Breaking News US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

Yinko

Well-known member

From the article:
"Defence officials said they were confident the "high-altitude surveillance balloon" belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.
But military leaders decided against shooting it down as there were concerns over the danger of falling debris."

This had been trending on Twitter for some hours.



People are generally befuddled as to why we can't shoot it down. Certainly isn't doing the Biden administration any favors.


Here's a question, did it float over the Pacific, or was it released by a Chinese national on US soil?
 

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Yeah there's a map on the Twitter that showed its alleged path.

FoB7RHSX0AIJx1k


Sauce
 

Yinko

Well-known member
It floated here from China through Canada from what I've seen.
I don't see a way that the Chinese could have predicted that path. The Pacific is famously unpredictable, the further north the worse it gets. I know that the weather department near the Puget Sound issues new reports three times a day.

On the other hand, this clearly shows Canadian incompetency. What the fuck do we keep them around for if not to shoot down commie balloons? Not even a Trudeau damned report? What's the point of being an absolutist monarchy if they can't even control their population to do basic areal recon?
 

Cherico

Well-known member
I don't see a way that the Chinese could have predicted that path. The Pacific is famously unpredictable, the further north the worse it gets. I know that the weather department near the Puget Sound issues new reports three times a day.

On the other hand, this clearly shows Canadian incompetency. What the fuck do we keep them around for if not to shoot down commie balloons? Not even a Trudeau damned report? What's the point of being an absolutist monarchy if they can't even control their population to do basic areal recon?

Canada's job is to be the good cop to our bad cop in international relations.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
I don't see a way that the Chinese could have predicted that path. The Pacific is famously unpredictable, the further north the worse it gets. I know that the weather department near the Puget Sound issues new reports three times a day.

On the other hand, this clearly shows Canadian incompetency. What the fuck do we keep them around for if not to shoot down commie balloons? Not even a Trudeau damned report? What's the point of being an absolutist monarchy if they can't even control their population to do basic areal recon?
You're talking about a country that has allowed the Chinese police to set up their own police stations within its borders, led by a man said to admire the "basic dictatorship" of China, and who let himself be publicly dressed down by the Grand Pooh Bear himself. :cautious:
 

Marduk

Well-known member
Moderator
Staff Member
Eh, there are a few issues with attempting to shoot this thing down.

1) It's really, really high; 60k+ feet, and the only fighters we have that can maneuver and fire at that alt are F-22s. It would be hard to safely hit it with guns without tossing ammo in long arcs that could come down all over the place and F-22s have cannons, not .50 cals, so there would be explosive cannon rounds raining down on the area below the engagement. A missile could do it, but that would be a massive waste of money.
Not a problem for missiles from any plane, and there are plenty enough with little shelf life left.. Also can use training rounds for the cannon.

2) No idea where debris would come down if that did hit the payload section; it's up high enough that guess a good 'landing site' for debris ahead of time is almost farcical beyond 100 square mile plots in it's projected path.
It was over Montana, not New York, what are the chances...
3) No idea what other power source could be onboard it besides solar; may have an RTG and that would mean radioactive debris if it is shot down.
China would be in deep shit if it did that without reporting.

4) Not really any more threatening than a low-orbit sat, and US military already has procedures to handle those that amount to 'don't do spicy shit with comms or in the open while it's overhead'.
60k feet is a far lower altitude, allows much better electromagnetic noise gathering and photos, also is a huge airspace sovereignty issue. It's below the service ceiling of SR-71 and U-2, guess how much those got shot at.
5) We fly high alt RQ-180 spy drones over the CCP fairly regularly, this is not much different, it's just slower and has more loiter time. Shooting it down, when it's not more threatening than a low orbit sat, is kinda overkill.
China can't shoot what it can't see, if they could see it, they would definitely shoot it down. Yes, that's a stealth drone.
 

Megadeath

Well-known member

Robovski

Well-known member

"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier called off a visit to Beijing, saying the "surveillance" balloon's presence was "an irresponsible act".
Later the US reported a second Chinese balloon floating over Latin America.
China expressed regret over the balloon over the US, saying it was a weather airship that had been blown astray. It was last spotted over Missouri.
It is expected to reach America's east coast near the Carolinas this weekend.
The US has decided not to shoot down the high-altitude airship due to the danger of falling debris"

It's expected to pass out of US airspace over the Atlantic

FoFDXewWQAUkLGh


Gotta love how this apparently passed through Alaskan and the Canadian airspace and then it became news in Montana because the locals are like 'wtf is that thing?' and share it on social media. I appreciate that very few people live in Canada, but wow the west is pretty empty. Didn't those dipwads with the doomsday clock say we were closer to doom than ever recently? Had the russians done this in 84' we wouldn't be reading this right now from our cozy homes.
 
Would it be possible to capture it? Or even worth it?

I’d imagine that we could gain some info on what it has picked up if we could dissect it in the lab. Even just a clear understanding of the flight path, and what frequency’s it took/was monitoring would be useful.

Edit: dropped a word
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
Had the russians done this in 84' we wouldn't be reading this right now from our cozy homes.

There were worse incidents during the cold war, like US spy plane being shot down deep into Soviet airspace, MiG-23 flying across West Germany, Netherlands and crashing in Belgium (turned out it was an accident) and the worst one being shooting down South Korean airliner that strayed into Soviet airspace. If Soviets started sending spy balloons into US airspace, USAF would have devised a way for shooting them down and that would be it.
 

DarthOne

☦️


#ChineseSpyBalloon Similar high-altitude surveillance balloons and airships have previously been spotted over Hawaii, Japan, India, and the Phillipines.
Image

2) @TuckerCarlson: "The Pentagon is tracking a very high altitude Chinese spy balloon over the northern US. The Pentagon has decided to not shoot down the balloon even though it's flying over 'sensitive sites.' There are intercontinental ballistic missile silos in that area."

3) The same type of reconnaissance balloon was spotted over Sendai, Japan, on June 17, 2020.

Japanese officials said:

"We have absolutely no idea what it is. It may be some kind of weather monitoring equipment, but it definitely isn't ours."
Image

4) Japanese officials confirmed that the balloon was "equipped with a cross part hanging beneath it as well as two propellers," but were unable to determine the purpose or owner of the balloon.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200704/p2a/00m/0na/002000c…

5) The same type of reconnaissance balloon was spotted over Port Blair, India, on Jan. 6, 2022.

Indian officials were unaware of its origins.

"Zoomed photograph showed some eight dark panel-shaped equipment/objects attached to the flying object."

http://andamansheekha.com/101331/


6) The Air Force scrambled F-22s to investigate the same type of reconnaissance balloon off the coast of Hawaii on Feb. 16, 2022.

An Air Canada flight spotted the balloon on approach to Honolulu.

https://thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44352/f-22s-scrambled-to-investigate-suspicious-high-altitude-balloon-off-the-coast-of-hawaii…

7) Indo-Pacific Command visually confirmed that it was "an unmanned balloon without observable identification markings" floating in the air near the island of Kauai.


Image
Image


Quote Tweet



Kenneth S Hara

@HawaiiTAG
·
Feb 16, 2022
In regards to aerial activity over Kauai on 2-14:U.S. Indo-Pacific Command detected a high-altitude object floating in air in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands. In accordance with homeland defense procedures, Pacific Air Forces launched tactical aircraft to intercept and -1 /3


8) The Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai's west coast is one of the US military's most advanced testing sites.

The Navy describes it as "the world's largest instrumented multi-environmental range capable of supporting surface, subsurface, air, and space operations."

Image


9) The USAF F-22s intercepted the "high altitude unmanned balloon" floating north of Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility.

https://thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44352/f-22s-scrambled-to-investigate-suspicious-high-altitude-balloon-off-the-coast-of-hawaii…

FoEi8C_aEAIueos


11) Hawaii news reported:

"Kauai residents said it looked like jets shot it down, and some heard loud booms. But, the military said it did not fire at the balloon."

https://hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/02/19/residents-spot-mysterious-object-floating-above-kauai-military-responds-with-jets/…


12) A high-altitude surveillance airship was spotted over Pangasinan, Phillippines, on Dec. 18, 2022.

Images of the airship – taken about 62 miles from Subic Bay in the northern Philippines – were first posted on Facebook, then Reddit.

https://reddit.com/r/LessCredibleDefence/comments/zqt435/high_altitude_balloon_photographed_in_pangasinan/…



13) Chinese state media reported:

"There is no evidence the airship was from China, though its design appears similar to types on display at the Zhuhai air show."
Image

14) Brazilian media reported that the airship seemed to turn "transparent" and had broad similarities to high-altitude airships that Chinese companies are known to have been working on.

The US and other nations have also developed similar airships.

https://thedrive.com/the-war-zone/was-a-high-altitude-airship-spotted-recently-near-the-south-china-sea…



15) A Chinese-language poster depicting the Yuang Meng airship.

China's domestically developed floating airship Jimu-1.

A satellite image showing a Chinese airship in the Spratly islands in the South China Sea in 2019.

A US military airship in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2014.

Image



16) The current Chinese spy balloon flying over the US is flying over "sensitive sites," like the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which holds well over 100 nuclear-tipped ICBM silos.

Red symbolizes active missile fields.

Black is deactivated.

https://thedrive.com/the-war-zone/chinas-spy-balloon-over-montana-is-part-of-a-larger-more-troubling-pattern…

Image


17) Meteorologist Dan Satterfield (@wildweatherdan), backtracked the balloon's course and traced it to central China.

Image




18) Reporter: "Why not take it down?"

DOD: "Considering the size of the payload, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians... We assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it traverses the United States."


19) China does not need to fly a spy balloon over the USA when President Joe Biden's son admitted to working for the "spy chief of China."

The balloon is merely symbolic of China's control over the POTUS.


Seems this isn't the first time that China has pulled this crap in recent years.
 

Bacle

When the effort is no longer profitable...
Founder
Not a problem for missiles from any plane, and there are plenty enough with little shelf life left.. Also can use training rounds for the cannon.


It was over Montana, not New York, what are the chances...

China would be in deep shit if it did that without reporting.


60k feet is a far lower altitude, allows much better electromagnetic noise gathering and photos, also is a huge airspace sovereignty issue. It's below the service ceiling of SR-71 and U-2, guess how much those got shot at.

China can't shoot what it can't see, if they could see it, they would definitely shoot it down. Yes, that's a stealth drone.
China claims is an errant meteorological balloon, and there are agreements that cover those that the CCP are trying to exploit.

This isn't really a technical/intel danger, so much as a dick-waving move using 'science' as an excuse.

If it was over water I'd say knock it down and send the CCP the bill for the missile, but it's stayed over land for a lot of it's journey.

It was over Missouri last night, so it's probably near the east coast now.

And I do think the CCP can visually ID the RQ-180s, at minimum.
 

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