781–790 of 1001 posts
Is this the first time that the something was shot down over the continental US (outside of training)?
Will be pretty funny in 50 years when we find out this was a DARPA project that malfunctioned
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I saw it from my car today while driving before I knew it was going to be in my area. It was very visible to the naked eye. It was large enough that the perspective made it seem a lot lower altitude than it actually was.
Not sure what the CCP is thinking. Are they simply trying to instigate a response with such a brazen display?
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Had to lol at this one. Yeah, after they hacked the comms link and they were able to gain access to the master program.
Its very possible that they could jam the radio frequencies the balloon uses. "Hacking the comms link", not so much, but neutering its ability to phone home... very possible.
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I don’t think F-22 pilots get to paint their aircraft. It would destroy the stealth coatings, which are so specialized they are measured to the milligram when removed (to ensure an adversary hasn’t taken some for analysis).
Where do stories like this come from? Simple logic would tell you there is no possible way to weigh an aircraft coating to a milligram and verify that it matches a somehow measured precise amount applied to the aircraft. The concept is ridiculous.
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Asymmetric encryption. The private key does not have to be stored in the balloon at all (only the public key that can encrypt but NOT decrypt), it can stay safely in a PLA datacenter in China.
Does anyone actually use asymmetric encryption to encrypt data? I thought asymmetric encryption was just used to encrypt the symmetric key used to encrypt the data…
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U-2 (TR-1), SR-71, WB-57
Don't forget the beautiful XB-70
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US foreign policy is not about spreading democracy. That's a bedtime story told to young Americans who don't know any better. The US is fine working with dictators; it's when those dictators stop playing ball or are ousted that we suddenly want to spread democracy. Noriega, Hussein and the Shah are easy examples.
Ok, to use American parlance, we expected them to play ball on an even field. Of course pols/biz were blinded by the big $$ in their eyes and could not see beyond that, but the expectation with was that the legacy of Deng and Hu would continue to soften the CCP and eventually become (economic) "partners" of some sort. Maybe not completely an open democracy but also definitely not the more authoritarian swerve it's ta…
Is China not an economic partner of the USA? I thought the huge amount of trade between the two countries made it a foregone conclusion.
