Chinese "Spy Balloon" over CONUS.

Something should have been done about this days ago, once again illustrating the absolute ineptitude of our defense overseers.

Ideally the public would have never even found out about this and it would have been dealt with.

originally posted by: JinMI

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
a reply to: putnam6

Seriously it's Roswell all over again lol Its a balloon shoot it down find out which weather station sent it up .

So we fly billion dollar spy planes over China and they send Balloons ?

Without getting too much in detail, somethings about to happen. There are about 100 helicopters in the air in the vicinity and Air Force EAM's have ratcheted up now. Interesting...

Not to pour cold water on your assertion but the govt spending billions on nothing is pretty common practice.

I'm wondering if there isn't someone(s) on the ground communicating with the balloon and the balloon is relaying messages to China or a nearby satellite. That would also be a good reason to not immediately shoot it down. Oh, for the good ole days...

a reply to: Mantiss2021

That and other similar looking photos are on many newspapers local to the path and on Fox news.

Looks like a standard weather balloon design.

originally posted by: Creep Thumper
a reply to: Mantiss2021

Bah. Send a message. Blow it out of the sky. I'm sick of the US acting like a pussy.

Maybe it's not a good idea to destroy something in high atmosphere that comes from another country that created something rather nasty a while ago.

originally posted by: Mantiss2021
a reply to: putnam6

I don't think that that is the vehicle in question.

That picture appears to be just a standard weather balloon (not that anyone not familiar with LAV's and/or high-pressure long duration balloons would recognize the difference).

They type of balloon necessary for a mission like this has a distinctive shape and appearance; the envelope is much more translucent due to it being exceptionally thin to conserve weight, and is massive in diameter, compared to the payload, due to expansion of the lifting gas at high altitude (at lower altitudes, the payload would hang much lower.

Also, note that the picture shows the wing-like structure of the payload. At lower altitudes this would indeed act like a wing, causing the entire balloon and payload to be at the mercy of prevailing winds, unless the vehicle had some form of self-propulsion, which appears non-existent in the photo.

Multiple sources have this picture and others like it, they have been tracking it since yesterday and keep it on the low down for 24 hours


billingsgazette.com... 93023cfc3fb6.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
a reply to: putnam6

Seriously it's Roswell all over again lol Its a balloon shoot it down find out which weather station sent it up .

So we fly billion dollar spy planes over China and they send Balloons ?

Without getting too much in detail, somethings about to happen. There are about 100 helicopters in the air in the vicinity and Air Force EAM's have ratcheted up now. Interesting...

Where are you seeing that not seeing that flight radar is it on ads

Yessir, its on ADS-B Exchange. Click the "U" button at the top right and only military flights will show.

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
Dumbest thing I have ever heard Just why would they send a balloon to take images that are all ready available through satellites

To measure our response, as their craft lollygags through our own airspace (unchallenged as of this post). And if it gets some data or intelligence on the way all the better.

Thing needed to be downed the moment it was over our territory.

(And as I posted before, wonder if China would gawk indecisively at U2s in their airspace.)

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: JinMI

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
a reply to: putnam6

Seriously it's Roswell all over again lol Its a balloon shoot it down find out which weather station sent it up .

So we fly billion dollar spy planes over China and they send Balloons ?

Without getting too much in detail, somethings about to happen. There are about 100 helicopters in the air in the vicinity and Air Force EAM's have ratcheted up now. Interesting...

Not to pour cold water on your assertion but the govt spending billions on nothing is pretty common practice.

I'm wondering if there isn't someone(s) on the ground communicating with the balloon and the balloon is relaying messages to China or a nearby satellite. That would also be a good reason to not immediately shoot it down. Oh, for the good ole days...

Arent they in nuclear storage territory?

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
a reply to: putnam6

Seriously it's Roswell all over again lol Its a balloon shoot it down find out which weather station sent it up .

So we fly billion dollar spy planes over China and they send Balloons ?

Without getting too much in detail, somethings about to happen. There are about 100 helicopters in the air in the vicinity and Air Force EAM's have ratcheted up now. Interesting...

Where are you seeing that not seeing that flight radar is it on ads

Yessir, its on ADS-B Exchange. Click the "U" button at the top right and only military flights will show.

Spokane is buzzing with aircraft FWIW

DOD ANOTHER UPDATE sounds like their cages are being rattled

www.defense.gov...

U.S. Tracking High-Altitude Surveillance Balloon
Feb. 2, 2023 | By C. Todd Lopez , DOD News |
An intelligence-gathering balloon, most certainly launched by the People's Republic of China, is currently floating above the United States, the Defense Department announced Thursday evening.

"The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now," Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during an impromptu briefing Thursday evening. "The U.S. government, to include NORAD, continues to track and monitor it closely."

Right now, the official said, following recommendations of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley and Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the U.S. position is to allow the balloon to continue to float above the United States, rather than attempt to shoot is down.

The official said the risk of using kinetic force to take the balloon out of the sky might put civilian communities at risk, and that the threat the balloon poses now to both safety and U.S. intelligence doesn't justify such an action.

originally posted by: JinMI

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: JinMI

originally posted by: NightFlight

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
a reply to: putnam6

Seriously it's Roswell all over again lol Its a balloon shoot it down find out which weather station sent it up .

So we fly billion dollar spy planes over China and they send Balloons ?

Without getting too much in detail, somethings about to happen. There are about 100 helicopters in the air in the vicinity and Air Force EAM's have ratcheted up now. Interesting...

Not to pour cold water on your assertion but the govt spending billions on nothing is pretty common practice.

I'm wondering if there isn't someone(s) on the ground communicating with the balloon and the balloon is relaying messages to China or a nearby satellite. That would also be a good reason to not immediately shoot it down. Oh, for the good ole days...

Arent they in nuclear storage territory?

Yessir, among other things, too.

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Mantiss2021

The Pentagon says its the size of three Greyhound buses, so maybe we can hook it and pull it down?

That size it would be Zeppelin not a balloon the whole story is very strange ..

Covering for Biden, ABC News says this happens all the time.

originally posted by: Mantiss2021

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Mantiss2021

The Pentagon says its the size of three Greyhound buses, so maybe we can hook it and pull it down?

"Hook it" with what, exactly?

If this LAV is flying in the stratosphere, it is at least 30 miles up.


Not many planes in the world can fly that high, and to do so, they have to fly at better than Mach 1.

How do you propose to "hook" something "as large as three school busses" while flying past it at high Mach speed...

Without destroying both the intruder and yourself?

Good question!

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
a reply to: Mantiss2021

That and other similar looking photos are on many newspapers local to the path and on Fox news.

Looks like a standard weather balloon design.

The wide MSM dissemination of this picture, identifying it as the Chinese "spy balloon" underscores, in my opinion, that this is not what is being tracked.

This "feels" like the military/government telling the public what they think the public expects, and can accept without too many questions, while the real intelligence is kept to those with a need to know.


As someone somewhat familiar with "weather balloons" and LAV's, the apparent official reticence is a bit unnerving.

Such a weak administration.

China was and is a world menace: NOT the people but the CCP government: The source of the Coronavirus (and won’t help or come clean on how it started); doing a genocide on the Uyghurs; stealing whole counties such as Tibet; threatening Taiwan with annihilation; threatens all its neighbors massively producing fentanyl that’s killed 100’s of thousands of Americas. I wouldn’t trust China as far as I could throw Taiwan.

China should NEVER be trusted. Anything they send over here should be watched closely, even if it were a baby Panda.

"Blame Canada."

originally posted by: Mantiss2021

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
a reply to: Mantiss2021

That and other similar looking photos are on many newspapers local to the path and on Fox news.

Looks like a standard weather balloon design.

The wide MSM dissemination of this picture, identifying it as the Chinese "spy balloon" underscores, in my opinion, that this is not what is being tracked.

This "feels" like the military/government telling the public what they think the public expects, and can accept without too many questions, while the real intelligence is kept to those with a need to know.


As someone somewhat familiar with "weather balloons" and LAV's, the apparent official reticence is a bit unnerving.

There is one balloon that's rounds if there is a dirigible shape there is another balloon


Dont think so commercial pilots were reporting seeing a round white object starting yesterday

Since no one has said it yet, I will.....



ZAPHOD !!!!

originally posted by: iamthevirus
Such a weak administration.

We should penetrate it with an anorexic missile.

Decent would be slow.

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: iamthevirus
Such a weak administration.

We should penetrate it with an anorexic missile.

Decent would be slow.

Could be loaded with some biological agent... 65% of California's Air Pollution comes from China.