c From the ground, they can appear round.
"A mysterious orb seen over Butler County in Ohio last week has been identified as one of three ‘Thunderhead’ balloon systems released in Maryland by Raven Aerostar on June 18th" linky
Posted on 02/03/2023 9:40:53 PM PST by Ultra Sonic 007
The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.
Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.
Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.
The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.
Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us Read more Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”
The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces... [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Wouldn’t be the first time US Taxpayers paid china
“Homeland security threats”.
Gee, I wonder who THAT could include? Shades of The Prisoner, to boot!
“Or maybe they ARE Bidens.”
Or, maybe they are ours and we are blaming China to give Biden some street cred which he quickly squandered away by not doing anything.
My third WR was also successful. However the TL position meter indicated a dislocation of the RA assembly
(so that comment)
Yeah I rolled my eyes too
Per news reports from last summer, the US also sends high altitude balloons over China and Russia.
From August of 2019...
Well, isn’t that timing interesting.
I won’t be worrying about talking to canada.
Hope you have beans and bullits.
I doubt you will have time to play with your radio unless you are out in the middle of nowhere with a security plan.
Interesting post; thread. Thanks.
Yikes, sorry to hear that.
NBD
Our communist masters have a plan that is almost complete...
All we can do is to relax and keep grazing blissfully...
Once we are in the camps, we will not need to worry...
The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY23 puts $15 million toward stratospheric balloon research The bill also includes an additional $10.2 million for high-altitude balloons for SOUTHCOM as an “unfunded requirement” — or wish-list item — under its classified programs list.linky
The Covert Long-Dwell Stratospheric Architecture (COLD STAR), a project designed to locate drug traffickers, was widely reported in 2019. At the time, the Pentagon launched 25 surveillance balloons from South Dakota as part of a demonstration. The Pentagon confirmed to POLITICO that the COLD STAR program has transitioned to the services. DoD would not disclose details about the effort because it is classified.Raven Aerostar, a division of Raven Industries, produces the balloons. Raven said they consist of a flight control unit, powered by batteries that are charged using renewable solar panels. --linky
c From the ground, they can appear round.
"A mysterious orb seen over Butler County in Ohio last week has been identified as one of three ‘Thunderhead’ balloon systems released in Maryland by Raven Aerostar on June 18th" linky
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