To: ransomnote; LonePalm
looking for more info, I found this article
'Things got really crazy.' The shocking untold story of the Chinese spy balloon
Top commanders reveal the extraordinary events from their surprising beginning, months earlier than previously known, to their explosive end
Tom Blackwell Last updated Jan 10, 2025
https://nationalpost.com/feature/untold-story-of-chinese-spy-balloon
(That I could only open in firefox - long read)
"It was a routine flight, one of several Air Canada runs daily between Vancouver and Winnipeg. But as AC292 passed high over the Rockies on Jan. 31, 2023, the pilots made an unusual sighting.
Another 4,000 feet above their Airbus A-320 floated a large balloon “with something hanging from it.” They reported the observation and flew on to their destination uneventfully.
Then, 24 hours later, a former newspaper photographer left his data-processing job at a health-care centre in the Montana city of Billings, looked upward and was surprised by his own discovery.
“Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bright spot in the sky,” Chase Doak recently recalled. “It looked like a big white orb.”
He raced home, fitted his camera with a 500-millimetre telephoto lens and a teleconverter that doubled the focal length, aimed at the “orb” and quickly realized he was peering at a balloon. With something hanging from it.
What happened next was even more unexpected. Photographs of the balloon by Doak and his friend Larry Mayer soon were buzzing around the world. After four days of silence, their images had prompted U.S. military officials to divulge the shocking truth — what those pilots and photographers had spotted was a Chinese surveillance balloon, a massive dirigible hauling an antenna-sprouting container the size of two or three school buses, and twin arrays of solar panels.
And it was now floating across some of the most militarily sensitive sites in America — nuclear-missile silos that would be among an enemy’s earliest targets should atomic war ever break out.
The spy balloon’s slow traverse over Alaska, Western Canada and the continental United States, ending when it was shot down off the coast of South Carolina, riveted the world, sparked heated political debate and touched off a diplomatic uproar. The event continues to reverberate, including with a bizarre criminal trial in Billings itself.
It was quickly followed by the appearance of three more unidentified flying objects over Canada and the United States. That led to the first ever shoot-down by American fighter jets in Canadian airspace, after this country’s aging CF-18 fighters were grounded by freezing rain.
“Things were developing pretty fast,” recalls Gen. Wayne Eyre, who played a key part in handling the episode as Canada’s chief of defence staff, before retiring recently. “Things got really crazy for a while.”
Yet, as often happens, the episode that had saturated news coverage for days soon disappeared from the headlines — along with its crucial lessons.
This is the full inside story of the Chinese spy balloon, its troubling implications for the defence of North America, which relies partly on an early-warning system likened to a gap-filled “picket fence,” and the spotlight it shone on a two-nation military agency that is unique in the world.
...more
79 posted on
09/01/2025 8:36:38 AM PDT by
bitt
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To: bitt
83 posted on
09/01/2025 9:01:18 AM PDT by
bitt
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To: bitt
Re: Chinese balloon
Great story! This led to the great msm “Chinese balloon” distraction. Focus attention here, not there.
Too bad all the “Chinese” balloons were US registered.
To: bitt
***This is the full inside story of the Chinese spy balloon, its troubling implications for the defence of North America***
The report is extensive and very thorough - but, of course, eliminates speculation, However, I will speculate!
The article states: Though satellites are the major powers’ chief aerial spying tool, the theory is that surveillance balloons, operating at lower altitudes and able to stay aloft longer over targets, can capture higher-resolution images and intercept more communications.
These balloons fly as high as 80,000 feet and are, naturally, slow moving. However, the article states that this balloon just had a small propeller motor with limited ability to steer the craft. I believe that to be misleading; these balloons use a sophisticated guidance system that can adjust height to locate differing air currents and are adept at maneuvering in various directions using that technology {perhaps somewhat classified.} I understand that such a balloon is used over, I think, Nevada, as a cell phone 'tower' - effective over a broad mountainous region... it 'maneuvers' in order to maintain an effective phone coverage.
The 'slow moving' aspect is actually an advantage, not only for navigational maneuvering but also for fooling radar detection. The article points out that NORAD is {was} not programmed to detect slow moving objects, creating the 'picket fence' gap.
But lack of NORAD detection was not the problem. US intel knew of the balloon while still flying over the Pacific. It may have 'maneuvered' itself over some Pacific defense locations on its trans-oceanic journey. The article states that US intel did not alert NORAD to be on the lookout for the balloon - that the balloon was just hours away from entering the continent’s jurisdiction before the man in charge of defending the region learned about it. One press release stated: The military did not want this going public.
Yet a couple of civilian photographers DID discover the strange aerial object AND published pictures of it, forcing the military to offer some sort of statement of awareness at least.
“I think it was a bad mistake to let a Chinese spy balloon float all across America and only to leak it to The New York Times once some rancher or amateur photographer in Montana spotted it,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton would say later. “I suspect if they had not … this would have never become public.”
The article states: ...a surprising assessment made public by American authorities months later. Forensic examination of the balloon and its payload by the FBI and others after the shoot-down indicated “for sure” that it never actually gathered any intelligence, let alone transmitted it back to China.
Andrea Charron, a political scientist at the University of Manitoba and a leading academic expert on Norad and North American defence said, "...that they hovered over some pretty important, key areas … makes me wonder.”
I believe that the Autopen Administration likely opened up our air space to Chinese spy technology. They didn't think that anyone would ever know about the over flight. When average citizens blew the lid off of the caper, it became a CYA operation. The idea that it did not collect any sensitive data is questionable, as Ms Andrea Charron stated above... the unit 'maneuvered' over multiple sensitive defense site within the U.S. {after entering the Aleutians Islands in the far north.}
As to 'communicating with China', I posed the possibility at the time that China could have multiple receiving sites with internet connections placed around the U.S., thus only requiring low power 'local' transmissions.
The ultimate question may be whether the {Bitem} Autopen Administration committed an act of treason, allowing a covert overflight by a potential enemy of top secret military technology locations.
I also pointed out - and posted pictures - that the Chinese had designed an undercarriage for these balloons that could launch hypersonic missiles - obviously from short range, making defense extremely difficult. That could be considered a First Strike capability.
Just what were the Chinese 'spying out' in these overflights.?
117 posted on
09/01/2025 11:17:34 AM PDT by
Bob Ireland
(The Democrap Party is the enemy of freedom.They use all the seductions and deceits of the Bolshevics)
To: bitt
We didn't shoot the first one down earlier because the Intelligence Community begged Auto-pen not to.
That little escapade was an Intelligence Bonanza for us and a disaster for West Taiwan.
SpyNavy
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
127 posted on
09/01/2025 12:34:16 PM PDT by
LonePalm
(Commander and Chef)
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