Live data from Hacker News

Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

warisboring.com

171–180 of 304 posts

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#171

If that was a classified plane, do you really think they would be moving it around in broad daylight without being covered?!?!

No, and there's no chance a guy whose reaction is "what the f is that" would be anywhere near it.

Probably just some test model, but that doesn't make for clickbait.

Oh no! Look at all the "OPSEC" in this 2008 promo video of the same facility on youtube... https://youtu.be/0LIqRshUoPc?t=108

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also no indication from this article that the video came from a service member. You can hear other heavy equipment vehicles in the background and the truck driver is definitely not driving anything owned by the military so also likely a contractor. Angry old man FB vibes from that article

The whole thing makes no sense either. If it was some top secret shit, it wouldn't be carried uncovered in the open like that. I'm sure chinese satellites are probably filming all military bases 24/7 already and probably have much higher resolution view of whatever that truck was carrying.

It might be a fake or a prop aircraft, with the "leaked video" a disinformation tactic.

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#173

An OPSEC violation has once again made a case for why using TikTok should be a punishable offense in the military, It's not clear why TikTok is singled out here, this could just has easily been posted to Facebook or Instagram or one of the other myriad of social media platforms, or pushed automatically to someone's open photo album in the cloud. If OPSEC is important, don't let people bring their personal camera phon…

This seems short-sighted to me. In my fiction, in 10-20-30yrs we'll all have eye implants ala Black Mirror and we'll be so dependent on them that telling people they have to turn them off will be untenable. Anytime I see "no photography" signs I can't help but think "living in the past". For example the immigration line in nearly every Airport says "no photos" and yet everyone in line is on their portable camera, um,…

In museums it's usually the flash photography they have the main issue with. For the bleaching effect to paintings and disruption to other visitors.

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#174
post #69

But in these (dis?)information games, it wouldn't be difficult to setup a fake scenario like this just to make one's opponents feel really underpowered. Imagine the fun of building a nice cool futuristic mockup, putting in on a trailer, and then leaking it to tiktok. It would cost so little and be so fun. This is obviously comical speculation, but anything is possible.

Comical speculation? Pretend weapons were invented in the Second World War (and probably prior). I agree, it would cost fuck all and be a right laugh. Next week they're going to do the Millennium Falcon.

This is most definitely "leaked footage " of a prop.

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#176
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for the author or to popular anti-China narratives in the U.S., but from a traditional geopolitical perspective China poses a threat because of territorial claims independent of Taiwan, most importantly its claims over the South China Sea. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So... Those claims pose a grave threat directly to…

But is China really threating the US directly in anyway through military confrontation? Taiwan, China sea matters are localised to the close neighborhood of China. Does the US desire peaceful coexistence with China or not? Reading some of the hawkish, cold war style jingoism coming out of US media makes one wonder?

Anyone who cares about democracy in their own part of the world should be paying attention to what happens in China. Unlike the 20th century fascist and communist dictatorships (including Chinese communism of that era), China today is neither self-destructive nor economically unsound.

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#177
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for the author or to popular anti-China narratives in the U.S., but from a traditional geopolitical perspective China poses a threat because of territorial claims independent of Taiwan, most importantly its claims over the South China Sea. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So... Those claims pose a grave threat directly to…

But is China really threating the US directly in anyway through military confrontation? Taiwan, China sea matters are localised to the close neighborhood of China. Does the US desire peaceful coexistence with China or not? Reading some of the hawkish, cold war style jingoism coming out of US media makes one wonder?

China is a state that seems to be more or less incompatible with liberal democracies and has a lot of power.

That is the main struggle

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#178
It looks like a radar target. They mount them on sticks out in the desert and fire radar at them to study and tune stealth shapes. They are mounted on single sticks so they can be rotated/tilted to various angles. That's what the single central mount thing is, the 2" thick triangle bit with the two bolt holes. The leading edge of that mount also has a classic curve associated with some radar target mounts. It prevents direct reflections by the mount.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/15746/lockheeds-helend...

Lol, thedrive agrees with me: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/42480/mysterious-steal...

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#179
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for the author or to popular anti-China narratives in the U.S., but from a traditional geopolitical perspective China poses a threat because of territorial claims independent of Taiwan, most importantly its claims over the South China Sea. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_So... Those claims pose a grave threat directly to…

But is China really threating the US directly in anyway through military confrontation? Taiwan, China sea matters are localised to the close neighborhood of China. Does the US desire peaceful coexistence with China or not? Reading some of the hawkish, cold war style jingoism coming out of US media makes one wonder?

> Taiwan, China sea matters are localised to the close neighborhood of China

We don't have a defense treaty with Taiwan so it's not like we'd have to intervene to the degree we would if Egypt decided they wanted to have a go at Israel or something, but we've had a standing agreement since the 1970s to arm them as the situation dictates, so we're not entirely detached from it.

Re: Secret military aircraft possibly exposed on TikTok

#180

I'm surprised that there's only one other person in this thread discussing the possibility that this is a deliberately coordinated release of information by the military. I've never worked for the US military, however I doubt that if you're working in close proximity to classified hardware they just let you loose with a smartphone in your hand. The person filming this would surely have been easily identifiable, and s…

A lot of "leaks" from the White House are actually authorized by the administration. So this isn't as improbable as it sounds.
Post reply on HN