Sidestepping the geopolitical issues with this for a moment ... What advantage is there to using a high altitude balloon for surveillance? I have to imagine there are some - like longer loiter time over a specific point, maybe better optics because you are still in atmosphere, it's obviously cheaper than launching a satellite - but I don't really know enough about this kind of hardware to say. Or maybe the point wasn…
Significantly closer to the ground, so can capture better resolution pictures. If browsing Google Earth, the high-resolution data around cities originates from airplanes, not satellites.
Sidestepping the geopolitical issues with this for a moment ... What advantage is there to using a high altitude balloon for surveillance? I have to imagine there are some - like longer loiter time over a specific point, maybe better optics because you are still in atmosphere, it's obviously cheaper than launching a satellite - but I don't really know enough about this kind of hardware to say. Or maybe the point wasn…
Turnaround/prototyping. Getting a sensor onto a spy sat is a multi-year process of testing and validating. But a new balloon can probably be built and flown in a matter of weeks. So any country trying to learn how to spy from above might want to build up the relevant corporate knowledge using balloons.
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.
there’s a bit of difference between it being spread as a meme online and then quietly fading into the background v.s. the President of the country ordering it to be shot down by a jet and then announcing said order to the public. just how close/far is this from “business as usual”? if this balloon were no big deal, i wouldn’t expect it to be escalated to the Commander in Chief. which tells me either (a) there’s (susp…
(d) Joe Biden is desperately in need of some crisis. He is facing a Republican Congress which is going to accuse him of working with his son to secure their financial future through shady corrupt deals in China and Ukraine.
Sidestepping the geopolitical issues with this for a moment ... What advantage is there to using a high altitude balloon for surveillance? I have to imagine there are some - like longer loiter time over a specific point, maybe better optics because you are still in atmosphere, it's obviously cheaper than launching a satellite - but I don't really know enough about this kind of hardware to say. Or maybe the point wasn…
It's 11 miles vs 350+ miles. Certainly you have the ability to get dramatically better imaging than from a satellite.
Train hard means fight easy. The US has always had excellent pilot training, and it paid off handsomely in war after war.
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For the pilots, it was - the US achieved air superiority quite quickly.
Whatever point you’re trying to make, you lost it along the way. The outcome of of the afghan war was not ideal, but that was not caused by a lack of pilot training, that is an absolutely absurd thing to argue.
Which exactly China geopolitical goals not aligned with the West do you mean? Where are they declared?
Are you asking for more information out of curiousity or are you also trying to imply that my assessment is incorrect? It is difficult to approach an answer to your question without knowing more about your expectations and intentions in asking it.
I am asking for more information and, preferably, sources. I am not an Asia politics expert, so the only thing came to my mind is the Chinese take on Taiwan.
From your point of view, I can see how China is bad and the USA is good. But ask someone whose country got invaded by the USA or whose bloody dictator got supported by the USA. Over here in Latinamerica we still remember the horrible things that the USA did. It seems to me (but I could have a false perception) that China is a horrible bully in their corner of the world (nine dash line and, of course their will to inv…
Every major country has their faults, but the US definitely has a larger surface area for these faults as the only superpower left. On the other hand, as the only superpower left, we're fortunate the US exists as a stabilizing factor for world peace, rather than colonizing the rest of the world like every superpower before it.
Lol, yeah, those aren't just faults. Destabilizing the entire middle east isn't just an oopsie you can write off, it's what you call "stabilizing" usually looks like. Your discourse is basically what everyone thinks of their own superpower, as long as they aren't on the receiving end of those "faults".
Sidestepping the geopolitical issues with this for a moment ... What advantage is there to using a high altitude balloon for surveillance? I have to imagine there are some - like longer loiter time over a specific point, maybe better optics because you are still in atmosphere, it's obviously cheaper than launching a satellite - but I don't really know enough about this kind of hardware to say. Or maybe the point wasn…
One of the most technically challenging things about reconnaissance satellites is dealing with the high speed at which the satellite moves over the target. A balloon flies much lower and vastly more slowly. It can loiter over an area, sucking in electronic signals and taking photographs with extremely high fidelity.
I don’t think the Chinese meant for this balloon to cross the United States. I believe they were testing it for use over other countries or perhaps for use during wartime. Their apology was way too quick for this to have been anything other than a genuine accident.
Sidestepping the geopolitical issues with this for a moment ... What advantage is there to using a high altitude balloon for surveillance? I have to imagine there are some - like longer loiter time over a specific point, maybe better optics because you are still in atmosphere, it's obviously cheaper than launching a satellite - but I don't really know enough about this kind of hardware to say. Or maybe the point wasn…
LiDAR, plus it could be a dry run for more advanced balloons with offensive capabilities.
The Us military only shot it down because of pr. Usually you ignore spy planes. The are easy to track, and the military and airforce know how to sit around and wait things out. America should retaliate with its own balloons with no Intel packages, instead the should be very visible, and at the ceiling of most fighters so China has to waste be anti satellite missiles on cheap balloons.
Um, it's kinda hard to do that to China especially in the winter. Prevailing winds would come out of Russia and more westerly countries. I don't think any of them are going to allow a launch or a flyover of a balloon to tease the Chinese government.
Actually I wouldn't be so sure. Western Navies are constantly doing freedom of navigation exercises.