Merged Chinese balloon raises hackles in US

[Copernicus]

All countries spy on each other.

WTF.

The huge Chinese surveillance balloon didn't pose an immediate threat to commercial air traffic. The subsequent three were all within the altitudes that airliners fly at, so they had to be shot down. It does look like all of them carried payloads that were probably conducting surveillance on ground communications. The one shot down over Lake Huron may have been spying on the communications around the ICBM silos, possibly monitoring cell phone traffic.

 

[Tigers!]

Why is there sudden festival of balloons across North America?

My guess is that there's nothing new happening here, but that the media have just recently started talking about it.

Probably inspired by the Russian propaganda machine, which is keen to put China and the US at loggerheads, partly to distract Americans from what Russia is doing in Ukraine, and partly to encourage China to move away from the US and towards Russia with respect particularly to arms sales questions.

It's also partly the Baader-Meinhoff effect. Once you start looking for Chinese balloons, suddenly you're seeing them everywhere.

The Guardian noted that a balloon was seen in Columbia and Costa Rica late last week.

Perhaps the LGMs are trying a novel way to contact us?

 

[bilby]

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Cue Captain Beefheart. "The Blimp".

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Looks like the far right is going full on ape shit over the objects shot down. Demanding answers right now from Biden. Quivering with outrage over the fact nobody knows much until the objects's remains are recovered and analyzed. At least it makes a break from Hunter Biden's laptop.

 

[Copernicus]

Looks like the far right is going full on ape shit over the objects shot down. Demanding answers right now from Biden. Quivering with outrage over the fact nobody knows much until the objects's remains are recovered and analyzed. At least it makes a break from Hunter Biden's laptop.

Not a day goes by when they aren't quivering with rage about something related to the opposition party.

China has been denying that their spy balloon is anything other than a weather balloon gone astray, just like all those other ones in the past that were observed floating around the world. They have also claimed that it's the US that has flown spy balloons over China. They just thought to bring that up now as a kind of random thought, since they obviously wouldn't use spy balloons. Or else, they are saying that their spy balloon should still be considered a weather balloon, but ours weren't weather balloons. The US has denied flying spy balloons over China, but who knows? We tend to like to spend billions of dollars on satellites. Balloons just seem too cheap to be worthy of consideration. Besides, China would probably just shoot them down.

China accuses US of ‘illegally’ flying balloons across its airspace​

 

[Loren Pechtel]

So have the Chinese figured out that they can get us to use up a $400,000 air-to-air missile by launching a $400 balloon at us?

Balloons like what we shot down aren't $400. You'll pay a lot more than that just for the balloon, let alone the electronics package it carried.

What we shot down off South Carolina, sure; but they haven't told us what the thing in Canada was yet. More important, we appear to be shooting stuff down first and trying to figure out what it was afterwards. If I were the CCP and I saw the U.S. do that I'd be launching $400 balloons to see how many AIMs I could take out.

A Sidewinder will not home on a balloon. I could accept it homing on the equipment package since given the size of that solar array it had a fair amount power. Your hypothetical $400 balloon won't provide a target.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

All countries spy on each other.

WTF.

That's the way the world works.

Spying on allies is normal. Also smart.

European leaders might be angry that Denmark helped the US spy on them. They shouldn’t be surprised.

www.politico.eu

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Why is there sudden festival of balloons across North America?

My guess is that there's nothing new happening here, but that the media have just recently started talking about it.

Agreed--I suspect this has been going on for some time, that we track the balloons and treat them like spy satellites--make sure nothing sensitive is out in the open to see when they come past a sensitive installation. One got noticed so the government can't very well just carry on as usual because that would appear soft on espionage.

 

[ZiprHead]

So have the Chinese figured out that they can get us to use up a $400,000 air-to-air missile by launching a $400 balloon at us?

Balloons like what we shot down aren't $400. You'll pay a lot more than that just for the balloon, let alone the electronics package it carried.

What we shot down off South Carolina, sure; but they haven't told us what the thing in Canada was yet. More important, we appear to be shooting stuff down first and trying to figure out what it was afterwards. If I were the CCP and I saw the U.S. do that I'd be launching $400 balloons to see how many AIMs I could take out.

A Sidewinder will not home on a balloon. I could accept it homing on the equipment package since given the size of that solar array it had a fair amount power. Your hypothetical $400 balloon won't provide a target.

It's a balloon. It's point and shoot.

 

[Elixir]

Let's see who can come up with the best idea for a live capture of one of these things.
How about... shoot it with a shotgun instead of a missile and let it come down slowly in one piece?
The USAF probably thinks of them as clay pigeons.

 

[Copernicus]

Why is there sudden festival of balloons across North America?

My guess is that there's nothing new happening here, but that the media have just recently started talking about it.

Agreed--I suspect this has been going on for some time, that we track the balloons and treat them like spy satellites--make sure nothing sensitive is out in the open to see when they come past a sensitive installation. One got noticed so the government can't very well just carry on as usual because that would appear soft on espionage.

This has been contradicted by the government, which says that they really have not been monitoring US airspace carefully for balloons until just recently. The Chinese balloon was too visible from the ground to escape notice, so they have changed the surveillance strategy to look for smaller objects that behave like surveillance balloons. Apparently, the Trump administration simply failed to pay much attention to the Chinese balloons that overflew US airspace earlier, and that also held true in the early days of the Biden administration. The ability to track the Chinese fleet of surveillance balloons was only developed within the last year, and NORAD surveillance filters were only changed after the latest detection of the Chinese balloon.

NORAD increases its radar sensitivity to identify more aerial intrusions over North America.

 

[bilby]

So have the Chinese figured out that they can get us to use up a $400,000 air-to-air missile by launching a $400 balloon at us?

Balloons like what we shot down aren't $400. You'll pay a lot more than that just for the balloon, let alone the electronics package it carried.

What we shot down off South Carolina, sure; but they haven't told us what the thing in Canada was yet. More important, we appear to be shooting stuff down first and trying to figure out what it was afterwards. If I were the CCP and I saw the U.S. do that I'd be launching $400 balloons to see how many AIMs I could take out.

A Sidewinder will not home on a balloon. I could accept it homing on the equipment package since given the size of that solar array it had a fair amount power. Your hypothetical $400 balloon won't provide a target.

It's a balloon. It's point and shoot.

Not if it takes violent evasive action.

 

[bilby]

Let's see who can come up with the best idea for a live capture of one of these things.
How about... shoot it with a shotgun instead of a missile and let it come down slowly in one piece?
The USAF probably thinks of them as clay pigeons.

I would like to see the shotgun that can get its pellets to FL400, much less FL600.

Or are you imagining a pilot leaning out of the cockpit of his biplane to take pot-shots with a 12 gauge Purdey, 1914 style?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So have the Chinese figured out that they can get us to use up a $400,000 air-to-air missile by launching a $400 balloon at us?

Balloons like what we shot down aren't $400. You'll pay a lot more than that just for the balloon, let alone the electronics package it carried.

What we shot down off South Carolina, sure; but they haven't told us what the thing in Canada was yet. More important, we appear to be shooting stuff down first and trying to figure out what it was afterwards. If I were the CCP and I saw the U.S. do that I'd be launching $400 balloons to see how many AIMs I could take out.

A Sidewinder will not home on a balloon. I could accept it homing on the equipment package since given the size of that solar array it had a fair amount power. Your hypothetical $400 balloon won't provide a target.

It's a balloon. It's point and shoot.

Not if it takes violent evasive action.

It's floating hard to port sir!

 

[Elixir]

Let's see who can come up with the best idea for a live capture of one of these things.
How about... shoot it with a shotgun instead of a missile and let it come down slowly in one piece?
The USAF probably thinks of them as clay pigeons.

I would like to see the shotgun that can get its pellets to FL400, much less FL600.

Or are you imagining a pilot leaning out of the cockpit of his biplane to take pot-shots with a 12 gauge Purdey, 1914 style?

Yeah, something like that! Maybe a 50cal off an old P51. Surely you could duct tape one to an F22 with a string tied to the trigger?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Maybe a drone with an Elon Musk flame thrower.

Apparently the U.S. has managed to recover a lot of the stuff from the baloon downed off the course of North Carolina.

 

[lpetrich]

Marjorie Taylor Greene carries white balloon ahead of State of the Union speech | USA TODAY #Shorts - YouTube - that's actually rather cute

 

[Bomb#20]

I would like to see the shotgun that can get its pellets to FL400, much less FL600.

Or are you imagining a pilot leaning out of the cockpit of his biplane to take pot-shots with a 12 gauge Purdey, 1914 style?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Marjorie Taylor Greene carries white balloon ahead of State of the Union speech | USA TODAY #Shorts - YouTube - that's actually rather cute

A balloon or an inflated condom?