Good day all. For the last few days, the United States military has been monitoring what looks like a weather balloon floating over the United States. It appears to have come from China and is loaded with electronics. It could be a weather balloon but many think it’s a spy craft of some sort.
It has been decades since anyone used balloons as spy tools. The advent of satellites pretty much made them obsolete, so when this one drifted in people were wondering “WTF, Over?” Here are the details from Fox News:
The U.S. government is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been moving over northern states over the past several days. Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing on Thursday afternoon that the U.S. government has detected a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental U.S.
“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now. The U.S. government to include Norad, continues to track and monitor it closely.
The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years.
Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said.
So what did they do to prevent the collection of classified information you ask? The correct answer would be to shoot the damn thing down. That isn’t what happened here.
The defense official said that the balloon was recently over Montana and that officials were considering bringing it down with military assets, but they decided against doing so because of the risks associated, adding that President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation and asked for military options.
“You did see reports yesterday of a ground stop at Billings Airport and the mobilization of a number of assets, including F-22. The context for that was that we put some things on station in the event that a decision was made to bring this down while it was over Montana. So, we wanted to make sure we were coordinating with civil authorities to empty out the airspace around that potential area. But even with those protective measures taken, it was the judgment of our military commanders that we didn’t drive the risk down low enough. So, we didn’t take the shot,” the official said.
They didn’t take the shot because they were afraid they might hit something on the ground? It’s over MONTANA! Unless it’s over a city, the only thing at risk would be an elk or a coyote. Personally, I think we know the real reason. Biden likes balloons.
According to the source, there’s more than just a balloon, and heavy equipment would come crashing to the ground if it were to be shot down, creating a large debris field.
So? You’re point is? Again, it’s over Montana. There isn’t anything there. It’s not like you need to hit it with a missile, just a couple of rounds from a cannon will do the trick, or you could fire a laser at it and let the gas out slowly. Sheez! Do I have to do all the thinking around here? Oh, wait. I forgot who we have “running” things.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting with senior Department of Defense leadership Wednesday to discuss the balloon, and it was decided not to take military action due to “the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field,” the official said. At the time, Austin was visiting Camp Navarro in the Philippines, which is around 2,000 miles from China.
How about this treasonous fool doing a little research? The Japanese during the War sent over hundreds of balloons armed with incendiary bombs on them. The idea was to start forest fires. The plan failed, although a family was killed when they stumbled on one of the balloons and not knowing what it was, set off the charges.
The senior defense official said that the government has been tracking the balloon for “some time” and said it entered U.S. airspace a “couple of days ago.”
Excuse me? You morons have been following this things for a while now and you didn’t shoot it down over the ocean? I think an explanation for that is in order.
While maintaining that the balloon doesn’t present a military threat to the U.S., the official said that it likely isn’t gathering any information of significant value to the People’s Republic of China.
“They’re trying to fly this balloon over sensitive sites, one of which was just mentioned to collect information,” the official said, adding that it’s not the first time that a balloon “of this nature” has been over the U.S.
And we’re just now finding out about this? I think there will be a few people who are not in the pay of the People’s Republic of China who are going to be asking the maladministration some very pointed questions. I suspect that this thing is doing signals interceptions since trying to use it for photographs of ground installations is pointless. (Satellites will do a better job)
At the very least, we must have something we can use to just flat out fry the electronics on that thing. (As I understand it, the radars on an Aegis cruiser from 40 years ago could do this by accident) I think what’s happening is simple. The Chinese called Biden and told him to do nothing or they would stop buying Hoovernose’s paint by numbers portraits.
One final thought. Since this came out on a Friday, and I haven’t done this for a while, do you know what day it is? Come on man! You know don’t you?
Thatisall
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...
~The Angry Webmaster~
They can’t shoot it down because it might land on someone. In the middle of Emptyfreekinnowhere, North Dakota, it might land on someone.
So why didn’t they shoot it down over the Pacific Ocean? It might land on a Russian spy trawler? Or a boatload of illegal drugs being smuggled into Canadia?
It’s not like it will explode like an H-bomb if they install some extra vent holes in the d*mn thing. Shoot it down! If it’s a simple errant weather balloon, return the pieces to the Chinese. Tell them shooting it down was as much an accident as their allowing it to drift over here in the first place.