MiaowaraShiro t1_j7zvbgh wrote on February 10, 2023 at 4:25 PM

Reply to comment by SkunkMonkey in Chinese spy balloon carried 'multiple antennas' for collecting signals intelligence, State Dept. says by StevenSanders90210

Makes me wonder why they didn't just do this in a land vehicle. Not like they couldn't have someone drive around with a giant antenna in a truck. Our roads are completely open.

Is the altitude necessary?

SkunkMonkey t1_j7zw5ve wrote on February 10, 2023 at 4:30 PM

Larger area covered.

MiaowaraShiro t1_j7zwcev wrote on February 10, 2023 at 4:31 PM

Sure, but at the cost of being found out. 50x white box trucks driving around would go unnoticed forever I would think.

SkunkMonkey t1_j8008si wrote on February 10, 2023 at 4:56 PM

But, but, but it's just a weather balloon!

Apparently this isn't the first time. That we the public know about. In the spy business, you don't reveal what you know. It allows you to continue monitor them. If you reveal, say when our spy agencies spotted the balloon, the next time they will do something different and you might not catch them.

I've no doubt, those in the spy business and charged with protecting our secrets, knew about this and took appropriate actions to not only protect our assets, but to make sure they didn't know we knew.

Once the public became aware, they needed to do something. So they waited until they could control the area where it would come down. That was the Atlantic off the coast. Now we get to see exactly what they were doing and the level of tech used.

We will be able to point at it and say, "Look, this is spy shit, not something that would be used for 'weather' monitoring." Next time one of these approaches our territory it will be toasted ASAP and there will be no ambiguity over whether or not it was some errant weather balloon.