Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 1001 posts

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#41

Post by krapp »

thevagrant wrote: post #39
ironyman wrote: post #4

I actually think it might just be a stray weather balloon. If they considered it a security threat they would've downed it before it reached continental US. Overall it's a fair resolution. It's a good political move to raise public awareness of tensions with the PRC (you'd be surprised how many people don't know). Downing it is mostly symbollic and completes the safety narrative.

Why is everything a narrative these days? That word comes up with ridiculous frequency. Do we believe we are part of some kind of Truman show experiment? As for it being a weather balloon, it seems they must be floating a lot of these balloons lately to check the 'weather'.

Yes, we are part of some kind of Truman show experiment. Every form of media you consume, which in aggregate forms much of your perception of the world at large and reality in general, is engineered to manipulate you with a narrative to serve someone's agenda, be that advertising, propaganda, psychological manipulation, addiction or manufactured consent.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#43

Post by downvotetruth »

Missile was way overkill - your tax dollars at work! It had been observed for days: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinese-spy-ballo... A balloon's surface is not rigid. Clipping it with a wing would have been enough to deflate it as there is minimal to no risk of damaging a metal wing. Let alone the week or so they had to prepare a M61 Vulcan Gatling gun on an F15 that can fly at 65k ft above the 60k ft flight altitude of the balloon. Lack of air retrieval was also very disappointing. Imagine if it had a secondary payload that dispersed in the water or near the ground.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#44

Post by credit_guy »

chitowneats wrote: post #20
neuralRiot wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not in the defense industry neither know how the Chinese spy agency works but I guess there are more covert ways to spy than sending a 20ft ballon half way around the world.

One theory is that the Chinese know that. This could be them sending a message: "If you defend Taiwan, we can get over your heads cheaply and easily". The only casualties on the U.S. mainland during WW2 were Japanese balloons dropping bombs on the west coast. I doubt that symbolism was lost on the military or the Biden administration.

That can't be the message. You saw how easy it was to down the balloon.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#45

Post by nocsi »

downvotetruth wrote: post #43

Missile was way overkill - your tax dollars at work! It had been observed for days: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinese-spy-ballo... A balloon's surface is not rigid. Clipping it with a wing would have been enough to deflate it as there is minimal to no risk of damaging a metal wing. Let alone the week or so they had to prepare a M61 Vulcan Gatling gun on an F15 that can fly at 65k ft above the 60k ft…

Directed energy would be better. But then missles are something the general public can understand. It also falls in line with the US making a big drama about this

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#46

Post by chitowneats »

credit_guy wrote: post #44
chitowneats wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One theory is that the Chinese know that. This could be them sending a message: "If you defend Taiwan, we can get over your heads cheaply and easily". The only casualties on the U.S. mainland during WW2 were Japanese balloons dropping bombs on the west coast. I doubt that symbolism was lost on the military or the Biden administration.

That can't be the message. You saw how easy it was to down the balloon.

It was easy to down one balloon during peace-time. You're right.

Please see my comment further below for why that might not work in aggregate during a real military conflict.

Edit: I'll paste it here in case it gets buried:

I really do wonder if this is them testing that they can reliably and cheaply get high-altitude balloons to the U.S. mainland. In the event of a military conflict, I can imagine them swarming us with these. They must cost far, far less than the average American military aircraft. If our air power becomes partly tied up defending Taiwan, dropping bombs from craft like these might be an effective strategy to demoralize the U.S. population. I commented this above but I feel it's worth repeating here: the only casualties in the U.S. mainland during WW2 were Japanese balloons dropping bombs on the west coast[1].

I also wonder if this operation will end up backfiring. Suddenly, lots of people in the U.S. have Chinese aggression on their mind. Knowing Americans pretty well, I would expect this to actually increase public support for the defense of Taiwan. Inshallah.

1. https://amp.smh.com.au/world/north-america/when-japanese-bal...

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#48

Post by innagadadavida »

downvotetruth wrote: post #43

Missile was way overkill - your tax dollars at work! It had been observed for days: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinese-spy-ballo... A balloon's surface is not rigid. Clipping it with a wing would have been enough to deflate it as there is minimal to no risk of damaging a metal wing. Let alone the week or so they had to prepare a M61 Vulcan Gatling gun on an F15 that can fly at 65k ft above the 60k ft…

While these are all great points, I guess this has changed people’s perception of risks and we are now more open to spending billions of USD to close these perceived and real gaps.

It won’t be surprising if there is a huge defense spending bill in congress with carve out for war in Ukraine and this time it will go through as the Republicans won’t hold back.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#49

Post by tristanj »

mrtksn wrote: post #22
rationalist wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any proof that it wasn't discovered earlier? It's difficult to prove a negative. It could have been discovered earlier but monitored differently and then when it became news, monitored overtly for different reasons. If it isn't an immediate threat that you have to stop, why let an adversary know your capabilities (that you can detect them).

Well, these were reported by civilians over landlocked states and there's no indication that the balloons were spotted earlier.

>there's no indication that the balloons were spotted earlier

No, the balloon was tracked when it entered Alaska on Jan 28 https://abc7news.com/where-the-chinese-surveillance-balloon-...

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#50

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

downvotetruth wrote: post #43

Missile was way overkill - your tax dollars at work! It had been observed for days: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinese-spy-ballo... A balloon's surface is not rigid. Clipping it with a wing would have been enough to deflate it as there is minimal to no risk of damaging a metal wing. Let alone the week or so they had to prepare a M61 Vulcan Gatling gun on an F15 that can fly at 65k ft above the 60k ft…

It's a practical training exercise and a worthwhile experiment to confirm the inventory can be used against a novel threat. You realize millions of dollars get spent shooting missiles into target drones every year. One extra on a real target isn't an issue.
Post reply on HN