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U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

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621–630 of 1001 posts

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

#621

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.

China did shoot down some balloons back in the day. This is 2019.

https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4865451742920798?from=old_pc_...

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

#622
post #338

I have been in "no politics, no news" mode for over a month. I try to do this about once a year. I have yet to tell my wife I do it, but when I am on this limited media consumption she always comments how pleasant I am to be around. I think it is a good thing for all of us to do once in a while, until 80 years ago most news was at best three or four days old, go back 120 years and you're getting only last weeks top t…

Sputnik 2.0 It's a serious warning that the U.S. is dangerously behind China when it comes to balloon technology. Note also, balloons are one way of colonizing Venus (floating high in the atmosphere without having to approach the dangerously hot surface). Clearly we need a Venus Balloon Program to show who's the technological leader on this planet, just like with the Apollo Mission. Mars is for wimps, real explorers…

The US has much better spy tech than balloons, which are really obvious and easily shot down as demonstrated today.

Not being a leader in this tech is not a bad thing IMO. And earth balloons don't translate to venusian ones.

Ps would you really be happy living in zeppelin city knowing a leak would drop you into acid inferno?

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

#623
Should a country shoot down an airplane if it enters its airspace by mistake?

ChatGPT: It is generally not considered appropriate for a country to shoot down an airplane that has entered its airspace by mistake. In such cases, the standard protocol is for the country to contact the aircraft and instruct it to leave its airspace. The use of military force should only be considered as a last resort in extreme circumstances, such as if the aircraft poses a clear and imminent threat to national security. International law and norms also dictate that aircraft should not be subjected to the use of force unless they are engaged in hostile acts or are carrying weapons of mass destruction.

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

#624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the system is designed in a way that you have neither a say nor healthy representation America is the most powerful civilisation in the history of humanity. In almost every election, nonvoters could swing the outcome. On almost every issue, practically nobody reaches out to their representatives. Participation is hard. Many of us have more important matters to tend to. That’s fine. But don’t characterise participat…

I think the relevant quote is something like "people get the government they deserve" or "if you want to know who is to blame you have only to look in the mirror"

More accurate would be: "people get the government they deserve" or "if you want to know one person to blame, you can squint really really hard and try to see yourself in that mirror 1/154millionth the size of your bathroom mirror."

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

#625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, all comms of that balloon would be satellite. I don't think it is easy to jam, let alone intercept.

I’m sure in 1970s nobody nobody thought GPS would become a reality within a decade. “They will never be able to pinpoint position that way!” My guy. It’s the United States military. All the shit we use is a by product of their first move. If it seems impossible today they’ve already figured it out. Not to mention they made a nuclear bomb and the Manhattan project was an insane achievement.

Weird... Most groundbreaking research, and the consumer tech that eventually comes from it, seems to come out of post-secondary and tech/research companies.

Crazy to think it's all a front and it's actually stemming from the US Military. Thank you for your service!

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

#627
post #64
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 oft…

Surely it's not a very good spy balloon though if it can be observed from the ground with the naked eye ...

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

#628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The risk/reward ratio of that would be insanely bad. That's in the realm of "lizard people" in terms of likelihood.

You have NATO already providing training, signal intelligence, communications, weapons, advisory personnel and volunteers in Ukraine. Russia is already saying it’s in a limited war with NATO. Germany is already saying it’s at war with Russia. What I suggest is actually the F-22 is being using for signal intelligence over the Black Sea; helping guide in missles. Such as this attack https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europ…

> What I suggest is actually the F-22 is being using for signal intelligence over the Black Sea

That would be silly, we have planes that are specialized for SIGINT gathering, the F-22 is not one of them. We certainly have SIGINT aircraft operating near Ukraine, but they aren’t F-22s.

> helping guide in missles.

That’s not SIGINT, but something like an airborne forward observer for artillery/missiles. Which is less improbable than SIGINT, but still…

> Such as this attack

Ukraine has attacked airbases much farther from its current lines of control, deep inside Russia proper, with Soviet-era drones converted to loitering munitions. It is far more likely that they did the same thing in Crimea than that they conducted some kind of long range attack with F-22’s providing terminal targeting for some kind of SARH/SALH missile.

Even more likely than even that is that they used the Ukraine-developed-and-manufactured Neptune anti-ship cruise missile (the same reported to have been used against the Russian Black Sea fleet flagship), that has inertial/GPS guidance for land attack, and sufficient range to have hit that base from well within Ukraine-controlled territory at that time.

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

#629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What information could the balloon collect that satellite or cars on the ground not collect? Air samples?

Someone in another thread said "I think the purpose for sending the balloon was primarily to analyze the radar and RF environment on approach to U.S. airspace.", which would be something dependent on reference point and not able to be done from satellite or cars.

They could much more easily do that with an actual commercial aircraft.

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

#630
This exact same balloon type was spotted floating over Japan in 2020 and India in 2022, https://twitter.com/BalloonSciDan/status/1479218147098038278

Plenty of companies are working on airships including in China. Companies building airships of similar scale: https://aviationoutlook.com/airship-manufacturers/

The US puts hundreds of balloons over China, https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/radiosondes

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