Chinese Spy Balloon Invades US Airspace.

[Infidel Dog]

How worried should we be about this?

https://apnews.com/article/politics-antony-blinken-china-314302278a5f05bdc2df146ed5b35ec6

The Chinese say "Nothing to worry about. It's a private weather balloon blown off course."

First of all to believe anything in China is "private" you'd need to be impossibly naïve. 

Secondly the timing of this unusual and might make one curious. Right about the time China is making angry intrusions into Taiwan air space signaling the possibility of invasion here come the weather balloons all of a sudden blowing in over America.

What's also curious is apparently the weather watching winds have settled down leaving the balloon hovering over a missile site in Montana. 

So is it more a warning from China. Stay out of Taiwan?

Some say don't be such a nervous Nellie. The Chinese have satellites to monitor sensitive sites.

But balloons can hover and watch. Satellites zip overhead.

Also balloons have been used to deliver ordinance in the past. Today there's the danger EMP attacks. Apparently high hovering Balloons would be ideal for that.

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fnews%2Fwashington-secrets%2Fballoons-called-top-delivery-platform-for-nuclear-emp-attack

And now there's a second balloon moving in over Canada.

https://www.barrons.com/news/canada-says-potential-second-incident-linked-to-spy-balloon-01675402508

[Legato]

Why is a Chinese blimp flying over Montana, it's to cold for PGA golf right now.

[Infidel Dog]

Is this unique? Has it ever happened before? 

[Michael Hardner]

39 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said:

Is this unique? Has it ever happened before? 

Good question.

 

I doubt it.  But I will ask this: what is unique about this incident, at least in recent times ?

[Moonbox]

Shoot it down.  

[Aristides]

2 hours ago, Infidel Dog said:

Is this unique? Has it ever happened before? 

Japan sent fire balloons across during WW2. The jet stream is perfect for sending stuff from Asia to North America. A good forecast could give a good indication of its probable route before you even launched it.

[herbie]

13 minutes ago, Aristides said:

Japan sent fire balloons across during WW2. The jet stream is perfect for sending stuff from Asia to North America. A good forecast could give a good indication of its probable route before you even launched it.

Yeah and that was SO effective wasn't it? SPY balloon my ass. Might as well put cameras on a wasp or hornet they're about as steerable and predictable as a balloon.

[Aristides]

14 minutes ago, herbie said:

Yeah and that was SO effective wasn't it? SPY balloon my ass. Might as well put cameras on a wasp or hornet they're about as steerable and predictable as a balloon.

It is thought the purpose of the balloon isn't to take pictures but electronic surveillance, including cell phone traffic. 

 

On edit. Looking at the current jet stream, in a few days it could wind up over Germany, Poland and eastern Europe.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Aristides

[athos]

 

Another Anglo paranoia. It was nothing else but kids Balloon for elementary school project

?

Edited February 4, 2023 by athos

[Infidel Dog]

Or...

[Infidel Dog]

Tin Foiler says...

Dry run for an EMP with a hidden bioweapon payload if it gets shot down.

All I know is this wouldn't be happening if Trump was in power.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said:

Tin Foiler says...

Dry run for an EMP with a hidden bioweapon payload if it gets shot down.

All I know is this wouldn't be happening if Trump was in power.

I don't know so much.  It's difficult to know exactly what Putin would have had him do about it.

[Infidel Dog]

Trump

Ah ahhh...

Saviour of the universe.

 

[Moonlight Graham]

We're being invaded by balloons.  Its like that movie Red Dawn.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, Moonlight Graham said:

We're being invaded by balloons.  Its like that movie Red Dawn.

No, it's like "The Prisoner".

 

[Dougie93]

23 hours ago, Infidel Dog said:

Also balloons have been used to deliver ordinance in the past. Today there's the danger EMP attacks. Apparently high hovering Balloons would be ideal for that.

the LGM-30 Miniuteman III silos are not concealed

the TRIAD is hardened against EMP

EMP would not effect the LGM-30 ICBM in its silo

to disable a Minuteman III in its silo requires a direct hit at ground level by a 1 megaton yield thermonuclear warhead

for the Chinese to initiate an EMP or other type of attack over a Strategic Missile Wing, could incite Launch on Warning

which would be suicidal on the part of the Chinese, with 450 Minuteman III's inbound on a 30 minute flight trajectory

[Dougie93]

22 hours ago, Infidel Dog said:

Is this unique? Has it ever happened before? 

it's like a meme in nostalgia for the Sputnik panic of 1957

Cold War 2.0 hysteria in full effect

the public being whipped up into a frenzy by the media for World War Three

Balance of Terror

[Dougie93]

On 2/3/2023 at 1:23 PM, Infidel Dog said:

Some say don't be such a nervous Nellie.

I would say it is rational to be concerned over any significant change in the geostrategic worldwide situation

but I don't think the Chinese actually have the capability to launch a preemptive counterforce against the CONUS

only the Russians have the numbers of warheads & submarines to pull that off

in the event of Chinese surprise attack, I would expect something more grey area, in the Western Pacific

not even taking Taiwan, but rather seizing all the smaller Islands that are in dispute in the South China Sea

at which point, the country China would most likely be at immediate war with, would be Vietnam

World War Three would start as a Sino-Vietnamese territorial conflict, Communist vs Communist

which then escalated into a theatre war, and then further lateral escalation from there

the aggressor in a Hegemonic war will try to win the war in phases

they can't win against everyone at once, they can't win a multi front war

so they start by trying to take down easy targets at the margins

the Kaiser invades Belgium, expecting that the British will stay out of the war

the Japanese invade China, not expecting the Americans to go to war against them for China

Hitler starts small, simply by taking back the Rhineland, tentatively

rather than going for broke right out of the gate, you pick a target where you know you can win

one you have taken the target, you pause to see how your adversaries react

if they don't go to war on the spot, then you've called their bluff

at which point you move on to the next phase, the next most vulnerable target

and again, the chief adversary to the Chinese in the South China Sea, is their arch nemesis Vietnam

Edited February 4, 2023 by Dougie93

[Infidel Dog]

Then there's this:

Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think

[Dougie93]

26 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said:

Then there's this:

Busting That Chinese Spy Balloon Is Harder Than You Think

the Chinese story seems the most plausible, weather balloon straying into airspace unintentionally

but now that they are seeing the kind of hysteria it is inciting with the media

perhaps they should just go with it, consider it a successful psyop discovered by accident

just keep sending the mysterious balloons, and watch how NORAD reacts to them

in fact, if you wanted to use these balloons in some sort of surprise attack

first you would want people to get used to them, make it into a routine

eventually the adversary lets his guard down, and only then do you launch the attack

Edited February 4, 2023 by Dougie93

[Dougie93]

On 2/3/2023 at 1:23 PM, Infidel Dog said:

Today there's the danger EMP attacks.

an Electromagnetic Pulse attack is achieved by detonating a thermonuclear warhead high in the Ionosphere

the EMP effect is targeting civilian infrastructure over a very wide area, continent wide

to achieve that, they'd have to detonate a thermonuclear warhead much higher than the balloon flies

like Operation Fishbowl,  Starfish Prime, 9 July 1962

which was 1.4 megatons at 400 kilometres above sea level

detonating a nuke at the altitude that the balloon is flying wouldn't achieve the EMP effect

it would be indistinguishable from a thermonuclear attack against the CONUS

which would just incite Launch on Warning retaliation

the way you do an EMP attack

is to go so high that the explosion isn't even directly over the CONUS when it detonates

an EMP attack would have to be indirect to achieve the desired effects against civilians without inciting retaliation

what America was trying to do in 1962 was actually defensive

the idea was to detonate nukes high in the Ionosphere to disable incoming Soviet ICBMs

you shoot the Thor missile way out over the Pacific, above Johnston Island

but at 400 kilometres straight up

this creates a radiation shield over the pole, frying the enemy missiles in space

this was the first nascent attempts to develop a "Star Wars" ballistic missile defense shield

the effect over a wide area was much greater than expected, so rather discovered by accident

Edited February 4, 2023 by Dougie93

[Iceni warrior]

3 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

U.S. fighter planes shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, Carolina Coast. 

Video:

 

 3 Afghan wedding balloons were also shot down.

[Infidel Dog]

13 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

U.S. fighter planes shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, Carolina Coast. 

Video:

 

So much for Forbes theory it would be difficult to take it down.

[Dougie93]

30 minutes ago, Iceni warrior said:

 3 Afghan wedding balloons were also shot down.

ha !

so it was never actually "hovering over Malstrom AFB Montana"

and NORAD was simply waiting for it to blow out to sea before shooting it down

so the gondola wouldn't end up crashing down in a populated area

if the Chinese Communists had a sense of humour

they would now send a dozen mysterious balloons

and watch in amusement how the media went hysterical over that

[Dougie93]

44 minutes ago, Infidel Dog said:

So much for Forbes theory it would be difficult to take it down.

if this is the hysterical reaction to just one stray weather balloon

imagine what it would be like in an actual crisis

imagine what it would be like to have the Cuban Missile Crisis, actual brink of thermonuclear war

in the age of the internet & surreal postmodern media

if there is a new danger, something not encountered in the First Cold War, I would suggest that is probably it

during the Cuban Missile Crisis

John Kennedy reportedly said to Ken O'Donnell

"the press is trying to get me to start World War Three"

Edited February 4, 2023 by Dougie93