Why Haven't We Shot Down Spy Balloon?

[Mountain Man]

balloon2.jpg

I think this one is probably the most accurate.

[rogue06]

balloon5.jpgB3.jpg
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329537239_897522888039936_8347042624674152931_n.jpgBALLOON.jpgUp-House-Chinese-Spy-Balloon-Twitter.jpgcjonesrgb02062023.jpg

The last one serves to demonstrate how many on the left still believe their terminally rebutted Collusion Delusion

[rogue06]

Source: Biden’s ‘but Trump!’ deceptive balloon defense deflates

Joe Biden continues to think he can get away with anything, as long as he claims to be better than Donald Trump. Now he’s trying it with national security.

Is a Chinese balloon floating over the continental United States from end to end an embarrassment?

Sure — but, but, but, say anonymous administration officials, Trump had a balloon too. Many balloons!

No one saw those Trump-era spy balloons, and US officials knew nothing about them. But Biden’s unnamed officials learned all about them after Trump was out of office.

How? When?

Biden doesn’t feel the need to say, even as the story of the surveillance device that he let drift across the country soars to the top of the week’s headlines.

The administration has given Congress some information on earlier Chinese balloons encroaching near the coasts of Florida and Texas. But what are the precedents for such a well-identified floating object getting all the way from Alaska to South Carolina?

The president really wanted to shoot it down sooner, we’re told, but the Pentagon held Fightin’ Joe back. If it were up to him, China’s eye in the sky would have been shut for good the moment we detected it. But hey, Biden is only the president . . .The administration’s blame-shifting is as embarrassing as the free-roaming spy balloon itself. And to leak stories about purported Trump-era incursions is a shameful abuse of authority.

If these earlier incidents, and the story of how they were found out, are really so sensitive, Biden officials should not be tantalizing the press with these tales just to make the boss look better.

Whatever happened to loose lips sink ships?

Or if these other pokes and prods at our nation’s privacy and security are worthy of public record, we need to hear more about them.

Where did they take place? If there’s good reason to keep secret exactly how the incursions were discovered after the fact, the public is still owed a basic explanation — one that speaks to the national interest and not Joe Biden’s.

This assumes, of course, these retrospective incidents really happened.

Does our government actually know that they did, or is this speculation on the part of officials who can’t be held to public or professional account because of their anonymity?

This wouldn’t be the first time someone with a security clearance and a journalist’s phone number inflated a story in order to embarrass Trump or exculpate Biden.

We’re in year three of Joe Biden’s term as president. He has no excuse for still defining himself as not-the-other-guy or for letting nameless flunkies do it for him.

When Communists sent spycraft over our heads during the Cold War, presidents didn’t pretend that decisions about how to deal with them led anywhere but to the Oval Office.

And Dwight Eisenhower didn’t try the “him too” defense to implicate Harry Truman in the many challenges of his administration — and not just because Sputnik was more revolutionary than a balloon.

The difference then was that America had presidents, whether good or bad. Joe Biden holds office, but at times like these he’s not the president, he’s just not the other guy.



Source

© Copyright Original Source

There is the possibility that these "multiple" incidents under Trump are actually a single one -- where China sent a "weather balloon" around the world and where it supposedly passed close to Hawaii and then later crossed over the Florida peninsula. We'll have to see if that's the case.

[Ronson]

Given it managed to change altitude several times the idea it's electronics got fried appears to be overstated.

I doubt it changed altitude very much, especially to go higher. If the balloon contents (whatever gas is used) were released to drop in altitude, how would that get replenished to gain altitude?

[rogue06]

I doubt it changed altitude very much, especially to go higher. If the balloon contents (whatever gas is used) were released to drop in altitude, how would that get replenished to gain altitude?

I imagine more gas could be stored inside tanks that could be internal (within the balloon). Or ballast could simply be jettisoned. It doesn't have to change altitude very often, and the very fact that it still could contradicts any claim that we took out its ability to send and receive signals from China.

[Mountain Man]

I doubt it changed altitude very much, especially to go higher. If the balloon contents (whatever gas is used) were released to drop in altitude, how would that get replenished to gain altitude?

The payload could have easily held canisters of compressed helium (or whatever gas was used to keep it afloat), or the gas inside the balloon could have been temperature controlled to allow it to rise and fall at will. This is all well within the capabilities of current technology.

[Ronson]

I'm going to go out on a limb here (despite the bashing I got earlier) and again say this whole thing is mostly a joke - OR - simply a diversion from other news stories. A balloon floating around, mostly following the jet stream, with solar panels dangling underneath. Are we sending more money to Ukraine again? Did classified documents show up in Biden's SUV? Perhaps that's what we're not supposed to be focusing on and instead being subjected to the balloon show.

[Ronson]

I imagine more gas could be stored inside tanks that could be internal (within the balloon). Or ballast could simply be jettisoned. It doesn't have to change altitude very often, and the very fact that it still could contradicts any claim that we took out its ability to send and receive signals from China.

Possible. But from the pics I've seen, I don't see where that ballast could beg stored.

[Sparko]

I doubt it changed altitude very much, especially to go higher. If the balloon contents (whatever gas is used) were released to drop in altitude, how would that get replenished to gain altitude?

compressed gas tanks?

But I don't think it changed altitude, rogue's claim is the first I heard of that. but if they were riding the Jet Stream, that changes altitude depending on the temperature and other factors. The path of the balloon seems to just follow that. The only time that it appeared to change course was while it was still in Canada from what I can tell.

[Ronson]

The payload could have easily held canisters of compressed helium (or whatever gas was used to keep it afloat), or the gas inside the balloon could have been temperature controlled to allow it to rise and fall at will. This is all well within the capabilities of current technology.

I suppose .... I would expect to see something attached to the bottom to perform that function.

[Ronson]

compressed gas tanks?

But I don't think it changed altitude, rogue's claim is the first I heard of that. but if they were riding the Jet Stream, that changes altitude depending on the temperature and other factors. The path of the balloon seems to just follow that. The only time that it appeared to change course was while it was still in Canada from what I can tell.

The jet stream is going to shift a bit at different times. If we backtracked to 1 1/2 weeks ago, it may have been up in the British Columbia area?

[Gondwanaland]

Interesting...

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/...ns-2023-02-06/

Analysis: China's military has shown growing interest in high-altitude balloons

As China and the United States tussle over what Washington says was a Chinese surveillance balloon over U.S. territory, dozens of Chinese documents point to surging interest in using balloon technology for military purposes.
China's foreign ministry has repeatedly described the balloon the drifted over the United States as an errant scientific craft, but Chinese military researchers have recently argued in publicly available papers that such aircraft should be further developed and deployed in specific missions.

One paper published last April by researchers in a People's Liberation Army (PLA) institute focused on "special aircraft" said that one of the useful military applications of balloons was to test enemy air defences.

"(The balloon can) induce and mobilise the enemy's air defence system, providing the conditions for the implementation of electronic reconnaissance, assessment of air defence systems' early warning detection and operational response capabilities," the researchers wrote.

That paper and several other articles by PLA-controlled publications also point to keen interest from the Chinese military establishment in studying how the United States and other countries used balloons militarily in the past, as well as a clear intent to close the gap in the field.

Balloons are also used for scientific purposes such as weather monitoring, including by the likes of the China Meteorological Administration.

The United States is working to recover debris after a U.S. fighter jet downed the balloon once it was over water off the South Carolina coast on Saturday. China condemned what it called an "over-reaction" and warned of possible retaliation.

While U.S. officials say that China has more discrete and sophisticated ways to gather intelligence on its rival, such as its network of spy satellites, the PLA paper also said the low cost of using balloons was one of the reasons China should further deploy them.

"In response to the growing threat posed by ground-based air defence systems to air attack forces, it is necessary to use cheap air balloons to create active and passive interference to effectively suppress enemy air defence early warning systems and cover air attack forces to carry out their missions," it argued.

The PLA paper appeared in Shipboard Electronic Countermeasure, a journal owned by a Chinese state-run shipping conglomerate that publishes articles on topics including signals-jamming and electronic warfare.

"In order to shorten the gap with foreign countries when it comes to air-drift balloons, and to prevent China from being attacked by such weapons, we should actively carry out ... research on related operational issues to enhance our military's offensive combat capability," it said.

Some regional security analysts say balloons could also gather data on the upper atmosphere useful for China's missile programmes, or be used for high resolution photography to supplement intelligence material available via satellites.

China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

TECHNOLOGY PURCHASES
Chinese military units and state-run research institutes have bought high-altitude balloons and related technology in the past two years, a Reuters analysis of government tenders shows, though the documents are heavily redacted.

The Aerospace Information Research Institute, part of the official Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is among state institutions to have shown interest in balloons, frequently publishing articles about high-altitude balloons on an official WeChat account.

While many of the articles focus on space exploration and balloon aerodynamics, others analyse how such aircraft have been deployed militarily in the past, with a particular focus on how other countries have defended themselves from threats posed by balloons and how they have been used offensively.

One, published last April, was titled, "New model of spy balloons defends Israeli skies".

Last September, the research institute won a 3.16 million yuan ($466,400) contract to develop a "stratospheric balloon platform" for another CAS department, according to a government tender.

A month later, it announced the successful trial of a balloon that can reach heights of 30 km and carry up to 1.2 tonnes. The trial was part of a high-priority CAS project for developing near-space technologies, according to an article published on the research institute's website.

Neither project specified military applications.

According to one of its articles, one of the institute's main missions is to help national defence projects achieve technological breakthroughs.

CAS did not respond to a request for comment.

[Mountain Man]

I suppose .... I would expect to see something attached to the bottom to perform that function.

The assembly suspended below the balloon was around 60 feet long, so there was plenty of room to incorporate navigation and surveillance technology. And it was reported by multiple sources that the balloon was under active control until we finally(!) shot it down off the east coast.

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A Chinese spy balloon has changed course and is now floating eastward at about 60,000 feet (18,300 meters) over the central United States, demonstrating a capability to maneuver, the U.S. military said on Friday, in the latest twist to a spying saga that led U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a visit to China.

The disclosure about the spy balloon's maneuverability directly challenges China's assertion that the balloon was merely a civilian airship that had strayed into U.S. territory after being blown off course.

"We know this is a Chinese (surveillance) balloon and that it has the ability to maneuver," Air Force Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a news briefing at the Pentagon, declining to say precisely how it was powered or who in China was controlling its flight path.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chi...on-2023-02-03/

[Sparko]

The jet stream is going to shift a bit at different times. If we backtracked to 1 1/2 weeks ago, it may have been up in the British Columbia area?

don't know. I do know that the jet stream is pretty strong and fast, so some little propeller on a balloon with that much surface area is not going to make much of a difference in it's overall path. Kind of like a trolling motor on a raft in a raging river. You can maybe drift back and forth a bit but you are caught in that current and are going where the river wants to take you.

[Ronson]

don't know. I do know that the jet stream is pretty strong and fast, so some little propeller on a balloon with that much surface area is not going to make much of a difference in it's overall path. Kind of like a trolling motor on a raft in a raging river. You can maybe drift back and forth a bit but you are caught in that current and are going where the river wants to take you.

Unless some terrific technology is scooped up out of the ocean, I just have a suspicion that we are going to look back on this episode in a few months, or a year, and say "That was a mountain out of a molehill. What was all that MSM attention about?"