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U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

cnbc.com

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

#531

Post by chii »

zopa wrote: post #381
chii wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that's true, i think crimea and the associated warm water port (sevastopol) is of strategic value. After the crimean invasion, the mainland of ukraine has cut off the water canal, which meant that the peninsular needs to be constantly supported by the russian mainland. It's not quite sustainable in the long term for russia to do that. The land bridge is their "solution". I don't see taiwan as similarly strategi…

> While that's true, i think crimea and the associated warm water port (sevastopol) is of strategic value. Russia already had naval basing rights is Sevastopol, before the invasion of Crimea. I don’t think the strategic explanations hold up.

russia wants permanent, irrevocable access, not just rights granted by an uncontrollable gov't.

The writing was on the wall at the time - ukraine was leaning towards the west.

Not saying this was the only reason for the invasion, but it is a factor.

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

#532

Post by a_bonobo »

brabarossa wrote: post #513
49531 wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't tell if the joke is the man is foolish or wise for not being interested in politics.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Then again, there's a million evil things in my news-feed every day about which I can do precisely nothing, usually because they're in a different country. What does me knowing (in depressing detail!) about The Evil Thing I Have No Power About improve the situation in any way?

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

#534

Post by foverzar »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #289
yongjik wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a South Korean, well, I don't like the Chinese government either, but these aggressive rhetorics don't help. My own country was under decades of pro-American dictators, all the while conveniently enjoying the membership of the Free World(TM): at that point, what does "free" even mean? I'm not saying America is the force of evil; it has done some nice things, and some other pretty horrible things. What I'm trying t…

It’s ironic to see a South Korean say this when all you need to do is look across the border to see what a Chinese supported alternative looks like.

Are you being serious right now? The sorry looks of North Korea has nothing to do with China's support and everything to do with the fact that America has been beating and sanctioning the shit out of it since the day of it's inception.

This kind of behavior followed by this kind of rhetorics is exactly why half-the-world hates you so much. Disgusting, I can't believe you aren't trolling right now.

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

#535

Post by fumeux_fume »

moomoo11 wrote: post #395
404mm wrote: post #382

I feel like the balloon takedown was seriously mishandled. Imo it should have been shot down right after it crossed our borders and before it started move over populated areas. That way there would be no surveillance and you could examine the payload. Now that it’s in the water, you may not even find it.

Do you really believe the USAF and rest of the military and 3 letter agencies had not already intercepted/jammed/hacked the comms link? By letting it saunter all the way across they also probably got a lot of good info on its capabilities.

Had to lol at this one. Yeah, after they hacked the comms link and they were able to gain access to the master program.

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

#536

Post by moomoo11 »

fumeux_fume wrote: post #535
moomoo11 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really believe the USAF and rest of the military and 3 letter agencies had not already intercepted/jammed/hacked the comms link? By letting it saunter all the way across they also probably got a lot of good info on its capabilities.

Had to lol at this one. Yeah, after they hacked the comms link and they were able to gain access to the master program.

lol. Ok I’ll go along. And it turns out to be a node version 12 app :’D

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

#537

Post by [deleted] »

geomark wrote: post #515
ttul wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They would not be concerned about the electronics being damaged so much as recoverable so the components used can be analyzed and the supply chains traced. They want to know whether any export-restricted gear was used and, if so, who is to blame.

They may want to analyze the cryptographic comms. Having working electronics might make that easier.

[deleted]

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

#538

Post by californical »

alanh wrote: post #496
wayeq wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if only i paid attention in trigonometry..

Hmm, do we even need trig? Naively I would imagine that simple proportions would hold — e.g. same visible size @ twice the distance = object is twice as big

4x as big, since we see in two dimensions — you can judge length & height (but not depth).

So if it appears the same size but twice as far away, the the length and height are each 2x. So that would make it the size of ~4 airplanes

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

#539

Post by falsandtru »

Why didn't they use machine guns? Perhaps one reason was the risk that if they used machine guns, they would hit the balloon and crash the fighter. In that case, it would have provided China with the worst possible performance of shooting down a U.S. fighter with a Chinese balloon. On the other hand, if they used missiles and shot down the Chinese balloon with flair, we could advertise a strong and brave U.S. The U.S. successfully turned the humiliating situation of a Chinese airspace invasion into an opportunity for the best U.S. performance.

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

#540

Post by [deleted] »

mardifoufs wrote: post #493
jasmer wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US didn't get any of the Iraqi Oil. Ironically, it was Europe and China who benefitted in that regard. Also notably, the US 5th fleet defends freedom of navigation in the Gulf, which is mostly about Oil, and China is the #1 recipient of Oil! Funny, that.

I'm sure those million dead people in iraq are glad the fifth fleet is protecting trade or that America didn't actually directly steal their oil. The same goes for the countless lives and futures ruined for the people still living with the consequences of the Gulf War. This is absurd and sounds exactly like a chinese nationalist rhetoric about what Mao did in the great leap forward. Hey, millions died, but think of h…

[deleted]
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