There’s a Chinese spy balloon floating over the northern US.
Why do they think it’s a “spy balloon”?
The who idea of a spy balloon seems ridiculous. Am thinking it has a more mundane purpose than “spying,” but who knows.
What’s ridiculous about it? Are spy satellites ridiculous?
Generally a government isn’t going to say why they know things if it would endanger sources and methods.
Are they sure it’s not a dapper English gentleman attempting to win a bet he made with his chums at the club?
I assume they’ve been able to determine with complete certainty that there’s no weaponry* in that balloon?
*from bio-terrorism to some sort of Death Ray.
(very early 1930’s, perchance?).
Why I can’t figure out is why not shoot it down? They can’t really be sure what’s on it until they see it fist hand.
I was hoping there would be a lawn chair in the picture, but, alas.
Per the New York Times, the Pentagon is afraid debris might strike people on the ground:
“The Pentagon has chosen, for now, not to shoot down the balloon after a recommendation from senior defense officials that doing so would risk debris hitting people on the ground, according to a senior defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.”
Anything they could learn from a balloon, they can already learn from satellites. Unless, of course, it’s actually a weather balloon, but hey, what are the chances that a big balloon could possibly be for the purpose that big balloons are almost always used for? Nah, that won’t sell any newspapers; better assume it’s a spy balloon.
You believe the airforce is tracking a weather balloon with F-22s because they want to NYT to sell more newspapers?
Thirsty Thursday, huh?
On the ground in Montana, Jeffrey Sherlock, a retired state district court judge in Helena, agreed that the balloon was a “provocative” move. But he also expressed wonder that the Chinese would have been interested in his part of the country.
“I can’t believe they are spying on Billings, Mont.,” he said. “There’s not much there.”
If only there were a pithy way to tell this Sherlock fellow how obvious his comment is…
Aren’t there nuclear missile sites all over the place up there?
Yep, lots of nuclear missles in Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota.
Montana has long been the location for some of the US’s nuclear arsenal and is home to one of three known major nuclear missile silo fields. The other two are in Wyoming and North Dakota.
The Air Force at Malmstrom maintains 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos across its 13,800-square-mile complex in central Montana, according to the Pentagon.
Could giant ‘Chinese spy balloon’ be linked to Montana’s nuclear missile sites? | The Independent
Yeah but they are very big states and balloons are not known for their accurate navigation. If this is deliberate what is the master plan here just hope that it happens to float over a nuke site?
And China has actual spy satellites so why would they do that?
“Launch a spy balloon, let it drift over adversarial territory” sounds like a later-game strategic move in one of the Civs.
Doesnt the “space force” have those C130 Hercules with a sort of “snare” arrangement on them for retrieving spy satellite film anymore?
Nuclear siloes notwithstanding, I am looking forward to the online jokes about an intelligence gathering operation over Montana.
The official explanation for that is that the falling structure might endanger people and property on the ground. Seems like a flimsy explanation to me. They wouldn’t have to shoot it down while it was over a city. We have thousands of square miles of virtually uninhabited land that it will also be passing over.
Has anyone seen Nena lately?