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U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

cnbc.com

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

#61

Post by davidu »

nocsi wrote: post #47

In previous times, the US would ignore these balloons and quietly take them down. Instead they made a big deal out of it and milked it. Brilliant and opposite of what china expected

Not sure where your info is from, but this balloon was seen by the naked eye and all over social media. As someone who lives in Montana, many many people could see it. The idea that the USG prompted the publicity is unlikely to be accurate (would suggest a calculated social media psyop). Not impossible, but not likely.

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

#62

Post by gruez »

anigbrowl wrote: post #54
nocsi wrote: post #47

In previous times, the US would ignore these balloons and quietly take them down. Instead they made a big deal out of it and milked it. Brilliant and opposite of what china expected

Given that it was visible to the naked eye and people were talking about it, it's silly to blame this on the government.

>Given that it was visible to the naked eye

But why did this garner so much attention compared to the weather ballons that the US launches on a regular basis?

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

#63

Post by lazyeye »

krapp wrote: post #41
thevagrant wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is true but has got absolutely nothing to do with whether the balloon is being used for spying or not.

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

#64

Post by tzs »

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.

> I actually think it might just be a stray weather balloon.

Most experts seem to think that is unlikely because its payload was much larger than a weather balloon needs.

It's also got some sort of maneuvering system that you don't find on most weather balloons, or even on most non-weather high altitude balloons.

Generally, balloons either have no maneuverability at all, or they can go up and down. Since the wind often blows in different directions at different altitudes that gives the up and down ones some ability to control their course by going up or down to a layer going the right direction.

But in the winter in the US there isn't that much variation. Right now for example its blowing east from around 4000 ft to something like 70000 ft or more.

In the summer there is a lot more variation, so normally if you were trying to send a spy balloon over the US you'd want to do it in summer. Then you can use altitude changes to guide it or have it stay roughly over a target.

A huge maneuverable balloon in winter in the US is something special.

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

#65

Post by ricardobeat »

cududa wrote: post #25

I had seen reports that the balloon was the length of 3-4 school busses but it appears that was misreported and just repeated. The PAYLOAD was the length of 3-4 school busses. I haven’t been following this much until today/ vaguely aware as an amusing background story. But, has anyone seen high res photos of the balloon or someone doing back of the envelope math on the size of the balloon portion? I ask simply becaus…

Multiple people reported that it was visible to naked eye from the ground, it must have been huge for that.

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

#67

Post by anigbrowl »

gruez wrote: post #62
anigbrowl wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that it was visible to the naked eye and people were talking about it, it's silly to blame this on the government.

>Given that it was visible to the naked eye But why did this garner so much attention compared to the weather ballons that the US launches on a regular basis?

Probably because it was quite a bit larger than usual, going by initial reports. What do you want the government to do, lie and pretend it's one of theirs?

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

#69

Post by bamboozled »

sumoboy wrote: post #66

F22 shooting this down is definitely a sign of strength. If this were a James bond movie, a predator drone would have just hooked that balloon and brought it back intact. What prevents China or anyone else to just launch dozens or hundreds of these?

The fact there would be no point ?
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