Breaking News... That Chinese Spy Balloon. Thoughts?

Jamala said:
Not correct I'm afraid.
Satellites developed and launched by the National Reconnaissance Office(NRO) but once in orbit they are used by The National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept radio traffic. The information collected is used by both military and civilian agencies.

No reason to assume the same does not apply to China with their satellites,
Click to expand...
What type of radio traffic?
 

ArnoldC said:
Been thinking more on this. How about getting some of our high altitude jets up there and have their exhaust alter to course of the balloon? The balloon is already far north in the U.S. Maybe divert it further north into Canada? Hmm. No. Our friends to the north may not appreciate that. O.K., then, south? Perhaps over a trailer park in Alabama? That'd give the Chinese intel analysts cause for pause.

Even mount a jet engine in the cargo bay of a C-130 Hercules? Make a balloon -blaster out of it. Heck, it's been used for everything else. This would add to its already impressive resume.

Get jets from various air national guard squadrons in the air and contest pushing the balloon - pong style - over various states in the desert SW. Points awarded based on electoral college votes the state has. Las Vegas could cash in with a lottery for all U.S. citizens. Like where it finally gives up the ghost and is forced down or just expires on its own. Million dollar pay-out. Hey, when there's a buck involved, D.C. gets interested too.

Making light of a serious situation, I know. But at times levity breeds results.
Click to expand...
Why not push it out to the ocean and explode it so the debris doesn't fall on human population? Or does it move it away from US territory and then we get into territorial issues.
 

Myrtle said:
It could have been shot down on the way into the country, instead of on the way out, before it collected data.

WHY DID THAT NOT HAPPEN?
Click to expand...
My thoughts on "why"... number one, they probably couldn't confirm that there wasn't a bio-weapon attached since that was a possibility. Number two... that metal really *could* have injured people. I think it was a good move to wait until it was over the ocean.
 
CallMeKate said:
My thoughts on "why"... number one, they probably couldn't confirm that there wasn't a bio-weapon attached since that was a possibility. Number two... that metal really *could* have injured people. I think it was a good move to wait until it was over the ocean.
Click to expand...
I have heard it said that our military was able to detect the takeoff of this device and track it as it flew to Alaska. It could have been brought down as it entered US airspace there before it passed over Canada and entered Montana.

It should have been brought down then, IMO.
 
Myrtle said:
It’s been shot down, over the ocean, live on camera.

Now will they be able to recover it?

It could have been shot down on the way into the country, instead of on the way out, before it collected data.

WHY DID THAT NOT HAPPEN?
Click to expand...
the signals reporting back to China could be jammed?
The balloon electronics could have been electronically fried by a EMR pulse, or laser'd.
Don't know what the payload is. If dangerous, do you really want to shoot the thing down over land? Or can you wait until it is over water and at lower altitude.
Would be very embarrassing to US if we missed on the first shot.
What can be gained it you destroyed the payload?
Lot's of reasons to wait.
 
Myrtle said:
I have heard it said that our military was able to detect the takeoff of this device and track it as it flew to Alaska. It could have been brought down as it entered US airspace there before it passed over Canada and entered Montana.

It should have been brought down then, IMO.
Click to expand...
It's extremely likely that our military contacted a Chinese official the moment the craft entered our airspace, and a safe bet the Chinese official said that the craft posed no threat whatsoever.

You don't just shoot things down because they're overhead. When the Russian military did that, over 280 innocent people died.
 
We could have shot it down as soon as we first detected it.

I suspect the wait was to collect as much information as possible, and to increase the chances of recovery. It was finally shot down as it was about to leave our airspace, our last legitimate shoot down time.

May be easier to recover from water than it would have been on land. I don't believe the claim that it was to protect folks on the ground. Much of its path was over very unpopulated areas. However ground is harder than water, and acess can be more complicated.

Anyway we are likely to never really know the Chinese motives, but I am sure there will be plenty of pundits offering guesses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top