Tit For Tat - Spy Balloons

[HARDCORE]

2-6-2023

China’s Low-Budget Spy Balloons, released to do flyovers atop “U.S. Territory”, are only the latest provocation from “A Nation” that is relatively low in technology - and massive in population and ambition! So is this really a provocation or was it merely just an attempt to orchestrate their own little form of “Spy v Spy Technology?”

So why is it, that we here, within “The United States of America” have always got to have an enemy, in one form or another – and is this what keeps us sharp, and on our feet?!
I mean, let’s get real people – we fly deep-space satellites, hundreds of miles over potential enemies daily, and they (in turn) fly “An overly inflated prophylactic over our heads” - and one that is at the mercy of “The Winds and Old Mother Nature Herself”, over our sovereign territory - so is this not considered almost an act of war! Of course, and I totally agree, ‘that no’ potentially-hostile foreign nation, has the inalienable right (or business) to overfly “Our Country” with a crappy-little inflatable satellite! But it seems to me that “Our Country – The Mighty United States of America”, could have, and should have, blown the damned thing out of the air - one helluva lot sooner than we actually did, and this in order to prevent the electronic-transmission of sensitive intelligence data back to “Red Chinese Assets” Which In My Opinion (Once Again) - Red China Probably Did (Or Was In The Process Of Doing)? So In short and in my personal opinion again, we probably should have ‘obliterated’ “That Damned Old, Wind-Up Red Satellite” - one helluva lot quicker than we actually did!!

Hardcore

[Boats]

HC - is dead on! China is getting a little ballsy of late thinking they can pull this
type of shit on the US. We have limits as to what can fly over or be within our
water limits & air space. But a balloon float with maybe some elements of gas
with whatever may also be in it - such as another virus - is unacceptable.
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Here too! The military should've shot this sucker down - when it crossed
into our water border limits - and then into our air space. What good is having
eye's in the sky when something like this comes into our air space?!
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Our military should've knock it down alot sooner and they know it - but
someone had to be given them the OK - with a let's watch it for now!
What!?
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This screw up won't go away - and its sure as hell needs a better
explanation - or reason - why it wasn't taken out - alot sooner!?
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They rattled our cage once again - and we did nothing - until it was
inland and over Canada & the US Territories. Uncle Sam needs a hair
washing and it's mind - as well.
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We are not on good terms with China - North Korea - Russia and
a few Middle Eastern countries - and who else? Guy's! whose calling
the shots! - is it our military - or Congress - or the White House?
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This crap doesn't smell good - nor does it look like it's in our best
interest (security and/or medical wise?) - is the U.S. really secure or
is it merely overlooking issues at times - such as this ballon incident!?
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We had better review our security measures of our waters, land
and our air space - and now - include balloon's (sad isn't it).
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Whose going to step up and say I was told to ignore this balloon
and by whose orders? We need to know!
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[Boats]

China’s Balloon May Have Taught Pentagon More Than Beijing Learned From It, Gen. Says
By: Paatick Tucker - Government Executive News: 02-07-23
Re: https://www.govexec.com/defense/2023...l-says/382657/

Still, NORAD’s chief says the U.S. military took “precautions,” including “non-kinetic effects.”

The recently-downed Chinese spy balloon may have sent more useful information to the Pentagon than to Beijing, U.S. military officials said Monday.

The weather balloon presented “a potential opportunity for us to collect intel where we had gaps on prior balloons,” and that could help NORAD more quickly detect future spy attempts, NORAD and NORTHCOM head Gen. Glen David VanHerck told reporters at the Pentagon.

Both the Pentagon and U.S. President Joe Biden drew much online outrage as they waited to fire on the balloon until it had safely passed over the United States and moved over open ocean.

On Monday, VanHerck reiterated what other officials said last week: the sensor package on the balloon offered China no better intelligence capabilities than their satellites and other means already possess.

“We did not assess that it presented a significant collection hazard beyond what already exists in actual technical means from the Chinese,” he said.

Simple physics explains why. Imaging satellites, whether hovering in geostationary orbit or zooming by in low earth orbit, can carry much larger telescopes than can a payload affixed to a balloon. While both a balloon and a satellite might be able to pick up radio transmissions from a sensitive military site, such as Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base, that communication would likely be encrypted anyway, James A. Flaten, an aerospace engineer at the University of Minnesota, told NPRs Geoff Brumfiel.

Since these sites are already visible to passing satellites and the balloon wasn’t able to stay overhead long enough to observe patterns of life, it’s hard to say what useful information it might have collected.

Still, VanHerck said, the Defense Department took “maximum protective measures while the balloon transited across the United States” to prevent intelligence collection.

That suggests the use of lasers or other forms of directed energy to essentially blind, or dazzle, the camera lens on the balloon. VanHerck said he would not comment on the “non-kinetic effects” they used to limit intelligence collection until he had spoken to Congress.

The decision to delay shooting down the balloon while it was crossing over the United States was met with anger from some lawmakers and right-wing pundits. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called it a “disastrous projection of weakness by the White House,” in a statement.

But VanHerck said the wait was worth it, not only for the sake of safety but also to gather more intelligence about the balloon itself.

“You always have to balance [the act of shooting down] with the intel-gain opportunity,” he said. “And so there was a potential opportunity for us to collect intel where we had gaps on prior balloons. And so I would defer to the intel community, but this gave us the opportunity to assess what [the Chinese] were actually doing, what kind of capabilities existed on the balloon, what kind of transmission capabilities exist on it and I think you'll see in the future that that timeframe was well worth its value to collect.”

The recovery mission now moves ahead off the U.S. coast—specifically, the vicinity of the splashdown near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. On station are the dock landing ship Carter Hall, the oceanographic survey ship Pathfinder, Coast Guard vessels, and several unmanned underwater vehicles. VanHerck said that the underwater debris field was perhaps 1,500 meters square. The balloon itself was 200 feet tall with a payload the size of a regional jet and weighing perhaps 2,000 pounds, but the vast majority of that payload was solar panels to power the equipment on board, he said.
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Personal note: Why is it always after the fact!?
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