US's problem with the Chinese balloon

[mspart]

Any of you heard of this?   https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/03/china-spy-balloon-us-airspace-00081073

Should it be brought down now?   Or should it not?

My input is to bring it down now and quit waiting.  

mspart

[jross]

What are the consequences of shooting it down?  I'd love to know what is in the balloon, but I would also not like an outcome where this leads to war.

[Le duke]

Any of you heard of this?   https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/03/china-spy-balloon-us-airspace-00081073
Should it be brought down now?   Or should it not?
My input is to bring it down now and quit waiting.  
mspart

Why shoot it down when you can collect on it?


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[Le duke]

What are the consequences of shooting it down?  I'd love to know what is in the balloon, but I would also not like an outcome where this leads to war.

Loss of intelligence opportunities, mostly.


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[headshuck]

It feels like our leadership is compromised. If they are, I’d hope they’d shoot it down anyway, make a patriotic speech and let the chips fall.

[Le duke]

It feels like our leadership is compromised. If they are, I’d hope they’d shoot it down anyway, make a patriotic speech and let the chips fall.

Why would they shoot it down?


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[headshuck]

Why would they shoot it down?


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Well for one, to see if our leadership is compromised.

[Le duke]

Well for one, to see if our leadership is compromised.

Huh? How would shooting it down prove that, or not?


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[headshuck]

Sorry if you have no imagination. I am done for tonight.

[mspart]

The chinese forced aircraft of ours in their airspace to land and be held hostage.   This is a fact and they know it.  Bringing down their balloon should not rile them at all.   They should expect it.   Perhaps they are trying to get a feel for what they can and cannot get away with.   By not bringing it down immediately in whatever manner is best, we are signalling that we will tolerate chinese incursions of our airspace.  Which might invite more such episodes.   Why would we not bring it down, either by shooting it down or by some other means?   This is basic national defense.   They think they have jammed any signals that it might transmit and that is enough?   If that is the case, then this is a spy machine and an overt act.   I don't see why we condone such a thing.   Bring it down. 

mspart

[jross]

Why can’t we bring it down without destroying it?

[psikeyhackr]

The record glider altitude is 76,000 ft.

Could something be designed to puncture the balloon and parachute everything down slowly enough to minimize damage.

[Crotalus]

"We're going to take care of it."

- Biden shortly before the balloon was shot down over the Atlantic where it won't cause damage to person or property and can potentially be recovered. 

[mspart]

Needed to get Tom Cruise out there and hop on the balloon and bring it down.   He could jump out of an F22 with his extreme good aim.  

It took an F22 to bring it down?  Seems like a lesser fighter could have handled it.   I read an article that the F22 shot a heat seaking missile.   What the heck was generating heat?  I thought it was helium, not hot air.   Oh well, it is down and now the frog men have to locate and bring it up.  

Any guesses?   I'm guessing it is just as the Chinese said, it was a weather balloon with 3 semi trucks worth of equipment. 

mspart

[headshuck]

[mspart]

That might work.   Needs a little more power than the bow can give but the right idea.  Maybe have Tom Cruise shoot one of those on a fly by!!

mspart

[headshuck]

You’d think after a week of planning, we could’ve popped the balloon and retrieved the equipment, but someone must have wanted the equipment blown to smithereens.

[El Luchador]

I'm no balloon expert but this doesn't make sense.  China isn't our friend. We are literally funding our enemies.   

[Crotalus]

I heard George Santos shot it down. 

[El Luchador]

This is Bidens only plan for fighting inflation. 

[mspart]

7 hours ago, Crotalus said:

I heard George Santos shot it down. 

He's lying!!   Ha

mspart

[mspart]

19 hours ago, headshuck said:

You’d think after a week of planning, we could’ve popped the balloon and retrieved the equipment, but someone must have wanted the equipment blown to smithereens.

With a supersonic fighter no less.  

mspart

[El Luchador]

They wanted to give China 1 good look at the F22 in action. 

[Plasmodium]

Monitoring radio spectrum jamming techniques may be a goal of China in these endeavors.   That is something I would do. They certainly learned something when they flew by undetected!  I also thought they would shoot it down with bullets, but they didn't.  It looked like the surveillance equipment separated intact.  They will have collected most of that by now.

[mspart]

Which is why the question persists - Why did they allow it to fly all the way across the USA?   China maybe got what they wanted by that inaction.   It should have been brought down much sooner in my opinion, like when it was found over Alaska. 

mspart