Another Chinese spy balloon shot down. What do you think they are after?

I think they see that the country is weak so they are trying to see some military secrets and the US should just use some bullets instead of a missile.

What gets me is the outrage of these things, you can’t tell me the us hasn’t flown over China in the SR71 or a satellite taking photos of their stuff.

Interception of communications and photo reconnaissance.
Looking forward to the balloon catching device that will soon be revealed.

What do you think they are after? Information gathering, and a diplomatic strategy where they pretend they are doing weather research, and see what others’ reactions are, and claim others are overreacting if they shoot them down, etc.

What kind of information are the Chinese looking for? I’m not cleared for that, so I won’t claim to know. Probably intercepting radio/cell communications. Maybe a contrasting viewpoint from what their spy satellites give. Possibly also actual weather research.

What gain are they getting? Again, that’s a strategic-level question, which I don’t think we have full enough info to answer. But overall, all major nations engage in intelligence gathering, and various sorts of diplomatic efforts. This is just one such program. It doesn’t really deserve the kind of political attention it’s been getting in the US, as seen in how it’s been going on for years with US intelligence services knowing about it, and not even bothering the US military with it.

Are they laughing at the US spending several million dollars to shoot down their inexpensive balloon?
– I don’t know if they’re laughing, but I don’t think it’s really cost the USAF anything. Those missiles have a nominal price under half a million dollars, but they don’t last forever, and the USAF test-fires them fairly routinely, so using a couple of them doesn’t really cost the USAF anything. It just gave them a more interesting target than they’d usually use in testing.

They could be sending to do climate research to see if the tundra is melting.

Maybe they want to see what the big deal is with Area 51?

On the NBC news, here, as of 6:30 pm Eastern time, they said they don’t yet know the origin of the balloon.

~ ~ ~ The 11 herbs and spices in KFC chicken. . . .

Secret codes and transmissions

@Tropical_Willie In 2003 I had access to the KFC’S 11 herbs and spices, when I worked for them. I saw nothing amazing or rare about the ingredients. I should have memorized it, but I didn’t.

According to a White House briefing, they haven’t confirmed that it was Chinese spy balloon. They keep saying that they do NOT know the origin of the “object” other than to say it was the size of a small car where the Chinese spy balloon was the size of 3 buses. They don’t know the country of origin, whether is was a government owned object or a corporate owned object or a private object. That will be determined once it has been recovered & studied.

@LadyMarissa I hope they didn’t shoot down an alien spacecraft. We don’t need to start a inter-galatic war. One should not just shoot down anything willy nilly without cause.

I thought this balloon didn’t have surveillance equipment? It was downed in northern Alaska. It’s freezing up there this time of year. I wonder if anyone lives anywhere near there? Are they going to recover it right away, or are they going to wait?

The whole thing seems crazy.

I can’t imagine they are gathering lots of new information. They probably have all sorts of information already with satellites.

I hope it wasn’t Elon Musk’s new space tourist ship.

Since this new object was the size of a small car, I’d wager they didn’t shoot it down with an air-to-air missile!

They are trying to pick up communication traffic from earth based transmitters to satellite transponders. They can grab a few samples and then, at their leisure, work on the communication protocols and encryption to find weak spots.

Just knowing the volume of traffic tells them something.

Even if they don’t capture communications, they learn our radar frequencies and scan rates – at that for that moment.

I don’t understand why balloons are being used. Don’t the Chinese have spy satellites, and wouldn’t they be more effective?

If it truly is a weather balloon,and it’s off course then they are guilty of not alerting the us hey we have a weather balloon in your air space just letting you know.
If it is a spy balloon are they showing what they can take a look at for a fraction of the cost the us spends to spy on them?

@LostInParadise Bill Maher just interviewed a guy whose guess is that the Chinese spy satellites are not sophisticated enough so they send out these balloons to make up for their spy satellite’s inadequacies.

Info is sparse, even here in Alaska. It’s my understanding that it came down on sea ice, so experts would have to access how solid it is, ie can they safely land a helicopter and collect the debris without fear of going through the ice. I’m even fuzzy on the exact location, though somewhere between Prudhoe Bay (think oil) and the Canadian border. Even if it came down on land, it’s beyond cold up there this time of year. Temps often -50s F or worse, so there’s nothing simple about retrieving it. And, did I mention hungry Polar Bears? ;)

Was this Marjorie Taylor Greene? Her gaudy white balloon outfit at the SOTU address looked suspicious to me.

Another object was shot down today! This almost qualifies as an invasion!

As of Saturday night, 11 pm Eastern time, they’re still not saying the origin of the second balloon that was shot down over Alaska. It’s not known whether or not it’s from China.

Could it be SPECTRE?

Sarah Palin?

I’m pretty sure it’s loli.

^^I agree!!! ;-)

And… A FOURTH one today shot down over Michigan!
Maybe it’s just Chinese Winery tours.

Hmmmm. Diversion tactics? This is sounding crazy. I feel like we are extras in the movie Red Dawn.

Maybe they are testing your countries response to them?

I believe it’s time for some serious negotiations with China about this crap! Or wherever this stuff is really coming from.

@Dig_Dug Chinese refused after the first one, to answer the “Red Phone” between USA and China !

“Thems fightin’ words!”

China is ghosting us!