IF China Balloon Is Really For Weather

@metal-brain said
But that would have revealed it was a weather balloon and embarrassed US officials. Official jackasses. This whole incident is a laugh. It was a weather balloon.

Doesn't matter, you don't send electronic devices like that over a sovereign country, it could have been anything, so anything was a threat.

@kellyjay said
Doesn't matter, you don't send electronic devices like that over a sovereign country, it could have been anything, so anything was a threat.

Agreed. Any airborne object near a U.S. military installation, and there are such in Montana, is a threat. This object was reported to be the size of three school buses and could hover. Plenty suspicious. Not to mention a threat to commercial air traffic.

@moonbus said
Agreed. Any airborne object near a U.S. military installation, and there are such in Montana, is a threat. This object was reported to be the size of three school buses and could hover. Plenty suspicious. Not to mention a threat to commercial air traffic.

It's three school busses wide, it's way bigger than just the size of 3 busses.

@jj-adams said
Yeah just step out on your lawn with a 12 gauge and shoot at something 12 miles high.
Brilliant.

Naw, he was gonna use a hang glider to get a bit closer before taking pot shots at it. 😆

@jj-adams said
It's three school busses wide, it's way bigger than just the size of 3 busses.

Plenty big to contain all sorts of electronic sensing and transmission equipment. I expect the U.S. military was monitoring radio transmissions from the device.

@moonbus said
Plenty big to contain all sorts of electronic sensing and transmission equipment. I expect the U.S. military was monitoring radio transmissions from the device.

Some people just have to defend China or whoever and condemn the US.
If a surveillance balloon was floating over China they'd shoot it down immediately and the people here would defend China's action and cry about the US being bad for sending it over China.
They suck.

@jj-adams said
Yeah just step out on your lawn with a 12 gauge and shoot at something 12 miles high.
Brilliant.

I can rent a plane and pilot for a lot less than $400,000. Don't you?

A bullet would bring it down slowly so you could examine the technology, but if you know it is not really a spy balloon you destroy the evidence which is what they did.

If you are not lying and really think it is a spy balloon you take it down as soon as the military detected it, not wait until left your land. Use your brain. This is just anti China propaganda to prepare you for Taiwan messiness.

It is a weather balloon. The got you to believe a conspiracy theory. There is no evidence it is a spy balloon. Is the other one that went over Latin America a spy balloon too? Do you think they are spying on Latin America? If so, why?

@jj-adams said
It's three school busses wide, it's way bigger than just the size of 3 busses.

Well then, that settles it. The Hindenburg was a spy zeppelin. It was too many bus sizes too long.
Good thing we destroyed that Nazi blimp before it returned to Germany.

@moonbus said
Naw, he was gonna use a hang glider to get a bit closer before taking pot shots at it. 😆

Hang glider? Nah, he was going to sit in his lawn chair tied to 150 helium party balloons, just like in Mythbusters.

@jj-adams said
Some people just have to defend China or whotever and condemn the US.
If a surveillance balloon was floating over China they'd shoot it down immediately and the people here would defend China's action and cry about the US being bad for sending it over China.
They suck.

I can see the advantages of balloon technology: cheaper than putting a satellite in orbit, and for those of a certain generation who remember the Gary Powers incident, less risky than having a pilot captured and interrogated.

I can also see why the U.S. Air Force was loath to shoot it down and have debris on that scale raining down over land.

What evidence is there that this is a Chinese device and not some other?

@moonbus said
Agreed. Any airborne object near a U.S. military installation, and there are such in Montana, is a threat. This object was reported to be the size of three school buses and could hover. Plenty suspicious. Not to mention a threat to commercial air traffic.

But JJ said it was 12 miles high. That is not close.
Didn't my government say it was too high to pose a threat? Because it was at the typical altitude of......weather balloons! DUH!

https://stratostar.com/how-high-can-weather-balloons-go/

@shallow-blue said
Hang glider? Nah, he was going to sit in his lawn chair tied to 150 helium party balloons, just like in Mythbusters.

Right, and then shoot his own party balloons, one after the other, to arrange his own soft landing over Montana. A true American patriot and hero. 😆

@metal-brain said
I can rent a plane and pilot for a lot less than $400,000. Don't you?

A bullet would bring it down slowly so you could examine the technology, but if you know it is not really a spy balloon you destroy the evidence which is what they did.

If you are not lying and really think it is a spy balloon you take it down as soon as the military detected it, not wait until ...[text shortened]... ent over Latin America a spy balloon too? Do you think they are spying on Latin America? If so, why?

What kind of plane can you rent that flies to 60,000 feet?
Answer: None.

@moonbus said
I can see the advantages of balloon technology: cheaper than putting a satellite in orbit, and for those of a certain generation who remember the Gary Powers incident, less risky than having a pilot captured and interrogated.

I can also see why the U.S. Air Force was loath to shoot it down and have debris on that scale raining down over land.

What evidence is there that this is a Chinese device and not some other?

It said made in China on the balloon.
It also said "spy balloon: don't shoot down" on it.

@metal-brain said
But JJ said it was 12 miles high. That is not close.
Didn't my government say it was too high to pose a threat? Because it was at the typical altitude of......weather balloons! DUH!

https://stratostar.com/how-high-can-weather-balloons-go/

It flies at 60,000 feet, that's just short of 12 miles.
OK, get technical on me, it's only 11 miles.
Nobody likes a quibbler.