Engine10 said:

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Giving me flashbacks to when I saw this one floating off from Aberdeen proving ground. Freaked me the hell out on the highway

Quote:

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WASHINGTON An unmanned Army surveillance blimp broke free of its mooring at a Maryland proving ground Wednesday and drifted more than 120 miles north into Pennsylvania, dragging a long tether that knocked out power to thousands, officials said.

The 243-foot-long, helium-filled aerostat broke free from Aberdeen Proving Ground at around 12:20 p.m., and a pair of F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to track it as it drifted north, before the blimp came down more than 3 hours later, North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna453106

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Sweet ride!

MouthBQ98 said:

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Civilian casualties from a balloon falling? Wait until
It drifts over nowhere and hit the balloon with enough to drop it and capture the electronics as intact as possible.

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Have the Air Force have a jumper (with O2 of course) parachute down onto it then slash the balloon and then just hold onto it as it glides to the ground.

ttu_85 said:

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agent-maroon said:

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MouthBQ98 said:

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Civilian casualties from a balloon falling? Wait until
It drifts over nowhere and hit the balloon with enough to drop it and capture the electronics as intact as possible.

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It's over Montana. How much closer to nowhere are you going to find?

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Uh Montana and ND are where most of our Minuteman three ICBM's are located.

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Uh, the concern was civilian casualties from a dropped balloon, not sensitive military installations. I'm well aware of what the Chinese are spying on and it isn't civilians in sparsely populated places like Montana & ND

Houstonag said:

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This is an insult. Shoot it down. Our military leadership has absolutely proven to be incompetent.

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You think China would allow our balloon to remain up there in their country?

Now Canada saying they might have one too?

Geddy Lee soul patch said:

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Why are the Chinese sending a balloon to do a satellite's job?

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Satellites make quick passes. Approximately every 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
This balloon is loitering. And it's in an area pretty close to many of our missile sites. I'd imagine the data collecting capability is much higher being it can sit on station. Plus if we shoot it down the Chinese are out probably a half million dollars? We've already spent 10x that scrambling assets.

What do they really gain with a balloon surveillance would be my question? This isn't the 1970's, and the CCP is supposed to have very advanced imaging technologies on their satellites a hundred or so miles further up, I thought.

A drifting balloon at 55K feet over montana seems...silly. F-22's could easily maneuver to shoot it down but I am not sure if it's even really worth it unless there is a concern about it having a weapon onboard.

If the balloon is very high up, this would be key. F-22s would be able to gather close visual intel etc, really no other platform for that kind of application at those heights.

— Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) February 3, 2023

Rogoway/warzone article that is decent from yesterday. I just fail to grasp what big secrets they'd glean about minuteman silo's from this thing that otherwise they can't easily get from sats. Launching a balloon from central china to attempt to get this info would be just clumsy/dumb, but we are talking about communists...

mjschiller said:

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One communist country checking out another communist government.

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All indications, you are right!

Maybe the balloon isn't the point - maybe it's a test to see how long it takes us to intercept it. Everyone is focused on what the balloon has on it etc, but what if it's just a test run for something else.

How the hell do they know it was verifiably Chinese?

MouthBQ98 said:

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Laze it with a high power laser until the balloon is too damaged to remain aloft and recover it when it falls. No explosion, and if the hole is small it won't fall that fast.

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If it's really at 80K feet that sounds like about the best way to go here.

Backtracking using wind patterns, maybe? And who knows when we spotted it

It's carrying a new Corona virus, ready to spread if shot down.

agent-maroon said:

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Backtracking using wind patterns, maybe? And who knows when we spotted it

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Maybe but the fox article makes it sound like the military was completely off guard. Which is a whole other thing…

What's even worse is it's made it on the news before we did anything about it. That just shows the chinese how weak our govt really is

You could be right, but you're probably wrong. And you would have no idea either way.

Houstonag said:

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This is an insult. Shoot it down. Our military leadership has absolutely proven to be incompetent.

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hey take it easy on our military leadership. They're busting their asses right now trying to come up with pronouns for the balloon.

It's day 3 of the Chinese air invasion and CornPop, Blinken and Milley are still setting on their hands.

cryption said:

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What's even worse is it's made it on the news before we did anything about it. That just shows the chinese how weak our govt really is

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It made the news yesterday. We were aware of it earlier this week before it entered US airspace.

As for reasons against shooting it down, is there a possibility that there is something radioactive on board? Like something to help generate an unusual imaging study (positrons, neutrinos, etc.) that wouldn't be available on a previously launched asset parked in orbit and we wouldn't want casually dropped into a river system. Just spit balling and have no idea if this would even be a thing.

Stupe said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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CDUB98 said:

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Shoot it down and privately tell them that one more of those and they can say goodbye to Beijing.

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Seems like a rational action.

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Why would we not shoot it down?

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"Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley and Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) and the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), were among those who advised against a "kinetic response" due to safety concerns, including the potential impacts of debris falling in around the Billings area. The decision was ultimately made not to "take the shot" due to the potential risks involved.

The senior U.S. defense official noted that not shooting down the balloon is also offering an opportunity for "tracking what abilities it could have." Though they did not elaborate, it's also worth noting that surveilling the craft and its payload both visually and electronically at close proximity would be critical to assessing its capabilities. If shot down prior to this, that intelligence could be degraded or lost."

BALLOON

Yeah let me guess: The Chinese are gonna claim "whoopsie" and Biden Admin is gonna go with " yeah ok, no worries."

IS Fang Fang having a gender reveal?

CHINA: BALLOON ENTERS US AIR BY MISTAKE DUE TO FORCE MAJEURE

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) February 3, 2023

Replies to that tweet suggest the Chinese excuse was that they were conducting climate research and it was blown off course.

Yeah, sure... That's why they warned us that it was on it's way over the Pacific, right?

Chinese MOFA says airship is from China. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. pic.twitter.com/Mi99PxOvkx

— Minmin Low (@minminlowCNA) February 3, 2023

agent-maroon said:

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ttu_85 said:

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agent-maroon said:

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MouthBQ98 said:

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Civilian casualties from a balloon falling? Wait until
It drifts over nowhere and hit the balloon with enough to drop it and capture the electronics as intact as possible.

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It's over Montana. How much closer to nowhere are you going to find?

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Uh Montana and ND are where most of our Minuteman three ICBM's are located.

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Uh, the concern was civilian casualties from a dropped balloon, not sensitive military installations. I'm well aware of what the Chinese are spying on and it isn't civilians in sparsely populated places like Montana & ND

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Username checks out. Please provide your next debrief by oh-six-hundred-hours, Agent.

"Civilian airship used for research."

Lmao...

From a Communist country with every "private" company being a front for the CCP.