Our neighbours balloon flew into our garden in the early 80s.
US has started hiding planes directly under other planes to avoid prying Chinese eyes.
https://twitter.com/jxlars/status/1622010477520764928
I am not sure what they are investigating – it’s a spy balloon innit?
I suspect they will mostly want to see what sensors it has. They know where it came from, they will want to know what data it was collecting.
So all they know about it is what the Chinese told them?
Edit : What if it turns out that it was just a weather balloon?
I’m sure the US intel bods are doing their best to keep us all informed about everything they know and learn. It’s generally how they work.
......meanwhile the Chinese have revealed their photo of Nato's secret spy balloon.........
I’m sure the US intel bods are doing their best to keep us all informed about everything they know and learn. It’s generally how they work.
No way? You mean they keep secrets? Is that a bit like defence not sharing the true capabilities of weapons and platforms? So the forum experts are just punters with an opinion?
I need to go for a lay down. It's all too much.
I see the Chinese are remaining seriously committed to their narrative - according to the State Council the head of the Chinese Meteorological Administration, a senior communist party member and expert in atmospheric physics, has been sacked.
First kill for the F22 Raptor - hopefully might be the only one as they are being withdrawn in the 2030's.
I am surprised that it was not shot down over Alaska or Canada.
according to the State Council the head of the Chinese Meteorological Administration, a senior communist party member and expert in atmospheric physics, has been
sackedshot.
FTFY.
According to Ars Technica these balloons are used legitimately a bit but have an internal destruction system that brings them down [in the ocean or somewhere unoccupied] - and the system on this one simply failed and it continued to fly over to the US.
I would have thought that the chances of navigating a balloon with enough accuracy to get over a pretty small target are vanishingly small - plus it's not really like you can hide a big balloon and I'm sure that the US had been tracking it for a long time.
BUT if it really was a rogue balloon then why didn't China just say 'Oops, our bad.... thanks for dealing with it'.
I see the Chinese are remaining seriously committed to their narrative – according to the State Council the head of the Chinese Meteorological Administration, a senior communist party member and expert in atmospheric physics, has been sacked
I'm of the opinion that the balloon was just a meteorological instrument blown off course, and various US media and political elements jumped on it to progress their pro-US, anti-China agenda
Think this is real?
[url= https://i.postimg.cc/SR5hNttp/IMG-20230206-132418.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/SR5hNttp/IMG-20230206-132418.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
I’m of the opinion that the balloon was just a meteorological instrument blown off course, and various US media and political elements jumped on it to progress their pro-US, anti-China agenda
If that was the case, China would have warned that there was a rogue balloon on the loose. Also, given that this has happened multiple times, you would expect that China would have withdrawn the balloons from service until they fixed the reliability problems.
I’m of the opinion that the balloon was just a meteorological instrument blown off course, and various US media and political elements jumped on it to progress their pro-US, anti-China agenda
Then they need to thank the yanks for safely disposing of it for them.
<span style="font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji'; font-size: 16px; background-color: #eeeeee;">Think this is real?</span>
It's a good photo if it is! I wonder what it says?
I think this lot might be a touch too excited by it all
https://twitter.com/erick_fost/status/1622102141937614848?t=6lT6PJWi6ZIph966l9C9mw&s=19
I think this lot might be a touch too excited by it all
https://twitter.com/erick_fost/status/1622102141937614848?t=6lT6PJWi6ZIph966l9C9mw&s=19
It says 'Communist Party'. And also most likely a fake
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1622623310873006080?t=NcFDNxANgmGWUG8gQyOa6w&s=19
No doubt they’ll add a few of their own so it could not be mistaken for anything other than a spy balloon.
And also most likely a fake
It could well be, but I cant see anything about Arnaud that would put him in a position to know.
CNN have this, is that for rows on panels at either end?
In a way, id kinda expected some amateur astronomers to have some good photos.
Meanwhile...
Russia us getting in on the act but sanctions are biting.
However Russia continues to show it's resolve in defeating western imperialism and the left wing military-industrial complex!
Manufactured with bin bags and a brave patriot doing the spying with a Kodak Instamatic.
I think the photo is real but the writing has been photo shopped
US has started hiding planes directly under other planes to avoid prying Chinese eyes.
That’s a trick they learned from us years ago during one of the Red Flag manoeuvres out in the Nevada desert. We sent a Vulcan in low from Canada, keeping below the radar. Eventually it got picked up, and the Americans were chuffed to bits, until the Vulcan peeled away to reveal three Buccaneers hiding underneath it, which nailed the ‘target’, to the stunned amazement of the Americans.
I think this lot might be a touch too excited by it all
There may have been some drinking involved…
The weather balloon thing is just a fig of plausible deniability. Countries spy on each other, that's normal. They all officially pretend they don't and they all usually pretend they accept other countries' explanations until someone pushes things too far. For example, the U2 flights over the USSR were explained as weather flights gone astray. The Russians did not believe that for a second, but there was nothing they could do until they shot one down and captured the pilot. Once that happened, the plausible deniability was lost and the U.S. had to admit that they were spy planes. The U.S. has decided to push this in order to embarrass China. They've known for years that these were spy balloons but chose to keep quiet about it. Now they've decided that China has been pushing too much and need to be sent a warning to ease up a bit. China isn't used to being in this position and they're struggling badly to come up with a response.
https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1622764773438791682
I really like Mark Hertling, always abke to give a rational perspective
Looks like the US were spying on the spy balloon with two U2s
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-2-spy-planes-snooped-on-chinese-surveillance-balloon
I would have thought that the chances of navigating a balloon with enough accuracy to get over a pretty small target are vanishingly small
You'd be surprised. Balloons are surprisingly navigable with knowledge of the winds (and upper winds are extremely well known).
Smaller scale but I've been a passenger in a hot air balloon where the pilot flew it in a circuit and then landed it in its own trailer.
I wonder if the reason they took so long to shoot it down was because they were deciding how to do so - I doubt they wanted to send up an F22 using the latest and greatest weapon+radar given the likelihood of the balloon recording all that data and sending it home. I assume they probably used the minimum necessary, and waited for a moment when the balloon had the least chance of successfully sending the data back.
What can a balloon do that satellites can’t?
assuming that it is what the say it is:
Much much much much cheaper and easier.
You or I could put something like a weather ballon together from bits from a hardware store, currys and amazon. Load it into car or van and deploy it easily and quietly. it probably only costs a few thousand $, rather than however many million a sattelite costs.
not sure how much bigger this one is.
They wont be expecting to get it back, its simple enough to have it sending its data back to a reciever over a mobile phone data signal.
Not as suceptible to cloud cover as a satellite, in as much as you can choose when you release it and it travels much lower.
much higher resolution imagery, assuming thats what its doing.
cool hobbyist project really.
The only downside is that its massively obvious.
Think this is real?
Looks like a new delivery system for the ISS to avoid relying on the Ruskies.
I wonder if the reason they took so long to shoot it down was because they were deciding how to do so – I doubt they wanted to send up an F22 using the latest and greatest weapon+radar given the likelihood of the balloon recording all that data and sending it home. I assume they probably used the minimum necessary, and waited for a moment when the balloon had the least chance of successfully sending the data back.
The AIM 9X is one of the oldest air to air missiles, they probably used it as it was almost lifex so fire it or burn it. The balloon was probably sending data back in real time as well, bit pointless sending it up if you have to recall it to get the data.
The AIM 9X is one of the oldest air to air missiles
That's a bit like saying the Toyota Corolla was designed in the 1960s. The first models were introduced decades ago, but the newest versions will have pretty much zero in common apart from the general dimensions. Thing is though, it's a heat-seeking missile so the aircraft does not have to use radar, which the Chinese may have wanted to record and analyze. The aircraft could just use passive sensors to locate the target and fire the missile.
The balloon was probably sending data back in real time as well, bit pointless sending it up if you have to recall it to get the data.
Not necessarily: It could be caching the data and waiting for a satellite to pass overhead to retransmit, for example. Or fly over a conveniently placed "trawler" mid-Atlantic.
That’s a bit like saying the Toyota Corolla was designed in the 1960s. The first models were introduced decades ago, but the newest versions will have pretty much zero in common apart from the general dimensions. Thing is though, it’s a heat-seeking missile so the aircraft does not have to use radar, which the Chinese may have wanted to record and analyze. The aircraft could just use passive sensors to locate the target and fire the missile.
They don't change that much, upgrades on this tend to be for more complex targets than a balloon.
Right, here you go, a run-down of the target acquisition and a recording and transcription of the communications between all the parties involved. This might clarify a few things.
Further to my last post, here’s an update about the actual recovery mission:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-first-look-chinese-spy-balloon-debris-being-recovered. To give some context as to the lack of desire to bring it down over America, this quote might give a clue…
"So the balloon assessment was up to 200 feet tall for the actual balloon. The payload itself, I would categorize that as a jet airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet such as a [Embraer] ERJ or something like that," VanHerck explained. "Probably weighed in excess of a couple thousand pounds."
How big, exactly? 😳
.
I think the OP deserves credit for getting this right.
https://twitter.com/CalumDouglas1/status/1623310879285551105
Not necessarily. Apparently there were 3 Chinese spy balloons that went undetected during Donald Trump's presidency.
I say "apparently" because no one actually saw them. They are guessing that is what probably happened. Which for a lot of people is enough evidence.
Beeb reporting another one shot down on Canadian/US border.😁
Covid, War, Cost of Living Crisis, Strikes, NHS in crisis - and ruddy aliens now - well they can sod right off!!
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Covid, War, Cost of Living Crisis, Strikes, NHS in crisis – and ruddy aliens now – well they can sod right off!!
I have come to think that The Last Of Us is simply a training video for what comes next.😁
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