Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over northern U.S.

We can call the missile that didn’t hit the target
Jalen Green
@Os Trigonum

 

And potentially going to war over a balloon is better?

As usual people want to paint this as a binary choice when it isnt. Again the US has jamming and cyber warfare technology. This isn’t the 1950’s when there weren’t options other than shooting something down.

Shooting first as we’re seeing this past week is at the minimum a waste of resources and makes us look week they we can get alarmed over what could be nothing more than a hobby balloon.

 

Hopefully something is learned about this but this is appearing that the technology has existed to spot these things and they are likely far more common than before and that was already known but just not public knowledge.

Shooting at something that isn’t known or what sort of threat it is is just bad policy. It’s one of the first things that is taught in gun safety ; except when it comes to using half million dollar missiles from F22.

 

The pilots that got kills for shooting down a balloon are never going to hear the end of it --but the pilot that missed the balloon is really going to get it.

 

Unfortunately, it is very likely that this is exactly what happened.

 

People are saying it was a hobby balloon, owned by an alien.

 

classic appeasement argument. never worked

 

How do we know this is a spy balloon? Should we just trust the Biden administration like the right wing nuts trust Trump when he says the election was stolen?

Lots of reasons to have a balloon up. Im not sure if a 'spy balloon' is the most effective way to spy...especially if I could launch my own spy satellite network.

 

And what is the savior of the world for going to war over a balloon argument?

 

As these are just a few isolated incidents, I don't care about the amount of money spent. I'm much more concerned with the reasoning behind them, our capabilities, and our future plans.

The reasons given were that the objects were hovering at an altitude used by commercial flights, and that they couldn't rule out possible surveillance. I have no idea how much of a danger it posed to commercial flights, so I have no comments there. However, the idea that the military wasn't able to determine what the object was before shooting it down is troubling not because they erred on the side of caution as they indicated (which is reasonable enough), but because they apparently lacked the capability to analyze and determine what the object was. If the military can't detect a "hobbyist balloon" or other commercial applications of these objects, it sounds like a significant failure of capability.

 

A balloon isn’t the same thing as the Sudentland.

 

The amount of hardware in the first balloon certainly points to it being some sort of intelligence gathering device. Also a balloon is likely cheaper than a satellite and this balloon had the capability of moving slower and hovering over a spot. A satellite can’t do that.

The main issue to me is whether the PRC intended it to travel that far over the US. It sounds like even the US military is saying it was accidental it got this far.

 

From what is coming out it sounds like stuff like this is far more common than reported. While they do represent a potential hazard to commercial air traffic if they can be spotted in radar then flights can be diverted around them especially since they are slow moving.

it seems like there are ways of ascertaining what they are through flybys and other observations since they haven been recovered yet there is info about wha they might be.

Being trigger happy with side winders just seems like an overreaction

 

From what is coming out it sounds like stuff like this is far more common than reported. While they do represent a potential hazard to commercial air traffic if they can be spotted in radar then flights can be diverted around them especially since they are slow moving.

it seems like there are ways of ascertaining what they are through flybys and other observations since they haven been recovered yet there is info about wha they might be.

Being trigger happy with side winders just seems like an overreaction

 

That would be my question - why weren't you able to assess what the objects was before shooting it down. If it was indeed a hobbyist balloon, I'm sorry, but it's very much inexcusable that you didn't know that.

 

spy wagon > spy balloon.

 

I answered that a long time ago before Allen Iverson did. Im smarter than AI

 

Yes, there are many uses for large balloons. Alphabet has a multipurpose solution, originally designed to provide wireless points for large regions.

There is little doubt it was some sort of intelligence gathering device, however its likely it was for benign purposes. I would considering monitoring shipping lanes in international waters as benign.