Chinese "Spy Balloon" over CONUS.

Ahh come on! its 60 feet, it got a huge solar array. Its designed to be picked up by radar.
But due to global climate changes it went off course.
If there was spy hardware onboard, it could have been eliminated with an explosive device to get "rid of evidence".
Somehow US satellites dont pick up data these days?

Ohh, and remember the "good ole days"? Which went into a coverup Alien frenzy at Roswell??

Why a missile? You mean the 20mm cannon on the Raptor could not have done the same thing as easy? Noooo...let's make it dramatic at the end with a missile everyone says cannot be done.

Smaller debrief field which is what the were 'worried' about in not following the POTUS order and making a recommendation. Just who the f'k is in charge?????

A POTUS can EO a drone strike to kill whoever they want on foreign soil but he cannot order a shot down of a balloon over the US...the ENTIRE US Coast to Coast mind you.

a reply to: matafuchs

In 1998 the Canadians had to shoot down a weather balloon. They fired 1,000 rounds of 20mm ammunition, the same size as the F-22 uses, and it then took 6 days for the balloon to come down. So no, the gun wouldn't work nearly as well. It wasn't about drama, it was about the most effective weapon for the mission.

The F-22 that fired the missile was 5-8,000 feet below the balloon at the time he took the shot. Even if the gun would have worked well enough to do the job quickly, it would have been an incredible shot to even hit the balloon.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

Yeah, if they used props they really went all out for a simple weather balloon. That would be like using a F-15 to dust crops... serious overkill. If it did indeed have props on it (and I see no reason to dispute that ATM), China considered it pretty darn important.

Send a balloon over Ukraine? Not sure I follow...

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

It is night sky color. The sky isn't that color until well after sunset, and well before sunrise.

At that hour, 60000 feet up, only light is from the moon and stars. That is not enough to illuminate the balloon so brightly at night, if the balloon is just polyethylene.

So how is it illuminating?

a reply to: kloejen

Ahh come on! its 60 feet, it got a huge solar array. Its designed to be picked up by radar.

Size is irrelevant to radar. It's the size of reflective materials (mostly metals) that count. You could fly a city made of plastic, and radar wouldn't bat an eye.

Oh, and it's not 60 feet... we have trees higher than that. It's 60,000 feet.

But due to global climate changes it went off course.

There is no such thing as Global Warming (the original name for Climate Change). That's hogwash. Besides, China could have scrubbed the flight any time they wanted to.

If there was spy hardware onboard, it could have been eliminated with an explosive device to get "rid of evidence".

Releasing what exactly over the mainland? A new virus? Ebola? Anthrax? Maybe a little radioactive material?

Were you absolutely certain there wasn't a dirty bomb buried under all that hardware, set to trigger on impact?

Somehow US satellites dont pick up data these days?

They do... but why would China be using US satellites? Wouldn't China be using their own satellites? Satellites also cannot pinpoint radio transmitters. NOT ALL SURVEILLANCE DATA IS VISUAL.

Damnation, repeating that every other page is getting frustrating! Read some of the thread!

TheRedneck

a reply to: InachMarbank

At that hour, 60000 feet up, only light is from the moon and stars. That is not enough to illuminate the balloon so brightly at night, if the balloon is just polyethylene.

So how is it illuminating?

OK, you win. There was a little Chinese guy inside the balloon with a flashlight and a bag full of 'D' cells.

I hope he can swim.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Just thinking that a "low tech" (compared to an AWACS orbiting in-country) self-propelled "balloon" equipped with hi-res real-time video, flying well above anything Russia is likely to risk shoot at it, for days at a time, could provide some very useful targeting solutions for Ukrainian infantry and special ops.

a reply to: Mantiss2021

Not really. Low altitude photos would be a little clearer than satellite photos, but satellites are so high-res now that the difference wouldn't give any practical advantage. This balloon was not taking photos; it was getting radio communication data, something satellites can't retrieve nearly as well. We know where all the military equipment in Ukraine is; we supplied most of it.

Wouldn't surprise me if we found out that it didn't even have a camera.

TheRedneck

In the USA, it is reported, these kind of long distance balloon flights are managed by 2 companies: NASA, operating at Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, and Peraton.

Peraton looks like a civilian operation, and they provide satellite communications, and NASA is a government operation.

For this kind of long distance balloon flight, satellite-based electronic systems are utilized for command and data.

www.csbf.nasa.gov...

I suspect the Chinese space agencies have the same kind of corporate model as the American space?agencies.

And of course, they both promote big lies!

How to know when China owns and controls a US President.

gettr.com...

a reply to: TheRedneck
The 'explosion' may have been the sonic boom from the missile.

a reply to: horatio321

Something shredded that balloon.

TheRedneck

a reply to: horatio321

A missile sonic boom is very very tiny. It's unlikely that it was heard from the ground.

Based on detailed pictures from the ground, it appears that the balloon was carrying an ELINT package designed to pull in electronic signals used in communications. It likely had a SATCOM antenna for long range communications to send signals back to China.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That fits with my theory. It was looking for radio signals broadcasting on restricted bandwidths and pinpointing their location. The data was likely being relayed via satellite back to China.

All NORAD stations use that continuous radio link. It's a weakness; a satellite cannot see them (a person can stand within 100 feet of an entrance and never know it's there), but a radio receiver can. Combined with GPS data in real time, the exact position the signals radiate from can be determined.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

So is the intelligence we may obtain from this a higher value than letting it fly above some sensitive US military installations? Has anyone mapped exactly what bases it flew over? Now granted, I'm sure the location of these bases are no secret to China or Russia, but that's not really the point.

a reply to: peter_kandra

Yes to both. We can limit what it is able to send out while pulling in good data from it for our own use.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Considering Combat Sent spent enough time near it to need to be refueled to stay on station, it had some kind of SAR on board too I’d say.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thanks! I'm not sure what the point was then. I'm assuming that China knows we can potentially block some or all of its emissions...or maybe they just want to confirm those assumptions.