Chinese Spy balloon?

And they did all by themselves:phaser:! Once again they save the planet!

They're so excited about it... "Hell yeah! we shot an extremely dangerous enemy that... didn't move, or had any defense capability... but did you hear that tiny boom?! hell yeah!" Like they're so desperate for a win.

Anyway, I suspect a movie, and interviews of the pilot that shoot down the balloon will be made soon.

But, it is interesting as an analogy: US military power these days, is a whole bunch of hot air
 
CELESTIAL INTENTIONS ?

China sharply rebukes US over decision to shoot down spy balloon​


Beijing has lashed out at the US decision to shoot down a Chinese balloon that flew across North America this week, accusing the Biden administration of “seriously violating international conventions”.

In a statement posted by the Chinese embassy in Washington on Saturday evening, the foreign ministry said it had “repeatedly informed” the US that the balloon was “for civilian use and entered US airspace due to force majeure, which was completely accidental”.

The ministry added that the Chinese government would take necessary action to safeguard its “legitimate rights and interests”.


 
A spy balloon. Really? Are we back in 1930 before satellites and modern technology?
China has better technology than just about anybody. They spy on us through satellites and even our phones.
Tic toc is a spy program. lol, the idea of a Chinese spy balloon is ridiculous, you can be sure that we aren’t getting anywhere near the real story on this yet.
 
Here's an interesting and short video that shows that there is already a lot of surveillance activity going on over US, including "weather balloons". Also according to the author of the channel (who also showed activity near Nord Stream 2 right before the explosions), the one over Costa Rica is probably an US asset and not Chinese. Maybe others too.

 
The fact that it had a large solar panel array indicates that 1. replace or recharge onboard batteries, and 2. stay aloft for a long time.

One thing it could do that satellites couldn't is take atmospheric samples. Design intent was to maintain instruments in an altitude (120,000 ft) between that of airplanes and satellites?
 
Here's an interesting and short video that shows that there is already a lot of surveillance activity going on over US, including "weather balloons". Also according to the author of the channel (who also showed activity near Nord Stream 2 right before the explosions), the one over Costa Rica is probably an US asset and not Chinese. Maybe others too.

I've seen this channel before but thanks to you I returned to it to see the video you linked.

By chance I clicked on the following vid he has ,because it sounded like it would explain how this Spyglass works. To my surprise they start the discussion by talking about the Nord Stream 2. I had no clue they had more detailed stored data of what was in the area of NS, as apparently certain flight data not convenient to the US was erased.

 
Breaking:
  • A standard research tool from the United States became the most-tracked aircraft on FlightRadar24.
  • Thousands mistook it for the suspected Chinese spy balloon that has gripped global attention.
  • FlightRadar24 updated its listing to clarify: "Sorry, this is not a Chinese balloon."
A standard high-altitude research tool from the United States became the world's most-tracked aircraft on popular flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 after thousands mistook it for the suspected Chinese spy balloon that was spotted flying above Montana on February 1.

On Saturday, FlightRadar24 updated the aircraft's label to clarify that it was a standard vessel under the control of the United States, writing: "Sorry, this is not a Chinese balloon."

At least 4,000 users followed every move of research balloon, named HBAL617, on FlightRadar24. It was site's most-tracked aircraft late Friday and early Saturday.

According to Reuters, HBAL617 belongs to aeronautics company Aerostar, which is based in South Dakota.

The high-altitude Chinese balloon flying over the United States has gripped civilian and military attention worldwide and prompted Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to postpone a scheduled trip to Beijing.

On Friday, Chinese officials admitted that the balloon came from China, but insisted that it was a "civilian airship used for research" rather than a tool for surveillance.

United States officials have rejected this assertion. In a statement, the Pentagon's press secretary, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said: "The fact is we know that it's a surveillance balloon, and I'm not going to be able to be more specific than that."

After some Twitter users asked whether FlightRadar24 would track the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, the company said: "We are not expecting a spy balloon to reveal its location by transmitting ADS-B." Aircrafts use ADS-B to broadcast their identification, position, altitude and velocity to other vessels.

There has been pressure from certain members of Congress, as well as former president Donald Trump, to shoot down the Chinese balloon, but authorities say it's not that simple — in part because fighter jets aren't designed to target balloons.

When a weather balloon went rogue almost 25 years ago, two Royal Canadian Air Force fighter jets fired over 1,000 rounds at it and still couldn't shoot it down.
 
Recovery of the balloon is in progress.

A trio of Navy warships, service divers and the FBI are on the hunt for the wreckage of a high-altitude Chinese spy balloon that was shot down on Saturday by an Air Force F-22 Raptor off the coast of South Carolina, Defense Department officials told reporters Saturday.

“The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a Saturday statement. “On Wednesday, President [Joe] Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”

The Raptor from the 149 Fighter Squadron, based at Langley Air Force Base, used a single AIM-9X Sidewinder, fired from 58,000 feet in the air, to shoot down the balloon that was operating at 62,000 feet, a senior military official told reporters on Saturday afternoon.

The remains of the surveillance balloon, about the size of three school buses, is spread over a seven-mile debris field in shallow water in the Atlantic, a senior military official told reporters.

Guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79), guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) and amphibious warship USS Carter Hall (LSD-50) are on station near the crash site. Coast Guard cutters and boats are also on the scene to assist in the recovery, a message left with a Coast Guard Atlantic Area spokesman was not immediately returned.

Navy divers are currently embarked aboard the warships off the coast, a Navy official confirmed to USNI News. FBI counter-intelligence agents are also part of the investigation, Pentagon officials said Saturday.

“We have… capable Navy divers to go down if needed. We’ll also have unmanned vessels that can go down to get the structure and lift it back up on the recovery ship,” the senior military official said.
“We’ll have the FBI on board as well, under the counterintelligence authorities for categorizing and assessing the platform itself.”

According to the same senior military official, a Navy salvage ship will be on station within the next two days.

The high-altitude surveillance craft had been operating over U.S. and Canadian airspace for at least the last week. It traveled over sensitive military sites, including the intercontinental missile silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana.

According to reporters following the path of the balloon, it entered the U.S. air defense identification zone Near Alaska on Jan. 28, crossed into Canada on Jan. 30 and crossed into the skies over Idaho on Jan. 31.

U.S. officials said they elected not to shoot down the balloon over the continental United States for two reasons – to prevent risk to people and property that would be in a potential debris field and to continue to gather intelligence from the craft while it continued to operate over the U.S.

“We assessed that it did not pose a threat at any time to civilian air traffic because of the altitude of the balloon. We also said that it did not pose a military or kinetic threat to U.S. people or property on the ground, although we were constantly updating both of those assessments and prepared to take it out if that threat profile changed,” the senior military official told reporters on Saturday.

Unlike low-earth orbit satellites, the near-space altitude in which the balloon operated was sovereign U.S.-controlled air space, USNI News understands. Chinese officials have said that the balloon had gone off course and had no hostile intent. A second Chinese balloon has been spotted over Latin America.

The balloon was low enough in the sky, that several people on shore captured images of the F-22 firing the anti-air missile to pop the balloon just off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The fighters left the Virginia air base Saturday afternoon with the call signs Frank-1 and Frank-2, according to plane spotters on social media. The callsigns are believed to be a reference to World War I ACE Army Air Corps 1st Lt. Frank Luke. His nickname was the Arizona Balloon Buster, wrote reporter Marcus Weisgerber on Twitter.
 
As a sidenote, from Chinese Consul General in Belfast Zhang Meifang :

69573_1675597872_7967.jpg
 
A spy balloon. Really? Are we back in 1930 before satellites and modern technology?
China has better technology than just about anybody. They spy on us through satellites and even our phones.
Tic toc is a spy program. lol, the idea of a Chinese spy balloon is ridiculous, you can be sure that we aren’t getting anywhere near the real story on this yet.
That's exactly what I thought. Even if it's just a provocation it's weird.
 
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