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Spy Balloon/UFO Events | Feb 2nd-12th

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Irag8er said:
I would offer that the US has the capability, but want to “capture” it for the treasure trove of espionage equipment they may recover from it.
Another question may be, does China not have a self destruct mechanism they can trigger aboard the balloon.
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That would be my first thought too. Capturing the balloon intact is clearly preferable to destroying it. Official statements saying that shooting it down is too risky due to potential damage on the ground (in rural Montana of all places!) trip my personal BS sensor.
 
Spyglass said:
this damn balloon has the hair on my spine standing up. The geopolitical puzzle pieces aren’t there, YET…but this demonstrates they have the capacity to deliver a device such as a nuke or an EMP or even small air to surface missle platforms (3 school busses) on a fracking massive-ass balloon and they can knock us back to the Stone Age. That would be a hell of a laugh. The US got taken out by a balloon. This isn’t meant to be funny in any way.
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That's not how nuclear warfare works. China is perfectly capable of nuking mainland US if it so chooses, and it does not need to employ balloons for this purpose. The whole idea is rather ludicrous. A balloon is not a good payload delivery system for a myriad of reasons which really don't bear explaining. :)
Spyglass said:
I think this warrants a blue for a short time at least.
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While we may perhaps be edging in the direction of blue, this isn't the reason.
 
I really don't undestand this stuff of the Chinese balloon! But in the US any kind of hot air balloon sent by an other random Country can fly around unauthorized, without been shout-down? All these technologies to deter Russia, and then nothing avoid a hot air balloon (nobody can really know if armed with a nuke) to make a journey freely? Why a fighet-jet no, and a hot air balloon yes?
 
bartok said:
I really don't undestand this stuff of the Chinese balloon! But in the US any kind of hot air balloon sent by an other random Country can fly around unauthorized, without been shout-down? All these technologies to deter Russia, and then nothing avoid a hot air balloon (nobody can really know if armed with a nuke) to make a journey freely? Why a fighet-jet no, and a hot air balloon yes?
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"Shoot it down" isn't usually the first choice when responding to an unauthorized flight (though 9/11 did change attitudes a bit). The standard course of action is to determine whether the aircraft in question presents a threat; if not, it is usually escorted out of your airspace and diplomatic action ensues. Manned flights may be instructed to land at a designated airfield, and coerced in case of noncompliance - but obviously you can't do that with a balloon. Kinetic action is generally regarded as the last resort.

The fact that it hasn't been shot down is - to me - an indication that NORAD has a pretty good idea what it is, where it's going, and what it's capable of - and that they're not worried.
 
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I suspect many people in the US are now unwittingly recreating that scene from Don't Look Up.

EtYv0VAWQAM1Lnx
 
Irag8er said:
Random Morning Thoughts

”What might this balloon be distracting us from” 🤔
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It's still a free society. Access to important information remains ubiquitous and convenient. Whether you* allow yourselves to be distracted by Chinese balloons is entirely on you.

*) By "you" I mean the American public, which I'm not part of.
 
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Shadow_Eden said:
A drone with something sharp on it, then try to quickly engineer a sky hook system for something as big as that.
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That MIGHT not be possible,
A military drone's max altitude and drone altitude limit are impacted by its size and capability. Their nominal operating altitudes can range from 1,200 feet above ground level to over 18,000 feet flight level, while their service ceilings can be between 50 and 60,000 feet.
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As far as public knowledge is available.
 
ZedBoy said:
If the balloon is weather or beneficial to society it should be free to fly.
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Bro. The pentagon said it’s a surveillance balloon. No. Shoot the damn thing down as long as it doesn’t pose a dirty bomb, or radiological threat to do so.
 
Socom7 said:
That's not how nuclear warfare works. China is perfectly capable of nuking mainland US if it so chooses, and it does not need to employ balloons for this purpose. The whole idea is rather ludicrous. A balloon is not a good payload delivery system for a myriad of reasons which really don't bear explaining. :)

While we may perhaps be edging in the direction of blue, this isn't the reason.
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If I wanted to surprise my enemies, I wouldn’t launch missiles immediately. I would do something exactly like this. Fly an innocuous balloon over their territory, detonate an EMP, THEN launch missles. This would cause chaos, and delay/hamper the US response. Even in a conventional scenario, this would make things very difficult for the US for quite some time.

Just because that this isn’t how nuclear war “works” doesn’t mean it isn’t a viable option for our enemies.
 
We could absolutely shoot it down.
That’s not the question is it worth launching a missile at it either from a F-22 or other ground based system.

I don’t know I’d have to say probably no.
It’s a glorified weather ballon and possibly electronics sweeper.
I’ve read if no credible intel threat it could pose that cannot be mitigated.

If it’s a weather ballon and we launch a AGN-161 at it yeah we’ve knocked it down.

The US has frequently flown overflights over other unwilling nations.
To lose our shit over a damn weather ballon is frankly embarrassing.
 
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