Lotsa Bitchin' After Chinese Spy Balloon Found in Montana

[26C.Z968]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-rips-biden-suspected-chinese-spy-balloon-floating-us-call-strong-response

Republicans late Thursday tore into President Biden after
the Pentagon announced the discovery of a suspected Chinese
surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the U.S.
for the last few days, and some blamed the incident on Biden’s
weak foreign policy.

"How on Earth is Beijing Biden allowing a CCP military balloon
to fly freely over Montana?" tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.
"Biden is a feckless commander in chief."

The balloon’s discovery was announced just days before Secretary
of State Antony Blinken was set to meet with Chinese President
Xi Jinping, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said that meeting should
be scrapped in light of the discovery.

"Secretary Blinken should cancel his trip to China," Cotton
tweeted. "And President Biden must answer why he has not
secured U.S. airspace."

. . .

OK ... while it's NOT good to have Chinese spy balloons
hovering over us let's admit that they WOULD be extremely
hard to SPOT. Minimal radar/thermal sig plus there are
lots of civvie and weather balloons in the air every
day too. In short you just CAN'T micromanage a zillion
cubic miles of air for balloons 24/7/365.

Oh, and a balloon might possibly carry ONE short-range
rocket with a tac-nuke - but there's no POINT to one
little rocket. Passive signals intel is the better
use for such things.

So, while it LOOKS bad ... sorry, just nothin' much
to DO about it other than bitch at China.

Oh, if they cause THAT much political disruption then
NK will start sending dozens of them a month just to
stir things up :-)

[Mighty✅ Wannabe✅]

Useless American propaganda. Only Americans can say stupid shit like
that. China has satellites. No need to use balloons to spy on the US.

Besides, a balloon this size will show up on radar. Why would someone
"spy" on the US with a balloon??? So this is total American brainless
bullshit.

From the news photo, there appears to be some kind of solar panels at
the bottom of the balloon. There is no observable propulsion system, so
the balloon is drifting with the air current up there. Quite likely the
balloon is some kind of "weather balloon" project of some university
somewhere in the world.

[Frank]

This is picture of the balloon https://imgur.com/a/mdNfug9

[26C.Z968]

Actually low-altitude surveillance DOES still have
its place .... sats aren't good at everything.

>> Besides, a balloon this size will show up on radar. Why would someone
>> "spy" on the US with a balloon??? So this is total American brainless
>> bullshit.

Ultra-thin polyethylene or mylar will NOT show up
well on radar. And, as said, there are LOTS of
balloons up there every day.

To a degree I kinda believe the Chinese here ... there's
just NO way to really STEER such a balloon - so it winding
up over Montana is just a weather fluke.

It SEEMS that the thing WAS shot down - there are vids
of high-speed jets, followed by a boom in the sky and
a smoke streak coming down. We SHOULD shoot-down these
things - not so much for legit mil reasons but because
of territorial issues. Can't have ChiCom stuff floating
over us no matter what it's for. This smells of what's
going on in Taiwan - more and closer space violations
all the time - the camel's nose in the tent.

>>  From the news photo, there appears to be some kind of solar panels at
>> the bottom of the balloon. There is no observable propulsion system,
>> so the balloon is drifting with the air current up there. Quite likely
>> the balloon is some kind of "weather balloon" project of some
>> university somewhere in the world.
>>
>>
>>
>
> This is picture of the balloon  https://imgur.com/a/mdNfug9

It's a rather large and impressive balloon. Has enough
solar panels to power sat-com transmitters. If it IS
for spying it likely sat-phones home several times a day.

I see there's one over S.America now too ....

But then The Chinese mostly OWN S.America now already.