Spy Balloon(s)

[WesL]

Just because it is interesting, all the interwebs are talking about the large visiting balloon from China. I would love to hear your thoughts of what it is doing or not doing.




Dan "grab the helmet kids" Satterfield did a great job running the info that has been made public through the NOAA Hysplit model and projecting where it came from (spoiler: Central China) and where it is going.




And as expected (again kudos to Dan and NOAA) we now have sightings in Kansas City...




Naturally, Kansas City is trying to figure out if Mahomes can knock it out of the sky.

 

[JPWX]

CHEMTRAILS

 

[Sawmaster]

It's not "spying" I'm worried about; plenty of well-equipped satellites doing that now. The potential is there for a balloon to have nasties in it- even something as simple as anthrax spores would wreak havoc being spread around at those heights. It's our airspace and we should defend it. If we do that every time they will stop; if we let them fly we're leaving the door open for trouble to walk in. Some reports say this has been going on for years already

Don't forget that simple paper balloons made by Japanese schoolkids were used to firebomb US forests in WW2 successfully.

 

[WesL]

Got some better photos when it was over Missouri today. Solar panels on the bottom or some type of array? Would you get much sun on the bottom?

 

[UncleJuJu98]

@WesL just got shot down.

 

[UncleJuJu98]

 

[WesL]

@WesL just got shot down.

Perfect! At least now they can try to retrieve some of the equipment and see what they were collecting.

 

[UncleJuJu98]

Perfect! At least now they can try to retrieve some of the equipment and see what they were collecting.

Yep, I think most the damage is done since it got to fly over the entire country and many military bases I imagine data was transferred in real time to China. The best thing america can do now is to backtrack through the tech to maybe find some answers on who exactly made it and what where the capabilities ; like you said.

 

[Tomcats Forever!]

What intel could it gather? US had plenty of time to move sensitive stuff out of the way. Communications observation perhaps?

As far as using an F-22 to shoot it down, those pilots have to get flight hours in anyway- might as well be technically on a combat mission.

 

[Sawmaster]

Mostly 'muscle flexing' by China to see what our response would be at that level I think. But still, they would never allow anyone to penetrate their airspace in such a manner nor should we have, and TBH that would be the perfect response to any protests from them had we shot it down sooner. Which we should have., and probably will do now that this has become widely known.

 

[bjdeming]

Well, best not to down it over us, in case it was carrying nasties, and just let it continue on to sea first in what's likely the biggest fail the intelligence community has seen in a while. Saw on the news that retrieval efforts are underway.

Pity that they could only use a Sidewinder -- wasn't there once a tree on the Korean DMZ that we obliterated after NK troops shot some of our people? Totally different circs, but still.

Edit: Got curious and looked up the actual details; can't link with this flip phone but Wikipedia calls it the Korean axe murder incident--VERY different circs. There's only so much "show of force" you can do with a balloon, anyway. Sigh.

 

[UncleJuJu98]

3 more objects shot down over continental north American air space today. The aliens are invading

 

[UncleJuJu98]

Is this a red herring? Like for real not trying to get political either but is this a message from the Chinese to Biden?

 

[Juliett Bravo Kilo]

Mostly 'muscle flexing' by China to see what our response would be at that level I think. But still, they would never allow anyone to penetrate their airspace in such a manner nor should we have, and TBH that would be the perfect response to any protests from them had we shot it down sooner. Which we should have., and probably will do now that this has become widely known.

Yeah, I have a feeling America and China do this to each other all the time. I mean all of the global players spy on each other on a regular basis. I'm sure there are high-ranking American and Chinese officials who are having a chuckle over this, the way two opposing competitors riff on each other when one of them messes up. “Hey, we caught that one… better luck next time, buddy.”

 

[Sawmaster]

Well now they've shot 'something' down near Alaska and are reporting these over Latin America and South America too. There's some supposedly official admission that this has been going on for many years but just wasn't investigated for whatever reason. Pretty clear that jet fighters are going to be having lots of "target practice" till the Chinese quit launching these

 

[UncleJuJu98]

Lake Michigan air space closed for national defense. Object about to be shot down?

 

[TH2002]

Lost count of how many shootdowns there have been after the Chinese spy balloon, but there's only one logical explanation...

 

[WesL]

Another balloon downed over the Great Lakes today.

 

[UncleJuJu98]

Maybe all these balloons are from the filming of UP 2.

 

[bjdeming]

Is this a red herring? Like for real not trying to get political either but is this a message from the Chinese to Biden?

My guess is that it's more likely some sort of military manuevering/mind games, but beyond that, who can say, given our lack of knowledge about things at the classified level?

As a kid, I thought it weird that adults who had lived through the thing were buying so many "here's what really happened" books about the years during and around WW2.

Now I begin to see how little -- necessarily -- the public knew at the time about the situation that demanded so much sacrifice from them for four years.

Maybe we'll have to wait a few decades, too (and, hopefully, not have to make such sacrifices).

Speaking of WW2, let's keep Russia in mind, too -- it and Japan never ended their part of the war with a treaty: technically, it's still on with them. And Japan recently got the okay to militarize again.

And Russia could use some Red Chinese -- remember Taiwan -- help on the west while it's busy on its eastern border.

Sigh. Military stuff is just as complex as politics. But I think these incursions are tied in somehow to the whole complex circum-Pacific/Arctic situation. Whatever that is.

Sorry for the length -- it's just that I'm by the Pacific, on the northern route, too. Does anyone here from Alaska or Canada have thoughts?