Pentagon Tracking Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Over the US

[actaeon277]

As for assuming it's a 'spy' package.

Maybe because the fact no one cleared it ahead of time.
Like people are supposed to do over other countries.

Did the USSR ask Gary Powers if he was on a scientific survey?

 

[gassprint1]

Blinken postpones China trip amid spy balloon row; US officials scramble to get rid of it

Blinken postpones China trip; Chinese government denies that a balloon flying over Montana is a spycraft as U.S. officials scramble to get rid of it.

www.usatoday.com

China disputed that characterization, calling it a “civilian airship” that blew off course.


Right.
Why would we call it Chinese?
After all, the Chinese are calling it Chinese.

I don't buy that article at all. Thats happens to be alot more info than any media has stated that china has said. I have fire tv service and watch alot of over seas news to see what's happening over there. I had only seen 1 uk channel that had said something along the lines that China regrets what has happened. We all know that the media adds false info and such just to get rating. The government needs to give us closeup pics of the hardware, markings and other stuff on that setup. There stuff we aren't being told, otherwise we would have those closeup pics of it. Until i see actual proof, i will continue my position about it.

 

[thompal]

100% correct.

And it has nothing to do with faith in the government. It's about having a grasp on reality.

And placing that faith in our government relies on having faith in the CCP when they say it's merely a weather balloon that went 6000 miles off course.

And I would add that placing faith in either government is not warranted.

 

[Thor]

Got to this thread late but:

They probably got handed the tech to make a balloon maneuver from the Google Loon project. Trust Google to give their friends the ChiComs a helping hand while refusing to work with the US military. https://computer.howstuffworks.com/google-loon.htm They were the first people I thought of when this story hit. The ChiComs blaming the weather are just lying ChiComs being lying ChiComs.

NORAD would have had a hard time tracking something traveling at the speed of the jet stream; operating below the doppler speed gates on their radars. If they were tracking it bringing it down is not their call, any request to shoot something down needs to be approved by the SecDef. It's the reason we don't shoot down aircraft that get airborne without anyone in them (it happens); if it crashes on its own or hits another aircraft it's the owners fault, if we shoot it down it's ours. See The Battle of Palmdale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Palmdale

The balloon has solar panels so anything it's running won't have battery issues. What it's doing is a good question...sigint over our silos or refining targeting data for their nukes?

Plans to shoot it down are going to be aircraft limited. Above Angels 50 there are going to be few platforms that can play...that's one of the reasons the first intercepts were run by Raptors out of Nellis. Hercs are right out. Missiles probably won't fuze on a balloon and even if you gun it you are back to Para #2 above...if you get it on the first pass you'll still have a couple of hundred 20mm rounds coming to earth at the speed of reentry and good luck running the ballistics on that. With the military's usual luck in such matters they will hit a Preschool, a hospital and Grandma's house and then the balloon husk will drape itself over the nose of an airliner with your favorite sports team on board causing it to crash into an orphanage.

 

[oze]

I don't buy that article at all. Thats happens to be alot more info than any media has stated that china has said. I have fire tv service and watch alot of over seas news to see what's happening over there. I had only seen 1 uk channel that had said something along the lines that China regrets what has happened. We all know that the media adds false info and such just to get rating. The government needs to give us closeup pics of the hardware, markings and other stuff on that setup. There stuff we aren't being told, otherwise we would have those closeup pics of it. Until i see actual proof, i will continue my position about it.

Here's three international stories to start. Feel free to use the search engine of your choice to find more.

Everything we know about ‘Chinese spy balloon’ found hovering above northern US

White House has so far decided against shooting down balloon over Montana

www.independent.co.uk

Chinese spy balloon spotted over Western U.S., Pentagon says

The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground, officials said Thursday.

www.ctvnews.ca

After US, 2nd Chinese spy balloon spotted over Latin America: Pentagon

After US, 2nd Chinese spy balloon spotted over Latin America: Pentagon

www.indiatoday.in

 

[oze]

Wait, *another* Chicom spy balloon?

After US, 2nd Chinese spy balloon spotted over Latin America: Pentagon

After US, 2nd Chinese spy balloon spotted over Latin America: Pentagon

www.indiatoday.in

 

[Timjoebillybob]

The balloon is probably that size , the payload shouldn’t be anywhere near that big.

The payload is that size. I wonder just how freakin big the balloon itself is.

If the balloon is about 30' across I suspect the payload is the size of a shoe box or smaller. Not a whole lot you can do with that, especially if it is at 60,000' altitude. Temperature is well below freezing and ultra violet is pretty high. People that launch home made rockets that high feel lucky their cameras last for a few minutes. I cannot believe any battery would be functional for the time it took to get to the U.S., I would think any biologic would die instantly if released at that altitude, if not already dead from being frozen for several days.

See above. Payload is the size of 2-3 buses.

Anything that survives from that high up to the ground exposed to the elements is sci fi to the max, not to mention there'd be a lot simpler ways to send a pathogen given how much shipping and other commercial traffic we share.

Infected water bears?

Tardigrade | Facts & Lifespan

Tardigrade, any of more than 1,100 species of tiny invertebrates that make up the phylum Tardigrada. These tiny creatures are considered to be close relatives of arthropods, and they live in a variety of habitats worldwide. They are known for their ability to withstand extremely low...

www.britannica.com

 

[gassprint1]

The payload is that size. I wonder just how freakin big the balloon itself is.


See above. Payload is the size of 2-3 buses.

Infected water bears?

Tardigrade | Facts & Lifespan

Tardigrade, any of more than 1,100 species of tiny invertebrates that make up the phylum Tardigrada. These tiny creatures are considered to be close relatives of arthropods, and they live in a variety of habitats worldwide. They are known for their ability to withstand extremely low...

www.britannica.com

All pretty vague info with no actual fact behind anything.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Yeah, I'm off tonight.

Personally I'm leery of connecting dots just because they are on the same page and I am also not keen on taking things at first glance as truth, but I'm also well out of my league and just asking questions at this point.

Glad you got a night off and it's always good to discuss the issues with you BBI. I checked the local news earlier, looks like the criminal element didn't get the "take a night off" memo. Michigan and Holt? I drive through there twice a day.

 

[jsx1043]

Clearest picture so far from a photographer in Montana, I believe.

The first one? I might be able to buy that story, while shaking my head that I think it should have been handled differently.

The second one (and most likely more to come)? Yeah, in the business we call that “hinky,” and something is definitely afoot.


I will happily admit that I’m as much of a conspiracy analyst as most of us these days, so I’m pretty proud that I thought of this yesterday when I heard of the second balloon. This is what I sent my friend:

“Supposedly there is a second balloon now, although I don't know where it is currently, I'm just hearing chatter. What if both balloons are carrying nukes to be used as high altitude detonations for EMPs? The first balloon starts drifting over the Dakotas and then moving south towards the Chicago area, the second balloon follows a similar trajectory from Canada and moves down towards the Denver Area… And then when they are in the correct locations, subs off of both coasts launch their nukes over each seaboard? An attack like that would be very plausible because it would take a whole lot less time for a missile to travel from offshore to just inland than it would take to go to the center of the country, thus it would be a whole lot easier to track and shoot down. Right now, We are just letting enemy craft float through our airspace”

 

[ditcherman]

Don’t necessarily agree with the deepest of conspiracy theories put out here, but everything is worth considering.

The Trojan horse analogy is not exactly accurate, but while everyone’s looking at the ballon, what’s behind it?
Don’t worry, it’s probably just another ballon. Oh wait.

And as for shooting it down, when they originally wrote this movie they did a better job of explaining that “if it drops below x number of feet the bomb goes off”. That’s how I remember it from the book anyhow.

In other words, if you were smart enough to build an intercontinental ballon, might you be smart enough to put failsafes in it?

 

[ditcherman]

View attachment 252746

Clearest picture so far from a photographer in Montana, I believe.

The first one? I might be able to buy that story, while shaking my head that I think it should have been handled differently.

The second one (and most likely more to come)? Yeah, in the business we call that “hinky,” and something is definitely afoot.


I will happily admit that I’m as much of a conspiracy analyst as most of us these days, so I’m pretty proud that I thought of this yesterday when I heard of the second balloon. This is what I sent my friend:

“Supposedly there is a second balloon now, although I don't know where it is currently, I'm just hearing chatter. What if both balloons are carrying nukes to be used as high altitude detonations for EMPs? The first balloon starts drifting over the Dakotas and then moving south towards the Chicago area, the second balloon follows a similar trajectory from Canada and moves down towards the Denver Area… And then when they are in the correct locations, subs off of both coasts launch their nukes over each seaboard? An attack like that would be very plausible because it would take a whole lot less time for a missile to travel from offshore to just inland than it would take to go to the center of the country, thus it would be a whole lot easier to track and shoot down. Right now, We are just letting enemy craft float through our airspace”

I think we read the same book.

Also, “conspiracy analyst”, you’ve moved up a notch!

 

[kickbacked]

I wonder if it’s a test to see who noticed it. During the Cold War we setup bases in Canada to spot enemy coming from the north. I’ve seen the expected path of it from Alaska down through Canada into Montana. If the US did know about it weeks ago they had plenty of time to take it out over unpopulated areas but didn’t. Why? Is it because they didn’t know about it? China must think this op was a total success getting into the continental United States.

 

[Emerson Dambiggins]

 

[Gunmetalgray]

I'm thinking of the Streak Eagle from the 70s (no paint to save weight) that set all kinds of climb-records. I knew we knocked a satellite down with an Eagle, didn't realize it was when I was in DEP.

Edwards AFB tail markings, not sure I can see the tail number but I'll bet it was an A-Model.

Edit: looks like a 76 on the tail number, that's an A-Model. F-15C-Models came out in 1979 IIRC.

Streak Eagle - zero to the speed of sound in 23 seconds, WHILE CLIMBING.

 

[ditcherman]

I heard a noise and found this in my back yard just minutes ago. Not sure what to make of it.


View attachment 252720

You must be on their ‘good’ list.

 

[jsx1043]

I think we read the same book.

Also, “conspiracy analyst”, you’ve moved up a notch!

Yeah, I graduated up in 2020 when all the theories came true.

Side note, for those playing the home game:

 

[jsx1043]

Oh, and another clear pic:

 

[Cameramonkey]

"That's no moon!"

 

[Leadeye]

I still figure we cold laser it from the ground if we wanted, how many watts would it take to make a small hole in it? Weather is clear as we can see from the photos so limited degradation of the beam strength.