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

951–960 of 1001 posts

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

#951

Post by misja111 »

torpfactory wrote: post #900

The big question is why China would send a balloon. My best guess is it carried electronic warfare sensors to try and collect specific information about US radar and missile capabilities. They may have in fact wanted us to shoot it down, ideally first painting it with advanced radar (both air and ground based) and then firing an advanced missile at it. Data could be streamed out until the moment of impact and used to…

Since nobody has answered your question: I assume that China simply sent a balloon to spy on the US. Why a balloon? Because it's much closer to earth than a satellite and can carry a heavier payload. And why they were not worried if it would be detected? Well, according to the Pentagon, China has sent several balloons over the US in recent years and nobody made a fuss about it until now.

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

#952

Post by petemir »

darkerside wrote: post #895
petemir wrote: post #839

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which football? Real football or American football?

It's funny because I'm a fan of football -- I'll let you decide which I might be talking about -- and the field is about the same size in either case.

I feared that. I'll check next time before doing the comment ;D

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

#953

Post by _zzaw »

Krssst wrote: post #912
torpfactory wrote: post #900

The big question is why China would send a balloon. My best guess is it carried electronic warfare sensors to try and collect specific information about US radar and missile capabilities. They may have in fact wanted us to shoot it down, ideally first painting it with advanced radar (both air and ground based) and then firing an advanced missile at it. Data could be streamed out until the moment of impact and used to…

Could just using aircraft guns be easier? I am probably completely wrong, just curious.

One reason I heard is that guns wouldn't have been that effective on a balloon the size of a football field; mere pinpricks, basically. The balloon would leak, but not nearly fast enough to bring it down in a reasonable amount of time.

Unless, of course, they unloaded thousands of rounds into it, which is probably more dangerous and less practical than taking it out of the sky with a missile.

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

#954

Post by lazyeye »

chii wrote: post #281
lazyeye wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Without first hand, primary sources of information, the media and their dissemination of information (or lack thereof) is a form of manipulation to suite someone's agenda, and has a lot of analogs with the truman show. For example, nobody right now, except may be the US military, knows whether it's a real spy balloon, or really just a weather balloon. But the media reporting of it has framed it as a spy balloon with…

Yes we can ignore the media because all the media is garbage, I agree on that. But I also believe that the the likelihood the balloon is being used for spying is probably pretty high.

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

#955

Post by tonymet »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #749
w3tester wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is against the idea to use this as an evidence of "China threat".

Where will you find the ladder to reach 58,000 feet? Or is idle conspiracism not bothered by physics at all?

we spy on china and they spy on us. it’s a possibility. and they have good reason to lie about it to avoid embarrassment or worse

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

#956

Post by darkerside »

petemir wrote: post #952
darkerside wrote: post #895

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny because I'm a fan of football -- I'll let you decide which I might be talking about -- and the field is about the same size in either case.

I feared that. I'll check next time before doing the comment ;D

All is forgiven! As the comment thread burns around us

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

#957

Post by dang »

pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

Can you please make your substantive points without going into fulmination or flamewar? Of course these are provocative topics and strong feelings are both natural and inevitable, but that makes it more important, not less, to stick to the rules. From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html:

"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."

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

#958

Post by dang »

yohanshi wrote: post #158
pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

As a taiwanese who lurks on hacker news for many years but when I saw this post I had to make an account. You are dead wrong, China is an enemy of the free world, pure and simple. South Koreans and Ukrainians would agree with me here. Especially since China has declared no limit friendship with russia

From the first part of your comment it's clear that you have a special perspective on this topic, but please don't post nationalistic flamewar comments to HN. We're trying for something different here. I know it's difficult when the topics are provocative, but that makes it more important to stick to the rules.

From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."

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

#959

Post by dang »

scoofy wrote: post #253
qqtt wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world should also be very concerned about the current leader in China, who is currently re-writing the democratic traditions of China to remain in power indefinitely, which echoes the moves certain other leaders have made. This is, time and time again, a precursor to using military adventurism to justify and consolidate their grip on power. If anything, people aren't worried enough. Being overly sensitive about a…

>re-writing the democratic traditions of China Ha! "Democracy" (only approved ideologies need apply).

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#960

Post by dang »

LarryMullins wrote: post #166
Dalewyn wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that using China as our 21st century boogieman is very tiresome, the fact of the matter is China is not a friend of the west.

You're wasting your time trying to explain this to somebody who uses the derogatory "USian" to describe his supposed fellow countrymen.

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Post reply on HN