When I was a communications/electronic security tech at SAC HQ in the late 80's, used to joke about No Such Agency and their assets.
Biden Balloon Gate
- Thread starter GURPS
- Start date
itsbob
I bowl overhand
☕️ COLLAPSING ☙ Tuesday, February 14, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
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Diligent independent investigators dug up 2019 stories that strongly suggested the Pentagon knows a LOT more about balloons and floating objects than it is letting on.
From the Guardian, 2019:
And USA Today, 2019:
When you dig deeper, it gets worse. Here’s an advertisement for military surveillance balloons from defense contractor Raven Aerostar:
And from Army Technology, as recently November 2021:
And from the War Zone Wire, May 2021:
And Sunday, democrat Senator Chuck Schumer even said the objects that have been shot down were balloons:
One begins to suspect there are a lot more balloons in the sky over the United States than we knew about. Naturally, with all that experience with spy balloons, you might conclude the Pentagon would have a pretty good idea of what it was looking at up there.
That's misleading.. Raven makes Balloons and provides them for thousands of customers. If China said we need balloons for Meteorlogic testing, no reason, no law that would say they can't buy them.
They do make surveillance balloons, these aren't those.
Google went to Raven to develop their balloons for their Loon project... they were similar, but not used for spying.
Biden Finally Speaks on Shootdown of Three 'Objects,' but Snaps at Reporters' Questions
Joe Biden has finally been forced into making comments on the three “objects” that the U.S. shot down over the past weekend. What’s been glaring has been Biden’s failure to respond or speak to the shootdowns and the many questions that the American people have had about the actions.
We heard from the Secretary of Defense. We heard from the NORAD Commander. We heard from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre who had trouble describing what NORAD was and called Canada, “Canadia.” But we didn’t hear from Biden. So on Thursday, he finally said he would be delivering remarks on the subject.
But when he did finally speak on it, Biden didn’t say much more than we already knew — and he was, typically, a little late for his remarks.
Biden said that they still don’t have any further information on the objects. He said there wasn’t anything to indicate that they were surveillance craft or from China as yet.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
You know, I was sort of the understanding that when corporations and private firms send up balloons, we do have some idea that they are there. These things look like they were launched to follow the Gulf Stream.
If it turns out that these were JUST PLAIN OLD HARMLESS balloons, I'm going to be a little pissed, because it would mean we did nothing to stop an actual spy balloon but were too stupid to figure out what these other things were before scrambling jets and shooting missiles at them.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Heard it too, and if true - our government looks massively stupid. Scrambling jets for a toy balloon.
A few questions for you military aviation guys:
1) Do the missile they were using to shoot down these balloons really cost $400,000 each?
2) Aren't the fighters they were using equipped with gattling guns --- which would be just as effective and much cheaper to use?
1) Do the missile they were using to shoot down these balloons really cost $400,000 each?
2) Aren't the fighters they were using equipped with gattling guns --- which would be just as effective and much cheaper to use?
1. Yep, if not more. Big toys, big cost.
2. Cheaper yep, more effective don't know.
Hitting something with a guided weapon from up to 20+ miles away is one thing. Shooting wildly at a slow moving target with a fast moving platform using a gun that has an effective range of about 700 yards is quite another.
I’m sure somebody’s got an old P 51 they could do the job.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Not sure how high these latest balloons were, the things that are actually good with their guns can't do high altitude very well.
$400k each sounds high because I think the Tomahawks are (were) down to about that after they started making the bodies out of a cast piece instead of machined. The overall cost to scramble the jets etc could easily work out to $400k though so without an itemized statement, its hard to say. Ah found something, the training missile might have worked on a balloon.
aim-9x cost - Google Search
www.google.com
The report, which cites two current American officials and one former administration official, says the balloon was controlled by China, who maneuvered it to make several passes over certain military sites, sometimes in a figure-eight pattern – all while transmitting the gathered data back to Beijing in “real time.” The three officials say the data obtained by China was primarily electronic signals that could be collected from weapons systems or base communications.
When the National Security Council was pressed for comment from NBC, the news outlet was directed to remarks made in February by the Department of Defense, where officials claimed the balloon had “limited additive value” to the Chinese “over and above what [China] is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low earth orbit.”
Pentagon officials told lawmakers in February that little new intelligence was gathered in the Chinese balloon operation because of U.S. measures to protect sensitive intelligence, according to CNN.
www.dailywire.com
When the National Security Council was pressed for comment from NBC, the news outlet was directed to remarks made in February by the Department of Defense, where officials claimed the balloon had “limited additive value” to the Chinese “over and above what [China] is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low earth orbit.”
Pentagon officials told lawmakers in February that little new intelligence was gathered in the Chinese balloon operation because of U.S. measures to protect sensitive intelligence, according to CNN.
Chinese Spy Balloon Collected Intel, Sent Back To Beijing In ‘Real Time’ Despite Pentagon Claims: Report
The Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States earlier this year gathered and reported intelligence from multiple sensitive American military sites despite the Pentagon’s claims it blocked transmission, according to a new report from NBC News. The report, which cites two current...