Chinese spy balloon carried ‘multiple antennas’intelligence - US State Dept.

[BWT]

Why do so many people think we did nothing? Am I the only one that thinks that our Intelligence community gamed the hell out this thing and hacked the comms to send back Sponge Bob videos?

My eldest was part of a electronic warfare squadron that was assigned to the George Washington when China launched its aircraft carrier. They put up a couple of Growlers and got every piece of intel that they could. The squadron got a medal/award out of that. How is the balloon any different?

Overt response versus covert response.

We don’t know what China did - we don’t know what the US has done covertly.

But “Trust us we got this” and seeing Afghani’s hanging onto landing gear in recent memory do not mesh well to Joe Q. Public. (ETA: Which I’m a member of)

Does that make sense?

[revchuck38]

I think what it was - was a power move in the least threatening way possible.

Start in Montana - middle of nowhere and send a balloon which is slow moving and non-threatening in appearance.

We did nothing until it passed out to the ocean.

It’s symbolism and a test / probe IMHO.

It probably gathered data on the US as well. Personally I don’t know why it wasn’t shot down in Montana. But it is what it is. We’re training Taiwan and showing support for them at the same time China sends a balloon over the US. I don’t think it’s insane, but I also wonder what technical data they were gathering.

First, it didn't start in Montana, it started in Alaska, where we have a lot of military installations. It was an ingenious move on the part of the PRC - they found a hole in our detection capability and exploited it.

It's unlikely that we did nothing. We probably jammed the dogshit out of its signals. We didn't hear about it on the news, because that's the way SIGINT works. My guess is that we waited until it got over water to shoot it down because a water landing would be less harsh on the electronics than coming down hard onto the ground, and because we could keep other people away from the crash site while we recovered it. We really need to see what's inside so we have a more complete idea of the PRC's collection capability.

[BWT]

First, it didn't start in Montana, it started in Alaska, where we have a lot of military installations. It was an ingenious move on the part of the PRC - they found a hole in our detection capability and exploited it.

It's unlikely that we did nothing. We probably jammed the dogshit out of its signals. We didn't hear about it on the news, because that's the way SIGINT works. My guess is that we waited until it got over water to shoot it down because a water landing would be less harsh on the electronics than coming down hard onto the ground, and because we could keep other people away from the crash site while we recovered it. We really need to see what's inside so we have a more complete idea of the PRC's collection capability.

So… let me say this and clarify.

I have a lot of respect for our capabilities and service members.

I am disappointed in the waffling and lack of political response on our side. Does that make sense?

It’s like this - I am good at my job. I am proficient at what I do. I just had a talk with a manager asking me to take on a project. The biggest thing they said is “Don’t waffle or hesitate in front of this customer”.

It’s that last part we need. America needs that. We need something meaningful from our entire government.

Does that make sense? It doesn’t matter how capable I am - most people I work with aren’t aware or understand a lot of the nuance of my job (that’s not unique in the world). So they rely on what they know - which is how I present myself and how I react.

Right now? I see the military doing the lifting and their job and I want to see a response meaningfully that gives us confidence in the government as a system not the DoD.

We’re in the General Discussion Forum so I’m going to stop here.

That out of the way - thanks for the SIGINT info!

[TGS]

Why do so many people think we did nothing? Am I the only one that thinks that our Intelligence community gamed the hell out this thing and hacked the comms to send back Sponge Bob videos?

My eldest was part of a electronic warfare squadron that was assigned to the George Washington when China launched its aircraft carrier. They put up a couple of Growlers and got every piece of intel that they could. The squadron got a medal/award out of that. How is the balloon any different?

Because tribalist politics are more important than anything, and baseless rage porn is an acceptable substitute for substantive knowledge.

[blues]

Because tribalist politics are more important than anything, and baseless rage porn is an acceptable substitute for substantive knowledge.

There may actually be legitimate questions in people's minds that don't require the same old broken record reply.

I have questions and, unfortunately, no access to the information required to answer them. (And rightfully so.)

But the constant bashing is getting seriously old. (imho, of course.)

[TGS]

There may actually be legitimate questions in people's minds that don't require the same old broken record reply.

I have questions and, unfortunately, no access to the information required to answer them. (And rightfully so.)

But the constant bashing is getting seriously old. (imho, of course.)

Broken record reply:

There's a difference between legitimate questions and gnashing of teeth over assumed incompetence, making authoritative statements that are patently false, or responding to this incident by saying it's an embarrassment to the country without any context why.

And, the tribalist part isn't really just my opinion. There's been several people here to openly state such, including the forum owner.

I find the latter three more tiresome, which is why I'm withdrawing more and more from the forum and let my membership lapse. YMMV. I'm still not going to pretend that dumb shit should be entertained just to make people feel better, or that the forum should be more inclusive of said dumb shit.

[blues]

Broken record reply:

There's a difference between legitimate questions and gnashing of teeth over assumed incompetence, making authoritative statements that are patently false, or responding to this incident by saying it's an embarrassment to the country without any context why.

And, the tribalist part isn't really just my opinion. There's been several people here to openly state such, including the forum owner.

I find the latter three more tiresome, which is why I'm withdrawing more and more from the forum and let my membership lapse. YMMV. I'm still not going to pretend that dumb shit should be entertained just to make people feel better, or that the forum should be more inclusive of said dumb shit.

I don't disagree in large measure with some of your points. So, a portion of my objection is directed at the delivery as well as the, (to my mind), breadth.

You're not the only one tired of some of the b.s. and antics. So, I get that too.

[Caballoflaco]

Why do so many people think we did nothing? Am I the only one that thinks that our Intelligence community gamed the hell out this thing and hacked the comms to send back Sponge Bob videos?

My eldest was part of a electronic warfare squadron that was assigned to the George Washington when China launched its aircraft carrier. They put up a couple of Growlers and got every piece of intel that they could. The squadron got a medal/award out of that. How is the balloon any different?

SIGINT isn’t sexy.

And many people people who would say that firing a gun straight up into the air is criminally negligent and we’re accountable for every round fired still wanted .gov to drop a sensor array (that we had already been observing, tracking and jamming) as long as three buses from 65,000ft over CONUS.

[fly out]

I'm trying to reconcile two things that we're being told.

Don't worry, we were jamming their signals so that nothing was getting out, while analyzing their capabilities the whole time, so that this was an intelligence win for America;

vs.

We flew U-2s over the balloon and were able to check on directional communications links from the balloon to Chinese satellites. (I know I'm not using the exact terminology.)

There may well be an explanation, but these two statements seem to be at odds. Are we sure we were able to prevent the balloon from relaying information to satellites?

[Dog Guy]

I think what it was - was a power move in the least threatening way possible.

Start in Montana - middle of nowhere and send a balloon which is slow moving and non-threatening in appearance.

We did nothing until it passed out to the ocean.

It’s symbolism and a test / probe IMHO.

It probably gathered data on the US as well. Personally I don’t know why it wasn’t shot down in Montana. But it is what it is. We’re training Taiwan and showing support for them at the same time China sends a balloon over the US. I don’t think it’s insane, but I also wonder what technical data they were gathering.

I'm dubbing this the Hillary Clinton approach to this event. It's flying over flyover country so just dump it in Montana before it gets to where the important people live.
Plus which recovering the pieces for analysis is way easier in shallow Atlantic waters than from Montana winter.