Chinese spy balloon floating over U.S.
This spy balloon is floating above commercial air traffic and doesn’t currently threaten things on the ground. Officials have taken precautions to protect against sensitive information collection. The Pentagon advised Joe Biden to not shoot the balloon down.
From the Army Times:
“Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years,” Ryder said. “Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.
A senior defense official declined to say how long the government had been tracking the balloon, and declined to elaborate on previous known instances of spy balloons floating over the U.S., saying only that the government is confident the balloon belongs to China and that it has lingered over U.S. air space for a longer period of time than previous balloons.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, the head of Northern Command, advised President Biden on Wednesday not to shoot the balloon down, over concerns that debris could cause casualties on the ground.
“Currently, we assess that this balloon has limited added value from an intelligence collection perspective, but we are taking steps, nevertheless, to protect against foreign intelligence collection of sensitive information,” the official said. “We’re also tracking what abilities that could have in gaining insight and continue to monitor the balloon as it is over the continental United States.”
As the balloon drifted over Montana, it prompted the shutdown of the Billings airport on Wednesday and the alert of Air Force F-22 fighters as part of a possible plan to shoot it down over a more sparsely populated part of the state.
“So, we wanted to make sure we were coordinating with civil authorities to empty out the airspace around that central area but, even with those protective measures taken, it was the judgment of our military commanders that it didn’t drive the risk down low enough, so we didn’t take the shot,” the official said.
Montana is home to one of three U.S. bases operating nuclear fields, but the official said it’s unlikely the balloon could see anything more than orbiting Chinese satellites are already able to see.
“But out of an abundance of caution, we have taken additional mitigation steps that I’m not going to go into … but we know exactly where this balloon is, exactly what it is passing over,” the official said. “We are taking steps to be extra vigilant so that we can mitigate any foreign intelligence risk.”
The Army Times has additional information here. Thanks to KoB for providing this link to this story.
Category: China
Likely the CCP TOLD Biden not to shoot it down so thus it’s still floating above US Airspace.
The thing flies at 66,000 feet and is essentially a short term disposable satellite.
Our air defense systems do not reach those heights, and neither do our air to air fighters.
Shooting it down would likely require a rocket designed specifically that purpose.
Or a higher risk than justified mission with an aircraft not designed to function at above 50,000 feet.
Not shooting it down and enforcing diplomatic consequences makes the most sense.
We have a fighter-launched missile that once shot a satellite down, I have no doubt we have plenty of munitions which could easily take that down, thus I think Biden is doing the bidding of his CCP masters.
Ditto.
I beg to differ. F-22’s can operate at 60,000 ft. Several were sent over from Nellis AFB. Along with a Sentry. So if we wanted to get it we could…. And
And keep in mind, BCD, 60K is the publicly acknowledged operational ceiling. Surely the classified reality is a tad higher than that… 🤔
Undoubtedly you are correct and doing look up missile shots are easily done.
Not to mention that the SR-71 Blackbird regularly cruised at 80,000 feet, thus I’m sure that we still have Combat Aircraft that could reach that altitude, but our adversaries have no damned business knowing about it.
The SR’s ceiling exceeds 100K.
Lars says, “Our air defense systems do not reach those heights, and neither do our air to air fighters.”
Good grief, man, don’t you ever get tired of being wrong?
The Patriot system has an “impact” to kill option that has a flight altitude of over 70,000 feet…it could pierce the balloon which would deflate it and allow it come down with less shrapnel…
There’s always a way to approach this sort of intrusion…I’m guessing if we’re not taking it down it’s because the CIA and DoD are listening to the data traffic from the device to determine if it can be compromised.
There’s what we tell the public, and there’s what we are actually doing. They are, from time to time, not always in sync with one another.
It makes a lot more sense to study it and figure out what the hell it is doing.
It makes even more sense to study it hands on, on the ground, after sending an F-XX to shoot some holes in it, allowing the helium(assumption) to escape slowly, forcing the balloon to fall to earth with minimal damage.
Exactly. Why show how you’d take something down when you can potentially learn a ton about their comm equipment, encryption capabilities, and give the Chinese people a reason to question what their own government is doing vs directing their anger at the US?
Unless the balloon represents a greater risk than that, and it’s hard to imagine how it would, not ‘shooting from the hip’, so to speak, sounds like the proper course of action.
LC asks, “Why show how you’d take something down when you can potentially learn a ton about their comm equipment, encryption capabilities…”
Well allow an old man to ask you, LC, “Why not bring the thing down so that your potentially becomes actually?”
Then if we find it proves to be a big, harmless weather and/or climate gathering device, we notify the Chinese that in the future, they will be required to request permission for such floating laboratories to cross our airspace.
All while we continue to exam the captured lab for clandestine capabilities.
Then if they don’t comply, we shoot down any and all subsequent incursions and continue our investigations.
At the outset of their journeys across our country–not the conclusion…
I do hope you’re right VoV, but the last 6+ years have made me doubt that that the feds are competent at anything, as well as doubting that the put any effort into anything other than protecting themselves and the deep state / globalists, and attacking anything that threatens that.
Hell, im sure Hunter could get high enough to reach it. All he needs is an ounce of primo Peruvian fish scale, some brillo and baking soda
Only took a little reality to shoot down Squidward’s BS.
Obviously he doesn’t.
“…diplomatic consequences…”
Are you kidding? I really hope you are kidding and just forgot to add the sarc tag.
You never, ever get tired of being wrong do you? I bet your leftist buddies consider you a military expert…
Service ceiling of the F-15 is 65,000 feet. I think we can do at least that much with later aircraft. It should not be any great feat to get an F-XX another 1000 feet and put a few holes in the balloon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle
Our air defense systems do not reach those heights, and neither do our air to air fighters. INCORRECT
Shooting it down would likely require a rocket designed specifically that purpose. NOPE
Yep, I left out that the THAAD interceptor has an unclass flight ceiling of 150km or around 500,000 feet, so it’s got a little margin for error there. This is a proven capability. Moving at almost Mach 9, I can only imagine the effects the kinetic warhead would have if it hit something solid on the balloon. It would be almost impossible to miss being a slow moving object the size of a small apartment building.
It had it’s first combat kill last year against a Houthis Iranian built TBM. It would seem a waste to shoot down a balloon with one unless it was a greater threat as they cost $2M per. Unless they just want a “free” test.
Hmm, guess Commissar is right, and the biden regime is lying about just having shot it down…
Of course not. Xiden would NEVER do anything to anger his paymasters.
Kamikaze drones.
Its time to reactivate Berna$ty!
He’d bring that mofo crashing down or die trying!🤣
You don’t know how bad I wish that statute were real.
Something that is real…
https://nypost.com/2021/07/14/george-floyd-mural-collapses-witnesses-blame-lightning/
An act of God?
Who created that beautiful sculpture of St. Floyd of Fentanyl practicing his faith?
Since screw ups Milley and Austin advised not to shoot it down, my gut says we should’ve shot this thing to shreds as soon as it got within the airspace of the Aleutian Islands.
Testify! Dry run for some other nefarious purposes? And contrary to what the spapos seagull is squawking, we could take the damn thing out with something in our inventory. This is akin to letting a burglar into your house to case the joint before he does his deed.
Exactly! I doubt it’s exactly a coincidence that it’s currently hanging out over our ICBM sites in Wyoming and Montana.
Balloons don’t have their own propulsion. They go where the winds take them, and if the Chinese have the computer power and knowledge to predict where the winds would take this balloon, which we don’t have, we are in big trouble.
Shoot it down!
skyhook that Bitch then sell it back to them
TJMcC.
Poke a hole in it and capture it when it lands. That package needs to be analyzed.
Not knowing its altitude, I wonder if some Montana private pilot could have been able to reach it and shoot/capture/drag it down?
Yep. Just because you shoot a hole or two in it, doesn’t mean it’s going to explode, or plummet to the ground. Unless……
(first 1:30)
That is what they did. Although some dudes are going to get wet getting the wreckage recovered.
And yet another opportunity for stolen valor.
“Yeah, honey, I was part of the SEAL dive team that recovered that spy balloon!”
“…. the U.S. government acted immediately….”
ROFLOLMFAO! Seriously?
SHIT. I didn’t even think this low tech piece of crap could be so dangerous.
This puts a whole new spin on this situation.
Dry run: Balloons called top ‘delivery platform’ for nuclear EMP attackhttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/balloons-called-top-delivery-platform-for-nuclear-emp-attack
Yup. And this isn’t the first “force majeure” incident involving such a CHICOM “scientific research” balloon.
I remember years back suggesting that EMP weapons over the US were a threat, and being told that heavy lift rockets were extremely sparse…wonder how many nuclear countries have the capability to make high altitude balloons? Maybe all of them? Most anything released over the Eastern Pacific is going to drift over the US mainland.
The Japanese tried something similar during WWII. Given the knowledge (jet stream) and technology of the time, I think there was only one “success” (IIRC, a forest fire somewhere in the Pacific NW).
Today? I wouldn’t doubt that any nation could float any payload for any purpose to anywhere in the world.
Oregon. “In Gearhart Mountain, Oregon, Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children are killed while attempting to drag a Japanese balloon out of the woods. Unbeknownst to Mitchell and the children, the balloon was armed, and it exploded soon after they began tampering with it. They were the first and only known American civilians to be killed in the continental United States during World War II. The U.S. government eventually gave $5,000 in compensation to Mitchell’s husband, and $3,000 each to the families of Edward Engen, Sherman Shoemaker, Jay Gifford and Richard and Ethel Patzke, the five slain children.“
I was wondering about that, but I assumed (yeah, I know) that a higher altitude was necessary. EMP was next on my Google schedule, in fact.
And balloons are stealthy, too.
Ceiling for an F35 is 45,000 feet. Balloon is at 66,000. We can’t figure out a way to punch a hole in a balloon 4 miles higher? Slant range of less than 10 miles… it’s not like the balloon is gonna shoot back.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, the F-15 has a service ceiling of 65,000 feet and the AIM-120 AMRAAM has a range that varies from 27 nautical miles to 86 nautical miles depending on the variant. This sounds like a pretty simple math problem to me. Hell, a gun kill with the M61A1 internal gun wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility at the max service ceiling. Too bad we never really placed any YF-12’s in service…this would’ve been a piece of cake. Yes, I know that program was a cover story for the SR-71, but I do believe we built a prototype with the M61 cannon installed.
The clearest definition of “service ceiling” I could find on short notice;
“The definition of the service ceiling is the height above sea level at which an aircraft with normal-rated load is unable to climb faster than 100 feet per minute under standard air conditions.
A service ceiling is not really an absolute limit on the altitude that a particular design can achieve, but one at which the aircraft begins to run out of climb capability. The absolute altitude is a measure of how high an aircraft can climb, when it runs out of any further climb capability, under normal-rated load.”
https://www.eaa.org/eaa/news-and-publications/eaa-news-and-aviation-news/bits-and-pieces-newsletter/09-13-2016-aviation-word-service-ceiling
I hope this is helpful.
I live to serve.
Oh I know the difference. Just making the observation that the F-15 can get to where it needs to be to pop that puppy. It’s not like the pilot would really need much climb rate to take out a balloon that can’t shoot back. As I recall, the F-4 Phantom managed to get to around 100,000 feet during testing by doing a zoom climb. The engines flamed out but the aircraft had enough momentum to keep climbing. When they reached the point where they were out of airspeed, the pilot tipped the nose down, glided down and re-started the engines around 65,000 feet.
This just in…
How dare you post that without a spew alert!
Sorry ma’am…
ROFLOL!!
Well done!
Thanks👊
You sir, have won the internet today.
Thanks QMC!👊👍🇺🇸
Tin foil hat time? Maybe.
1) Xi informed Biden if we shoot it down, he will release all the details, files and proof of Biden Familia ownership by Xi and the CCP.
2) We’re just supposed to believe it is not a threat, it is not a problem, and they were worried about shooting it down over the densely populated areas of Montana.
3) We’re afraid of angering China. By shooting down their act of blatant aggression.
Me thinks Occam’s Razor applies.
Some news station (was told, didn’t watch) just advised it is moving west and should be over Chicago shortly. I was advised to get out the telescope.
Someone tell me, what is the longitude, latitude and altitude required for an EMP to inflict maximum damage over the North American continent?
1.4 megaton 250 miles above Kansas would pretty much take out the entire US, parts of Canada, and Mexico. Smaller, lower strikes would be more localized, but the domino effect on the grid would move in every direction. We War Gamed different war heads and altitudes back yonder with our tactical nukes, looking to slow Ivan down when/if he poured thru the Fulda Gap. You want to get scared then read “One Second After” by William Forstchen. I’m prepped for that very scenario. Not a matter of if anymore, it’s a matter of when.
KoB- read that a while back. Have shared it with a few people who have since changed their…pantry.
In case you were not depressed enough by that book, there is a sequel.
I remember being given a theory of a USSR attack in an ROTC Class back in the mid-80’s, it was that they would “accidentally” detonate say about a 5kt Tactical Nuke high enough to not hurt any building or road infrastructure and roll in when the EMP makes the SHTF by taking the power and communications grids down.
Read it.
Didn’t like it. For one thing, it made it clear to me that I am too old, fat, and arthritic to bend over and kiss my ass goodbye.
Not a pleasant read.
“I’m prepped for that very scenario”
Lucky you. I don’t think I can stockpile enough of my full menu of meds to make a significant difference.
(Insert what KOB wrote here)
In order to have any real effect the bomb will have to be above 100K feet. Most balloons are limited to about 135K feet theoretically, so unless there has been an advance in materials that would be about it. At only 25 miles up it would require dozens of balloons to have the same effect as the first bomb. So it’s entirely doable.
https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/RL32544.pdf
I think perhaps there is a lot of rumor, gossip, and hysteria going around about this balloon
In other words, just another run-of-the-mill day for the media.
The first problem is that people are believing anything China says……
Sighted by a F-22 pilot…
Seems I’ve cracked the case (not mine)
SPEW ALERT!!
🤣🤣🤣
Where are the other 98 luftballons?
The 5th Dimension – Up, Up and Away (Official Audio) – YouTube
The DailyMail is saying there’s just been an explosion in the skies above Montana. Haven’t seen confirmation elsewhere yet:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11712125/Explosion-sky-Billings-Montana-Chinese-balloon-spotted-U-S-airspace.html
https://twitter.com/MMtTreasures/status/1621661908205195265
The ChiCom balloon is currently over Missouri headed towards Illinois.
It’s dead meat now. Once it gets to Chicago it will get mugged and left for dead. The mayor or the leader of the House will sell it the highest bidder, this golden thing.
Kinda like HitchBOT — that little robot that got murdered in Philadelphia on arrival.
Exactly, hard to say which is the bigger cesspool of psychotics and addicts that will knife your grandma for a sack of meth. Chicago is pretty reliable though.
Another one over South America? Durn the navigation systems just aren’t what they used to be….
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-another-chinese-spy-balloon-traveling-over-latin-america
WTF?
There was a new balloon thread with 6 comments and when I tried to open it, it went poof and was gone?
The balloon has enacted self defense safety protocols and is erasing itself from the internet. After that happens you wont be able to certain it was real at all.
The twilight zone just dick punched me into the outer limits.
Did it also take you one step beyond?🤣
Being doubled over, one step was beyond my capabilities. 😆
So much information out there that’s constantly changing on this. Now some are saying that one of them are downed:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11712125/Explosion-sky-Billings-Montana-Chinese-balloon-spotted-U-S-airspace.html
Who knows what’ll happen in the next 24 hours.
…and I’m reading local reports of it crossing southern Illinois several hours ago. So how was it shot down over Montana?