, why not think of aiming at cattle or human beings, who must be as equally vulnerable to powerful microwaves as stalks of wheat?