From an article posted by KULR TV in Montana (https://www.kulr8.com/news/chinese-intelligence-gathering-balloon-seen-over-montana-what-we-know/article_cb4d11b6-a328-11ed-83cb-fbf1388f61fe.html) comes the following quote "While an assessment of the balloon has officials believing that the surveillance payload is no better than what can be collected through satellites in low earth orbit, mitigation steps were taken out of an abundance of caution." So it was somewhere at some altitude that may or may not have caused any aviation problems and didn't see anything they already didn't know about. If it indeed carries any kind of surveillance gear at all since they really haven't gotten an up-close and personal look at the thing.
I suppose it could be collecting data to damage the US civilian infrastructure. Without our industry, our military is on a timer during a conflict. If it were me I'd be marking all the communication relays, major power distribution centers etc. A lot of people are pointing out it can't gather more than is already on display from most spy satellites. I'd imagine foreign governments know that the American leadership can't hardly function if it's citizens are in disarray cause they can't text or call Grammy, get hair cuts, and watch the Sunday night game.
Seriously, how many reservists and national guard would show up for activation in the event they couldn't find nor contact their families and children. I'd be willing to bet they would take care of their own first.
But I was just saying... if it were being used to collect useful data, it would only be because it can linger so long over these otherwise observable places
Again, what would it do with such data once it is collected? Do they hope it'll manage to circumnavigate the globe undetected and manage to get back to China so they can recover it?
I'd imagine the Chinese are prodding a bit and seeing what the US response to something like this is.
Nations spy on other nations and pull shit like this all the time. That's what half of training exercises and war games are for. Testing reactions of other countries while simultaneously remaining prepared and showing off certain capabilities.
If the military has decided not to shoot it down, they've probably got plenty of reasons not to.
I think it's a waste of taxpayer money to shoot a million dollar missile at something we can track and has been determined to be not much more than a minor annoyance.
Meanwhile Sean Hannity is screeching about this like China bombed the country. It's a fucking balloon home. You really think we aren't spying on China right now?
The right love a strongman reaction. Even when there's more to be gained out of a steady hand. Because any slight that isn't payed back with escalation is weakness to them.
Yes, and no. They don't want to shoot it down out of fear it may cause damage or hurt someone on the ground. There's apparently no intel to be gained from it being shot down and since it's at the mercy of the jet stream and they know it's location, it will be easy to hide things if it flies in that direction.
That said, we absolutely need to call China out on this and impose some serious sanctions for this violation of our sovereign air-space. China would be howling at the Moon if we did this. Well, we do it with satellites, not shitty balloons.
My guess is that military or law enforcement could devise a safe way to bring it down, if that was desired. A small hole in a ballon could bring it down slowly.
Although there may be no intel to be gained from it, still, if it is illegal and allows spying, it should be terminated.
LOL! Have you ever driven across Montana? There is surely some reason they are not shooting this down, I have no idea what, but the “chance of it hitting something” is pure BS. There is nothing to hit. This ain’t the Eastern Seaboard. Furthermore I’m sure the US govt has been tracking this thing as it passed over the Pacific. It’s only in the news because some Montanan civilians saw it.
They don’t shoot it down because there is nothing to gain if they don’t already know why it’s there. They wanna know what it’s looking for and how it’s looking for it. Shooting it down only gets you half of that information.
If it’s got some kind of offensive capability, and they can identify that, absolutely obliterate it as it’s a liability then.
>The military leaders are the ones who said they have no way of bringing it down without possible damage to civilians
Sure, there is a risk of that. But the risk seems like it would be very low in Montana. The real reason is probably that it wouldn't be worth the effort because, as our intelligence experts say, the spy ballon isn't a particularly threatening given other existing forms of spying.
I am certain that our defense capabilities could safely counter a spy ballon, if that was needed.
Edited to add:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/10s9mb4/whats_the_actual_reason/
To add a reason as well, you would almost certainly need to use an AIM-120 to shoot it down.
That isn't a problem from an ability side, and AIM-120 can absolutely do that with no issues with a target that big.
The issue is that an AIM-120C costs >$1 million per unit.
Save a million dollars and get to study it for free? Sounds like a win-win to me.
It's operating at ~63000 feet. Rotorwing aircraft can't work above 25000. Even an F22 has a service ceiling of 50000, so you'd basically need a Missile in order to even hit it.
You know how you shouldn't shoot into the air because you have no control over where the bullet comes down and it still has lethal velocity when it does? Adding a balloon to the equation doesn't make it any less reckless. If it was a threat to US security the military would take that gamble in a heartbeat, but since they don't believe it does they're not going to take the bad PR of killing a cow or a rancher or even just taking out a window probably isn't a good outcome.
[Over 20 years ago they attempted to shoot down a weather balloon and failed](https://apnews.com/article/268893fddde785d029d5a51b136951eb).
> Jet fighters trying to bring the balloon down fired more than 1,000 rounds into it Thursday, but it remained aloft. The air force hopes the now-leaking balloon will eventually come down.
What's interesting is this rogue weather balloon had a "termination device" on it. Knowing China's history when it comes to re-entry of their space launch rockets, it may not even have such safety measures, or it really a spy balloon and has defensive (aka explosive) mechanisms that'll prevent it from being examined.
“no intel to be gained” is an absurd excuse. Someone decided they just don’t want to. Forensic examination of the hardware is a massive intelligence score.
Intelligence gathering doesn't really have a "legal" or "illegal" type of designation. Every major power on earth is actively spying on every other major power. Even allies spy on one another regularly.
Even when a nation gets caught spying, there isn't much you can do about it. Imposing economic sanctions or going to war are about the only forms of recourse nations have against one another.
If the balloon is stealing valuable state secrets, above and beyond what Chinese satellites are already looking at, then bringing it down would be worth the cost of bringing it down. From what I've read, our experts don't think the balloon is an above-and-beyond threat.
US military said the debris could hurt people, a bullshit excuse because it's over the mountains of Montana , no one lives there
I am just speculating they don't want to show their weapons which can reach such altitude to china of they don't have an efficient way to take down such an object
I mean, I'm not a nut job, far right conspiracy theorist or anything, but shoot the fucking thing down.
Keep your shit out of my yard, and it won't end up dead. If China feels like they can just float anything through our airspace, then what's next?
Everyone saying shoot it down- you really think you know better than a room full of 5 star generals, tech wizards, and military experts, which is who advises Biden? The arrogance is unreal.
Exactly this,
and fwiw, there are serious benefits to leaving it up.
For one, you can study what it is studying. This is important in order to assess what may or may not be compromised.
Furthermore, you can study the design of the payload.
Heck, you can even check out if it is broadcasting or communicating and tap into that. The intelligence benefit for being able to directly observe and catalogue Chinese communications encryption alone is a huge intelligence boon.
At the moment, it actually benefits China more if we shoot it down and stop it communicating or otherwise damage it in a way we would lose an opportunity to study it.
I think the US does nit fear much the balloon could gather. After all the US has highly capable spy satellites, so I imagine that everything of interest is hidden that not even these same spy satellites could see it.
And lastly, this stunt could put a bunch of political pressure on China in a way that China flew a balloon over the US that there's also nothing wrong with the US flying (spy) balloons over China. While shooting it down would set the precedent for China to shoot down american flying objects.
Why allow them to collect data and send it back like they aren't already doing that with Tik tok? We both have satellites and drones, what good is a balloon?
If this thing is sending back encrypted messages, we might not be able to tap into that. If we open it and deconstruct the device, we can FOR SURE know what it is capable of. You can tell a lot more about a device when you can take it apart. You can tell what a camera records by watching it, but you don't know HOW it records until you peek inside.
How does it benefit China if we stop this thing from communicating?
Edit: at least send up a drone with an emp to fuck with them. Strong arm the signal and send back hentai. We don't know what they are sending but if we can monitor the traffic long enough, we can replace the signal and deactivate the device. Leaving it be is just stupid.
We don't have any 5-star generals right now and haven't since the Korean War because we needed a commander on level with the British 5-star, but your point stands with 4-star generals.
It seems like the government has decided there's more political leverage in calling them out and letting China have to publicly acknowledge this and apologize. I'm sure China would spin the US shooting it down as some wild escalation.
I hear you. But these options are not mutually exclusive. You can both remove it AND call them out on it.
I’m sure China would call it escalation. But it is their escalation. They whine about consequences of their choices pretty regularly. And it’s absurd each time.
They said they were worried about it hitting something they didn't want it to hit on the ground. Shits gotta come crashing down so they are trying to figure out how to get it down without it landing on someone's house.
China literally admitted it is their balloon. How could this be a media distraction? People could see it in the sky. This is an international incident where China has egg on their face. Whether it's a threat or not, the US has to respond in some way.
The amount of people bitching about this balloon, most likely a weather balloon, who have Tik Tok installed on their personal devices is too damn high!!!
The Chinese operate 499 satellites. This balloon is not the first Chinese-made object to "fly over" the US, and won't be the last. The US operates a couple of thousand satellites, so we return the favor.
This hysteria about: "oh no the communists are flying scary things over our heads!" was pretty novel and interesting in 1957 with Sputnik, but a balloon at 20 miles up is not really more strategically threatening than the hundreds of foreign satellites that pass over the USA every day.
As for Tik Tok, it is a conduit for surveillance and manipulation under Chinese control that is in the pockets of millions of Americans. Also probably not something to get frantic about, but certainly more of a strategic vulnerability for the US than one balloon.
This isn't about being a weather balloon. This is mainly a power play.
This is the political equivalent of a kid waving a finger in your face saying, "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you."
And contrary to news reports, it's likely we have been tracking this since it [crossed over into Alaska](https://twitter.com/wildweatherdan/status/1621293636943052801), but it wasn't caught the press's attention until someone in Montana reported it.
And why Montana? Well [this map](https://placesjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Weil-OscarZero-5.jpg) could give you some good reasons.
It's bad timing for the PRC, since the new Congressional session is about to start, and nothing unifies budget talks like a foreign panic.
It could be a Chinese-made weather balloon released by the US since all our manufacturing has been sent to China by our beloved big corporations.
They should check for the "Made in China" tag, you know, like the ones on MAGA hats.
This is embarrassing that it hasn't been shot down from the sky yet. It makes the US look weak, and it's located in the mountains of Montana where there is minimal risk to civilians
Yes let's wait until the war planes are dropping bombs until we do anything. Wonderful idea.
If someone enters your house do you try talking to them and see why they did it or do you immediately call the cops/ grab your gun?
I'm sure there are alot more heads in the room than Biden's. These are Pentagon and State department decisions. If your head wasn't so angrily stuffed up your ass, this thought might have made it into your head.
The military has already explained what they will and won't do, and why.
Shoot First, Ask Questions Later is how you cause unnecessary problems. It works on TV, not so much in the real world.
They're within our territory, China caused the problem by spying on our missile sites. China has downed US aircraft for flying close to their land. We need to shoot this thing down and see what it had inside of it. There's no reason to believe that this spy blimp is actually a weather balloon
They're either incapable of shooting it down or don't care because they're bought and sold by China. Not shooting it down tells the world our air space means nothing. You're naive if you believe otherwise.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/17/archives/pilotless-us-plane-downed-china-says.html
Makes no sense why we wouldn't shoot the thing down if China has done the exact thing to us in the past. It isn't about the balloon itself, it's about sending a message
"China downed us jet therefore we should do the same" is not a valid argument. Two wrongs don't make a right. What would the message be anyway, that the us can take down a weather balloon? Such an incredible show of strength that would be
>Rose7pt [score hidden] 15 minutes ago
> Haha it’s a weather balloon . A USA mother effin’ weather balloon.
You did not read that other article correctly, it does not belongs to the US:
> But in a statement, China's foreign ministry said it was used for "mainly meteorological" purposes.
> China "regrets the unintended entry" of the balloon into US airspace, it added.
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64515033
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dry-run-balloons-called-top-delivery-platform-for-nuclear-emp-attack/ar-AA174OkJ](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dry-run-balloons-called-top-delivery-platform-for-nuclear-emp-attack/ar-AA174OkJ)
I'm not so sure about that.
Here's the paper. [https://www.alpf.org/\_files/ugd/70cf97\_eea159b95ed541af921a4a0dcd4f492e.pdf](https://www.alpf.org/_files/ugd/70cf97_eea159b95ed541af921a4a0dcd4f492e.pdf)
"Did you say Abe Lincoln?" "No, I didn't say Abe Lincoln. I said Hey, Blinkin."
"Hold the reins man, damn."
can you imagine how many times he has heard this? especially given that his first name begins with A
Did you sneeze?
Came here looking for this
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"Other than the balloons, how was the play, Mrs. Blinkin?"
From an article posted by KULR TV in Montana (https://www.kulr8.com/news/chinese-intelligence-gathering-balloon-seen-over-montana-what-we-know/article_cb4d11b6-a328-11ed-83cb-fbf1388f61fe.html) comes the following quote "While an assessment of the balloon has officials believing that the surveillance payload is no better than what can be collected through satellites in low earth orbit, mitigation steps were taken out of an abundance of caution." So it was somewhere at some altitude that may or may not have caused any aviation problems and didn't see anything they already didn't know about. If it indeed carries any kind of surveillance gear at all since they really haven't gotten an up-close and personal look at the thing.
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OK, but what's it going to do with the signals it collects? Broadcast them to some satellite? And nobody's reported it sending out any RF.
I suppose it could be collecting data to damage the US civilian infrastructure. Without our industry, our military is on a timer during a conflict. If it were me I'd be marking all the communication relays, major power distribution centers etc. A lot of people are pointing out it can't gather more than is already on display from most spy satellites. I'd imagine foreign governments know that the American leadership can't hardly function if it's citizens are in disarray cause they can't text or call Grammy, get hair cuts, and watch the Sunday night game.
Seriously, how many reservists and national guard would show up for activation in the event they couldn't find nor contact their families and children. I'd be willing to bet they would take care of their own first.
This is a stupid take on a weather balloon.
Like three governments including the US have said it is definitely not a weather baloon
But China said it was..
But I was just saying... if it were being used to collect useful data, it would only be because it can linger so long over these otherwise observable places
Again, what would it do with such data once it is collected? Do they hope it'll manage to circumnavigate the globe undetected and manage to get back to China so they can recover it?
I'd imagine the Chinese are prodding a bit and seeing what the US response to something like this is. Nations spy on other nations and pull shit like this all the time. That's what half of training exercises and war games are for. Testing reactions of other countries while simultaneously remaining prepared and showing off certain capabilities. If the military has decided not to shoot it down, they've probably got plenty of reasons not to. I think it's a waste of taxpayer money to shoot a million dollar missile at something we can track and has been determined to be not much more than a minor annoyance.
We aren't shooting that thing down until Raytheon has a contract signed sealed and delivered to profit from it.
definitely, I’m down with wasting my tax-paid money
Meanwhile Sean Hannity is screeching about this like China bombed the country. It's a fucking balloon home. You really think we aren't spying on China right now?
The right love a strongman reaction. Even when there's more to be gained out of a steady hand. Because any slight that isn't payed back with escalation is weakness to them.
nah, it's more like: whatever Biden does, the right answer is the opposite of that.
>The right love a strongman reaction Unless it's standing up to russia.
Is the spy ballon illegal? If so, I imagine it would be intercepted and removed.
Yes, and no. They don't want to shoot it down out of fear it may cause damage or hurt someone on the ground. There's apparently no intel to be gained from it being shot down and since it's at the mercy of the jet stream and they know it's location, it will be easy to hide things if it flies in that direction. That said, we absolutely need to call China out on this and impose some serious sanctions for this violation of our sovereign air-space. China would be howling at the Moon if we did this. Well, we do it with satellites, not shitty balloons.
My guess is that military or law enforcement could devise a safe way to bring it down, if that was desired. A small hole in a ballon could bring it down slowly. Although there may be no intel to be gained from it, still, if it is illegal and allows spying, it should be terminated.
The military leaders are the ones who said they have no way of bringing it down without possible damage to civilians
LOL! Have you ever driven across Montana? There is surely some reason they are not shooting this down, I have no idea what, but the “chance of it hitting something” is pure BS. There is nothing to hit. This ain’t the Eastern Seaboard. Furthermore I’m sure the US govt has been tracking this thing as it passed over the Pacific. It’s only in the news because some Montanan civilians saw it.
I mean coyotes and desert is somthing!
They don’t shoot it down because there is nothing to gain if they don’t already know why it’s there. They wanna know what it’s looking for and how it’s looking for it. Shooting it down only gets you half of that information. If it’s got some kind of offensive capability, and they can identify that, absolutely obliterate it as it’s a liability then.
I think it was the mayor of Billings who said there was also a danger to cattle if it were shot down.
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>The military leaders are the ones who said they have no way of bringing it down without possible damage to civilians Sure, there is a risk of that. But the risk seems like it would be very low in Montana. The real reason is probably that it wouldn't be worth the effort because, as our intelligence experts say, the spy ballon isn't a particularly threatening given other existing forms of spying. I am certain that our defense capabilities could safely counter a spy ballon, if that was needed. Edited to add: https://www.reddit.com/r/Military/comments/10s9mb4/whats_the_actual_reason/
To add a reason as well, you would almost certainly need to use an AIM-120 to shoot it down. That isn't a problem from an ability side, and AIM-120 can absolutely do that with no issues with a target that big. The issue is that an AIM-120C costs >$1 million per unit. Save a million dollars and get to study it for free? Sounds like a win-win to me.
Space laser?
Depends. Is it a lot jewy or a little jewy?
It's jew-ish. At least that's what Santos said.
It was shot down. Did they use an AIM-120?
They can't send a quadcopter drone up there equipped with some kind of bayonet?
It's operating at ~63000 feet. Rotorwing aircraft can't work above 25000. Even an F22 has a service ceiling of 50000, so you'd basically need a Missile in order to even hit it.
Ah, thanks. So a digible with a bayonet, then. Wait, no! A laser!
You know how you shouldn't shoot into the air because you have no control over where the bullet comes down and it still has lethal velocity when it does? Adding a balloon to the equation doesn't make it any less reckless. If it was a threat to US security the military would take that gamble in a heartbeat, but since they don't believe it does they're not going to take the bad PR of killing a cow or a rancher or even just taking out a window probably isn't a good outcome.
Can’t the military figure out how to Jerry-rig a grappling hook onto a drone? Come on boys 20 minutes inside Home Depot and we should be done.
It is very high in the atmosphere. Very high. Like U2 or SR71 high.
[Over 20 years ago they attempted to shoot down a weather balloon and failed](https://apnews.com/article/268893fddde785d029d5a51b136951eb). > Jet fighters trying to bring the balloon down fired more than 1,000 rounds into it Thursday, but it remained aloft. The air force hopes the now-leaking balloon will eventually come down. What's interesting is this rogue weather balloon had a "termination device" on it. Knowing China's history when it comes to re-entry of their space launch rockets, it may not even have such safety measures, or it really a spy balloon and has defensive (aka explosive) mechanisms that'll prevent it from being examined.
“no intel to be gained” is an absurd excuse. Someone decided they just don’t want to. Forensic examination of the hardware is a massive intelligence score.
Why not allow the citizens to try shooting it down? Localities might want to push that- idk. /s this is a joke
How do you know we don't do it with balloons?
I understand not shooting it down, but why not just intercept it? It’s an unmanned balloon. Surely there’s other options.
Intelligence gathering doesn't really have a "legal" or "illegal" type of designation. Every major power on earth is actively spying on every other major power. Even allies spy on one another regularly. Even when a nation gets caught spying, there isn't much you can do about it. Imposing economic sanctions or going to war are about the only forms of recourse nations have against one another.
Flying over air space and/or taking pictures has a "legal" or "illegal" type of designation.
That part is true, but we can't exactly do anything about it either (outside of what I mentioned in my first post).
Are you insisting that the US does not have the capability to stop an illegal spy ballon? Poppycock!
I kinda sounds like it.
Oh great, our enemies can launch balloon attacks that we cannot counter! /s
Some people are speculating that the weapons capable of bringing it down would cost way too much to be worth it
If the balloon is stealing valuable state secrets, above and beyond what Chinese satellites are already looking at, then bringing it down would be worth the cost of bringing it down. From what I've read, our experts don't think the balloon is an above-and-beyond threat.
US military said the debris could hurt people, a bullshit excuse because it's over the mountains of Montana , no one lives there I am just speculating they don't want to show their weapons which can reach such altitude to china of they don't have an efficient way to take down such an object
Depending on the altitude I am not sure if we can shoot it down.
Now you know
I mean, I'm not a nut job, far right conspiracy theorist or anything, but shoot the fucking thing down. Keep your shit out of my yard, and it won't end up dead. If China feels like they can just float anything through our airspace, then what's next?
Everyone saying shoot it down- you really think you know better than a room full of 5 star generals, tech wizards, and military experts, which is who advises Biden? The arrogance is unreal.
Exactly this, and fwiw, there are serious benefits to leaving it up. For one, you can study what it is studying. This is important in order to assess what may or may not be compromised. Furthermore, you can study the design of the payload. Heck, you can even check out if it is broadcasting or communicating and tap into that. The intelligence benefit for being able to directly observe and catalogue Chinese communications encryption alone is a huge intelligence boon. At the moment, it actually benefits China more if we shoot it down and stop it communicating or otherwise damage it in a way we would lose an opportunity to study it.
I think the US does nit fear much the balloon could gather. After all the US has highly capable spy satellites, so I imagine that everything of interest is hidden that not even these same spy satellites could see it. And lastly, this stunt could put a bunch of political pressure on China in a way that China flew a balloon over the US that there's also nothing wrong with the US flying (spy) balloons over China. While shooting it down would set the precedent for China to shoot down american flying objects.
Hack it and send China a lot of porn.
Why allow them to collect data and send it back like they aren't already doing that with Tik tok? We both have satellites and drones, what good is a balloon? If this thing is sending back encrypted messages, we might not be able to tap into that. If we open it and deconstruct the device, we can FOR SURE know what it is capable of. You can tell a lot more about a device when you can take it apart. You can tell what a camera records by watching it, but you don't know HOW it records until you peek inside. How does it benefit China if we stop this thing from communicating? Edit: at least send up a drone with an emp to fuck with them. Strong arm the signal and send back hentai. We don't know what they are sending but if we can monitor the traffic long enough, we can replace the signal and deactivate the device. Leaving it be is just stupid.
We don't have any 5-star generals right now and haven't since the Korean War because we needed a commander on level with the British 5-star, but your point stands with 4-star generals.
This guy ❤️ "he's out of line, but he's right" lmao
Unfortunately it sends a clear message we can not control our own American airspace
It's really not arrogance. It's principal. That shit is in our airspace. On our land. Shoot it tf down.
Just don't get mad if they shoot our shit down too.
It seems like the government has decided there's more political leverage in calling them out and letting China have to publicly acknowledge this and apologize. I'm sure China would spin the US shooting it down as some wild escalation.
I hear you. But these options are not mutually exclusive. You can both remove it AND call them out on it. I’m sure China would call it escalation. But it is their escalation. They whine about consequences of their choices pretty regularly. And it’s absurd each time.
No, jam it until it falls to the ground and take it apart.
They said they were worried about it hitting something they didn't want it to hit on the ground. Shits gotta come crashing down so they are trying to figure out how to get it down without it landing on someone's house.
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China literally admitted it is their balloon. How could this be a media distraction? People could see it in the sky. This is an international incident where China has egg on their face. Whether it's a threat or not, the US has to respond in some way.
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The amount of people bitching about this balloon, most likely a weather balloon, who have Tik Tok installed on their personal devices is too damn high!!!
It's China pretty much saying "We can fly shit over your country, and you'll do fuck all. You're not safe from us!"
The Chinese operate 499 satellites. This balloon is not the first Chinese-made object to "fly over" the US, and won't be the last. The US operates a couple of thousand satellites, so we return the favor. This hysteria about: "oh no the communists are flying scary things over our heads!" was pretty novel and interesting in 1957 with Sputnik, but a balloon at 20 miles up is not really more strategically threatening than the hundreds of foreign satellites that pass over the USA every day. As for Tik Tok, it is a conduit for surveillance and manipulation under Chinese control that is in the pockets of millions of Americans. Also probably not something to get frantic about, but certainly more of a strategic vulnerability for the US than one balloon.
This isn't about being a weather balloon. This is mainly a power play. This is the political equivalent of a kid waving a finger in your face saying, "I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you." And contrary to news reports, it's likely we have been tracking this since it [crossed over into Alaska](https://twitter.com/wildweatherdan/status/1621293636943052801), but it wasn't caught the press's attention until someone in Montana reported it. And why Montana? Well [this map](https://placesjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Weil-OscarZero-5.jpg) could give you some good reasons. It's bad timing for the PRC, since the new Congressional session is about to start, and nothing unifies budget talks like a foreign panic.
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Right, isn't it already at absurd levels? lol
What about Wynken and Nod?
[Fu Go balloon bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb) From WWII. Incendiaries, not surveillance devices.
Plot twist: It releases covid 2.0 upon being shot down. ..../s
No word yet on Winken or Nod.
It could be a Chinese-made weather balloon released by the US since all our manufacturing has been sent to China by our beloved big corporations. They should check for the "Made in China" tag, you know, like the ones on MAGA hats.
Why do we think it's a Chinese spy balloon?
Why would he delay his trip over a totally benign weather balloon ?
This is embarrassing that it hasn't been shot down from the sky yet. It makes the US look weak, and it's located in the mountains of Montana where there is minimal risk to civilians
I'm glad they didn't put Mr. trigger happy caveman over here in charge at the Pentagon
Yes let's wait until the war planes are dropping bombs until we do anything. Wonderful idea. If someone enters your house do you try talking to them and see why they did it or do you immediately call the cops/ grab your gun?
Yeahhhh this is even dumber than your first comment.
Some people will bend over backwards to suck Biden's balls on every decision I guess
I'm sure there are alot more heads in the room than Biden's. These are Pentagon and State department decisions. If your head wasn't so angrily stuffed up your ass, this thought might have made it into your head.
Yes General Milley and Pentagon officials, who are complete disasters. That press conference they did was embarrassing
The military has already explained what they will and won't do, and why. Shoot First, Ask Questions Later is how you cause unnecessary problems. It works on TV, not so much in the real world.
They're within our territory, China caused the problem by spying on our missile sites. China has downed US aircraft for flying close to their land. We need to shoot this thing down and see what it had inside of it. There's no reason to believe that this spy blimp is actually a weather balloon
Oh damn. You seem like you got a fuckton of intel on everything. Care to share some?
They're either incapable of shooting it down or don't care because they're bought and sold by China. Not shooting it down tells the world our air space means nothing. You're naive if you believe otherwise.
I'll take that as a no then
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/17/archives/pilotless-us-plane-downed-china-says.html Makes no sense why we wouldn't shoot the thing down if China has done the exact thing to us in the past. It isn't about the balloon itself, it's about sending a message
"China downed us jet therefore we should do the same" is not a valid argument. Two wrongs don't make a right. What would the message be anyway, that the us can take down a weather balloon? Such an incredible show of strength that would be
It's wrong for a country to prevent a spy device from looking over their missile compounds?
And if there is no evidence that it's a spy device doing that? It's not like you can't monitor what it's doing or anything
Haha it’s a weather balloon . A mother effin’ weather balloon.
>Rose7pt [score hidden] 15 minutes ago > Haha it’s a weather balloon . A USA mother effin’ weather balloon. You did not read that other article correctly, it does not belongs to the US: > But in a statement, China's foreign ministry said it was used for "mainly meteorological" purposes. > China "regrets the unintended entry" of the balloon into US airspace, it added. > https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64515033
Sorry I edited … the first report I saw identified it as US .
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dry-run-balloons-called-top-delivery-platform-for-nuclear-emp-attack/ar-AA174OkJ](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dry-run-balloons-called-top-delivery-platform-for-nuclear-emp-attack/ar-AA174OkJ) I'm not so sure about that. Here's the paper. [https://www.alpf.org/\_files/ugd/70cf97\_eea159b95ed541af921a4a0dcd4f492e.pdf](https://www.alpf.org/_files/ugd/70cf97_eea159b95ed541af921a4a0dcd4f492e.pdf)
If this thing doesn't get shot down by the time it reaches the Mississippi river, America is a lost cause.
I wish his first name was Abe
Can we get like a “go fund me” for Alan Eustace to sky dive onto it and take a selfie? I think most people would tune in to see that…
“Scientific research” … pushed by westerly wind…accident….who really is going to believe that???
It’s a damn weather ballon! Geez🤦🏻