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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

#631

Post by mushbino »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #396
metadat wrote: post #2

Narrator: "A job well done by the US Military" I'm glad we have sufficient technology and capability to shoot down a balloon. What happens next?

It really is a shame that snarky posts that add nothing of value like this seem to be on the rise on HN. This used to be one of the few places on the internet you could go to avoid brain dead commentary from people who think they're clever and really belong with the children on Reddit. I really hope that the core group here gets a grip on this. In case you haven't read it in a while: https://news.ycombinator.com/news…

What do you feel your comment adds to the discussion?

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

#632

Post by pkaye »

rtourn wrote: post #35
neuralRiot wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not in the defense industry neither know how the Chinese spy agency works but I guess there are more covert ways to spy than sending a 20ft ballon half way around the world.

I expected this to be some dude’s project that got blown out of proportion.

There is report of another one across Costa Rica.

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

#633

Post by News-Dog »

SergeAx wrote: post #454
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.

FWIW, all comms of that balloon would be satellite. I don't think it is easy to jam, let alone intercept.

Tracking and over saturating the satellite/s receive is trivial, and considered to be very,very,very naughty!

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

#634

Post by lsiq »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #555
ghostwriter wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one thing to be interested in politics, and a whole different story whether you can make a tiny bit of difference with the knowledge you get from spending time listening to all the politicians out there on a daily basis. Besides, most of the time the system is designed in a way that you have neither a say nor healthy representation of your political views in the elected government.

> the system is designed in a way that you have neither a say nor healthy representation America is the most powerful civilisation in the history of humanity. In almost every election, nonvoters could swing the outcome. On almost every issue, practically nobody reaches out to their representatives. Participation is hard. Many of us have more important matters to tend to. That’s fine. But don’t characterise participat…

Don't you find it strange that nearly every country in the world is pursuing the same currency objective at the same time. You know the one, I just don't want to spell it out to trigger the filter.

How can every supposedly independent CB pursue the exact same goal if they are not under the direction of one nexus?

Elections indeed swing, but do the outcomes matter if the key national politicians are operating under duress? Food for thought.

Today's story is just another day of, "Eastasia has always been at war with Oceania."

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

#637

Post by Arainach »

a_bonobo wrote: post #532
brabarossa wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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?

It makes you aware and prepared. Politics is not an island; tactics do not exist in isolation. As soon as one fascist proposes censoring school libraries in one state, others across the country look at the tactic and decide to stop it. It's much easier to proactively stop such things if you are aware of what to watch for.

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

#638

Post by seanmcdirmid »

alanh wrote: post #502
ttul wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US military aircraft can remotely destroy electronics aboard other aircraft by aiming a highly focused beam precisely onto it, thus disabling it. They do t have to decrypt anything. They just have to fry it.

maybe but... it seems clear enough they did not do this given that it seems to have been piloted through a very nice high-value course across the US

Weather balloons aren’t piloted. I don’t think it had any control planes at all, beyond just floating along atmospheric currents. At best they can control elevation? Ok, googling a bit:

> Is it possible to steer or otherwise control a typical high-altitude balloon? It can be controlled, but let me be careful about what I mean by that. Balloons go with the wind. And so the only control that a balloon has is: in some balloons, you can control the altitude—you can make it go higher or lower. To the extent that the wind speed and direction varies with altitude, you can change the altitude, within some limits. And that can give you some measure of control—but not anywhere near the level of control that you have [with an airplane]. You can’t turn around and go the other direction; you can never go upwind in the balloon. You’re always going to be moving with the atmosphere that surrounds it.

From https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinese-spy-ballo...

So does that really count as piloting?

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

#639

Post by dragonwriter »

lettergram wrote: post #444
NegativeLatency wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn’t you expect video to surface of f-22s in action?

F-22s we’re designed to guide weapons to targets. Ukraine launches a few rockets and a stealth f-22 off the coast can guide it in. Something like this seems plausible here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62500560 There are some alternative theories (small drones painting targets), but imo it’s just as plausible a stealth plane 50 miles away gave a missile some coordinates

> Ukraine launches a few rockets and a stealth f-22 off the coast can guide it in.

The only “rockets” Ukraine has that would reach that range are Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles which has active radar homing for hitting ships, and backup inertial/GPS guidance (which is all that is needed for stationary land targets), and converted Soviet-era drones with (apparently) GPS/inertial guidance it has used for long-range strikes into Russia (specifically, at strategic bomber bases being used for attacks against Ukraine.)

For the F-22 to guide a missile in, it would have to have semi-active radar or laser homing (I believe the F-22 can, with the right equipment, designated for either), but the Neptune doesn’t, and we have no indication that their drone conversions do, either. So, the alternatives for a Ukrainian rocket attack is a weapon we don’t know they have with an assist from fighters that haven’t been reported in the region and that would be the exact kind of escalation the US government is trying to avoid, or weapons we do know they have, which need no US assist.

Which seems likelier?

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

#640

Post by TheDudeMan »

News-Dog wrote: post #633
SergeAx wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, all comms of that balloon would be satellite. I don't think it is easy to jam, let alone intercept.

Tracking and over saturating the satellite/s receive is trivial, and considered to be very,very,very naughty!

Assuming you know which satellite(s) to target.
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