Probably not a great sign of things to come.
US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
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Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#12I like how the measurement unit seems to be either small cars or school busses.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#13I dread to think of all the state-funded technology companies with backdoor-ed firmware/software coming out of China
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#14The F-22 has gone from zero kills to two in under a week.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#15Why are they calling it an object. It seems like a huge deal what kind of "object" this was. Was it another balloon? Missile? Private plane? How could they not know, and if they do know, why would they not say?
Edit - this video isn't loading for me, but I've just watched what I assume is the same briefing on Twitter. They have a pilot assessment that the object was unmanned - but they can't tell us balloon, missile, drone? I'm not understanding how a pilot could see the thing, communicate ("I'm looking at an unmanned object, should I shoot?") and somehow not convey what the object was. I appreciate the speed of this briefing, but I would prefer they wait at least until they know what they are saying. In the briefing below the guy says NORAD has been tracking it for a day - and they still don't know what it is? I guess that rules out missile, at least.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#16Spying happens all the time, even between allies. From what I read/understood about past spying incidents, it's only when someone starts mentioning it to the press that they want the rest of the population to be up an arms about it. Why that might be true: there are probably tons of Chinese spy events (and American spy events on China) that never made it. Was the balloon the first? Come on.
If the above hypothesis is true, it means the U.S. is trying to rile up / ready / etc. the population to view China as a threat.
Kind of ironic given the intense scrutiny and fears prior to Trump getting elected that he would trigger a depression or war because of his isolationist attitude about China specifically.
But more importantly what does that mean now? Will it justify laws passed to further isolate China?
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#17Probably not a great sign of things to come.
Probably didn't help that an Air Force general was openly and loudly proclaiming that war is inevitable. I looked up some speeches of his, and he is off the rails, like the German general in All Quiet Along the Western Front.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#18Why are they calling it an object. It seems like a huge deal what kind of "object" this was. Was it another balloon? Missile? Private plane? How could they not know, and if they do know, why would they not say? Edit - this video isn't loading for me, but I've just watched what I assume is the same briefing on Twitter. They have a pilot assessment that the object was unmanned - but they can't tell us balloon, missile,…
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Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#19I dread to think of all the state-funded technology companies with backdoor-ed firmware/software coming out of China
I don't see much difference between Chinese routers having back-doors and what Cisco has peddled to its customers all these years either willfully or just incompetence.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#20We need a cheaper way to down these spy balloons. The sidewinder missile + F-22 flight time costs are an order of magnitude greater than the total cost of launching one balloon. Send over the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler (HELIOS) to protect the west coast.