Breaking News US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon
- Thread starter Robovski
- Start date
In theory, yes.
In practice, you have to consider who exactly do you replace them with, and how does the public respond as well as your own party and donors.
The already blurry line between flag officer and politician is only getting less clear with time, and the pretense the DoD forces on soldiers that they are an 'apolitical organization' is a farce that exists for PR reasons more than anything.
The officer-to-consultant/private contractor in the MIC/politician pipeline and teh old boys clubs it fosters, has always existed, will always exist, and trying to pretend it doesn't is only forced on the meat of the DoD and populace by rigid propaganda and taboo of mentioning the farce of an 'apolitical military' for what it is.
Will we now be able find out what Chicomery they might've been up to?
DarthOne
☦️
Assuming the salt water didn’t mess it up
Megadeath
Well-known member
Assuming the salt water got in.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
It had a missile detonate maybe a dozen feet away. The odds that any watertight seal could survive the shockwave that would generate, even if there was somehow zero shrapnel involved, is highly unlikely.
Megadeath
Well-known member
The balloon was apparently 200ft tall, and the missile seemed to hit pretty close to centre of mass or even towards the top. Which would make sense for IR targeting on a balloon at high altitude. The instrumentation was also dangling significant distance below the balloon. Where do you get "maybe a dozen feet away" from?
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
You must have watched very different footage than everybody else. We pretty clearly see the big burst of black smoke from the missile exploding directly on top of the instrument package, not the center or top of the envelope.
Impact of the missile (closeup) starts at 21 seconds.
Buba
A total creep
Are ... are ... [wobbly lip] the whales and Greta Thunberg safe?!?
I have no idea what that means - what's that in square metres? Can be in ars or hectares.
No "x no. of swimming pools" or other such nonsense either, please.
A football field is about 1.32 arces, so...
Buba
A total creep
Thanks! We are getting somewhere
So, fifteen times a bit over an acre - 20 acres ("close eenuf fer gov'mint werk!").
2,5 acres is a hectare - so, 8 hectares, more or less.
Wheee!
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History Learner
Well-known member
I've been consistently arguing against the alleged military superiority of the U.S. Armed Forces and how the capabilities of countries like China were being stupidly dismissed for awhile now, but for Beijing to cuck us this hard with a balloon was something I didn't have on my bingo card. Absolutely insane, and it's reflected in how disjointed the copes attempting to explain this away are.
I think someone is playing games and testing our responses.
Two biggest suspects are Russia and China.
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
More like, after the recent poor press they received, military has to actually deal with various balloons instead of just presuming that no one will ever notice them.
Alright.
Does anybody here except @The Whispering Monk know anything about the possibilities of why we didn't shoot it down earlier?
I can explain it this way.
If you know they are doing something. And you can gain something of value, then why not take advantage of it by feeding false information as well as potentially jamming it...
Army Cyber and NSA is diffrent from FORSCOM.
Also, for those wondering what gets disclosed to the president. The way things works is this.
Joe smoe analyst sees something. Makes a report. It gets sent up based on the PIRs of the commander, and his commander and so forth.
It is up to thr CJCS and the big generals of all branches to disclose that information to him.
They do not have too.
There is only one case where they have to and it is oh shit oh shit. Bad type of shit.
Worse then anything here
Does anybody here except @The Whispering Monk know anything about the possibilities of why we didn't shoot it down earlier?
I can explain it this way.
If you know they are doing something. And you can gain something of value, then why not take advantage of it by feeding false information as well as potentially jamming it...
How do you know it wasn't jammed? Hmm?
Depends on Branch if the military as well as how they operate.
Army Cyber and NSA is diffrent from FORSCOM.
Also, for those wondering what gets disclosed to the president. The way things works is this.
Joe smoe analyst sees something. Makes a report. It gets sent up based on the PIRs of the commander, and his commander and so forth.
It is up to thr CJCS and the big generals of all branches to disclose that information to him.
They do not have too.
There is only one case where they have to and it is oh shit oh shit. Bad type of shit.
Worse then anything here
I very much doubt it, the equipment was all probably not special since it didnt need to be. My own theory is that it was meant to find out what type of radars were being used in continental USA so appropriate stealthing measures could be built into the ICBM buildup China is doing.
The harder missiles are to track and target the better given China will never match the USSR stockpile for overwhelming missile defense that can be built in the soon decades.
The harder missiles are to track and target the better given China will never match the USSR stockpile for overwhelming missile defense that can be built in the soon decades.