Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Good gawd, apparently another balloon fell victim to a missile launched from an F-22, this time over Alaska.
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a Chinese war balloon!
Details are sketchy, but what’s clear is that the Biden administration is touting decisive action against what was apparently another balloon/surveillance instrument, most likely from China.
This is all about domestic politics. About the Biden administration "looking strong" by shooting down Chinese balloons (assuming the latest UFO was indeed another balloon).
The question is: Have these balloons truly been threats to U.S. national security? To my knowledge, they are not threats.
I’ve heard these balloons could be used for signals intelligence, but even if true, it seems a very crude method. The US military has far more sophisticated techniques for SIGINT.
(An aside: China could mass produce balloons, release them toward the US, then watch us exhaust our limited F-22 fleet and our air-to-air missiles. Would we be that stupid?)
I never pictured America’s most sophisticated air superiority fighter, the F-22 Raptor, chasing and shooting down floating balloons in the sky, but here we are.
I love this quotation, courtesy of NBC News: “Do we have a plan for the next time that happens and how we’re going to deal with it?” Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., asked defense officials testifying Thursday on Capitol Hill about the alleged spy balloons. “Because, quite frankly, I’ll just tell you: I don’t want a damn balloon going across the United States.”
No more “damn” balloons floating over America! Mister President, we cannot allow a spy(?) balloon gap!
When you think about it, why is this even news? This could easily have been kept quiet.
Again, I come back to domestic politics. Biden was criticized for not acting fast enough on the previous balloon, so now we must shoot down all balloons as soon as they enter US air space. And we must announce it too, as if it’s a great achievement.
Hooray, America! Paint two balloons as "kills" on the side of our F-22s. Airpower!
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views.
(An aside: China could mass produce balloons, release them toward the US, then watch us exhaust our limited F-22 fleet and our air-to-air missiles. Would we be that stupid?)
Yes.
Interceptor aircraft radars have already been adjusted to do just what you say: detect the low-and-slow bogies, instead of ignoring them as clutter and chaff. Ka-CHING for the MIC.
Just wait till stray Sidewinders start raining down on population centers. We’ll yearn for the good old days of “blue ice” from airliners piercing our shingles.
Stupid article. The author has NO IDEA what these balloons actually represent, just ignorant speculation and assumption.
“This is all about domestic politics. About the Biden administration
“looking strong” by shooting down Chinese balloons (assuming the latestUFO was indeed another balloon).
The question is: Have these balloons truly been threats to U.S. national security? To my knowledge, they are not threats.”
Pray tell, what is “your” knowledge? Are you privy to their design? Their flight patterns? Their payload? Do you know which country is behind them? Did you review any of the signal intelligence? Perhaps you flew a jet and were an eye-witness?
Since the author (and everyone else) lacks these bits of crucial information, it is just STUPID to pretend they know better or more thoroughly then those who are actually involved in assessing these balloons and their payloads.
You idiots are just wasting time, space, attention and interest positing about a whole lot of crap you know virtually NOTHING about. I’ll leave it to the experts to tell us when they have something to actually report.
The same “experts” told us about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. You have to be aware that the “experts” are already infested by by neocon hawks with agendas already. Even if there are truly neutral experts, the government spokespeople who will spin their findings are anything but neutral.
As far as actual released evidence…they currently have absolutely nothing other than U-2 Fly-By, no pieces have even been fished out from the sea, but they managed to “conclude” that it’s a spy balloon to mainstream media already. (in fact, many media, including the Times just flat out dropped the “suspected” spy balloon verbiage on day 1 with zero evidence whatsoever)
The recently shot down “objects”? They actually know next to nothing about them at all before blowing them up, since we started this shoot first, ask questions later policy. ~800K per sidewinder missile, and we are just using it to shoot down balloons, excellent.
Ancient “Chinese” aphorism: Believe nothing until it has been officially denied. WRT balloons: long before there was helium, there was hot air. The latter is still predominant.
I choose to believe there are thousands of Chinese engineering students working on long range balloons as I type, balloons with shark teeth and rude comments painted on them, balloons that will look an F-22 in the eye and dare it to launch a missile. I choose to believe this.
Somebody needs to come up with a catchy name for this balloon hysteria- Ballongate, Roswell 2.0, the Yellow Balloon Peril, Sinoballonomania … how about the “don’t notice the US blew up Nord Stream diversionary balloon scare”?