Chinese Surveillance Balloons
 

Launched from China and we noticed them over Montana!
Dry run? Embarrassing

Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States, Pentagon says | Reuters

Seems to me a couple of bullets from a jet fighter could have deflated the balloon.

Do you really think the feds announce things like that immediately upon discovery? I don’t think so.

Probably looking for land to buy around Yellowstone.

According to BBC report this morning, the balloon was tracked all the way from when it entered through Alaska, over Canada and into US.
Fighter jets were aloft in case it was required to be shot down.
The powers to be did not order it destroyed in case debris caused injury to people on ground.
Any information it gathered, was readily available via all the spy satellites already circling.
My theory is that Chinese were filming a sequel of "Around the world in 80 Days!"

it will be at the polo fields today.. part of the baloon fest

They may be giving North Korea ideas...

I don't get it. Can't they see the same things from satellite cameras?

Where is the balloon now?

Japan tried that in WW II. Not surveillance balloons but balloons with bombs attached. They launched 9,000 of them, presumably as reprisal for Doolittle's raid on Tokyo in 1942, and with very poor results considering the number launched. A lot of them never reached the mainland, though one got as far as Michigan. They caused a few fires, and some picnickers were killed in, I believe Oregon, when they found one and tried to pull it out of the woods.

Seems like a rather primitive way to gather intelligence on the part of China. Once launched those things go where the wind decides they should. I'm pretty sure China has a lot more reliable means of gathering data than with random balloons.

Over The Villages....live feed to the developer.

Replaced the Ladies with clipboards

Two words.

"Thought Police".

The last administration obtained how many patents from China and actually had personal bank accounts there

Totally agree. A feckless “response” by USA. How dare we simply allow China to do this? Now I hear there is one entering Canadian airspace.

What if this craft is releasing a variant of Covid or worse. Countless what if’s. Even if it’s simply a spy craft- why simply allow it to be up there???

What if WE released something like this into China???

The inaction speaks volumes, I’m embarrassed as a USA citizen.

If you manufacture in China, you MUST receive a patent for every product.

If you do any sort of business there, you MUST have a bank account there.

The accusation you're trying to make was a "holding account of $50K"... Basically sofa cushion change... And it was a BUSINESS account, not a PERSONAL account...

And it wasn't the "administration" that held anything. Most of those patents and the bank account were established years before there was a "last administration"...

But nice try at being political...

Far more likely to be a weather balloon

EXACTLY! This is probably just a trial run to see how we respond. It could be an EMP Weapon and take out ALL of our electronics. It could be a bio-weapon. Who knows. Not shooting it down is as stupid as it gets.

No worries it's just stationed over a area that we have nukes.

Nothing to see here says Press Secretary they're just air dropping the 10%.

Funny how foreign countries are getting so bold these days, I wonder why?

The government needs to declare a balloon hunting season starting today. Bubba and his buddy Billyray Joebob Johnboy will rent a Piper Cub and blow the balloon out of the sky. It'll attract even more hunters if there is a bounty on it. Think about it, a balloon skin rug.

That seems to be what our Govt. believes, and I think they should know.

Is not shooting it down as stupid as dropping it on an American home, car, or head?

It's harmless where it is but potentially harmful if it falls 16 miles.

What do you suggest, a big fan at the end of a 16 mile extension cord? Shoot a missile at it, hope the aim is good, and pray that there are no people at the end of the 16 mile drop?

Based on??? Why would China want weather info over Montana?

Where is our unmanned balloon brigade? Surely we have the capability to launch an entire flotilla of balloons from one our Western European allies to nearly aimlessly float over the old USSR gathering weather data and hoping to drift over something of interest that our satellites completely didn't see.

Those Chinese are so clever, but they should have sent a stealth balloon. This one was too easy to spot. And surely they didn't want to get data on upper Canada where the balloon could have drifted. And it will likely have a self destruct mode so we can't shoot it down once it crosses over the Atlantic seaboard. It might be carrying balloon mail with more love letters to American politicians who expressed admiration for their and their neighbor's dear leaders. The possibilities are just endless. Or maybe it really is a weather balloon. Somehow I think we will learn more in the next few days, or not.

And don't call me Surely.

It’s now over Missouri and headed East. I find it astonishing that our gvt is allowing this to happen. Back when it was over Montana they indicated it would be dangerous to shoot it down as it may hit public spaces …. Montana. Now Missouri and of course more populated areas. How stupid are we???? We meaning our leaders.

China is testing us and we are acting like a sweet pussycat. We must be like a tiger. But it’s now too late.

So, if we see ICBMs coming from them or Russia simply wait - they may be harmless… Purrr….

Is there a Villages club for learning Mandarin?

Just trying to get a leg up for when I get assigned to a re-education camp.

To count the missile silos.

We should steal the payload, and paint a big "moon" on it. Then let it slowly float back to China.

It would be better to paint a picture of Winnie the Pooh on it. President Xi is sensitive to the physical comparison.:D

What if ? If it is a sophisticated spy balloon it could have a self destruct mode to all data and equipment upon being shot down. Without a doubt the data has already been transmitted. We may gain more intelligence by leaving it intact and monitoring. Worse yet what if a self destruct mode releases who knows what in the process. I feel better when someone looks before they leap.

If the Russian had launched this balloon it would have been downed 10 miles off shore.

"It's harmless where it is ..."

"Where it is" is optimum for EMP detonation.

It may be headed to a state near you, Florida. I’ve looked at the current path.

What if it has an atom bomb on board or biological warfare? It’s ours now.

Not following the jet stream but operating under its own guidance system

Yeah and maybe it wants a shot at areas along the east coast. Creepy, eh?

another Chinese balloon is passing over Latin America!

Consider what is being said. A balloon the size of 3 buses with no visible evidence of propulsion, being able to guide itself across the country. No motors, no fuel and claimed to be able defy the jet stream. If that is true, there is some technology at play that would certainly be worth getting for a closer look.

Our military certainly has capability to observe the balloon, heat signature, movements verse wind direction. They could easily determine difference from weather balloons.

Bound to be more than we are being told.

It was over Montana and South Dakota! You could drop Rhode Island there and not hit anything...