US Officials Say Chinese Spy Balloon Was Able To Monitor Communication Signals

The Free Press-Tampa ^ | 02/09/2023 | Mike Jenkins

[Conservativetpa]

A senior State Department official with the Biden administration to CNN that the Chinese surveillance balloon, which was shot down by an F-22 Raptor on Saturday, was operating with electronic surveillance technology capable of ‘monitoring’ US communications.

The balloon “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations” and was part of a fleet that had flown over “more than 40 countries across five continents.”

[dfwgator]

I don’t believe a damn thing our government says.

[PIF]

I don’t believe a damn thing our government says.
—
Yes just an innocent civilian weather balloon doing its thing for the CCP.

[metmom]

I could believe this one.

Which is why it should have been shot down immediately upon entering US airspace.

[SGCOS]

..The balloon “was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations” and was part of a fleet that had flown over “more than 40 countries across five continents.”

gee, ya think? I wonder why it was called a spy balloon...

I'll bet it was able to take pictures too!!

[robel]

A corrupt government whose lies are condoned by the news media will lie about everything.

[Steely Tom]

That they needed to use balloon-borne instruments to collect this data tells us something about their satellite intelligence-gathering capability.

Our SIGINT satellites use dish antennas that unfold to great size in orbit. I’m sure that’s not the only advanced capability they have.

Perhaps the Chinese are not able to copy this technology, so they have to get their receiving equipment closer to the sources in order to get useful results.

All information in this post is from publicly available sources.

[Steely Tom]

One of the more interesting questions is this: how were they able to get info back to China in real time?

Did they use a satellite up-link, or was some sort of terrestrial system used?

[EQAndyBuzz]

Why send up your most advanced fighter jet when you could have sent up a 3rd Gen fighter to do the same thing? We are worried about monitoring coms and we send up a jet for which the Chinese probably gathered information on.

[libertylover]

Spot on!

[norcal joe]

Maybe to receive certain signals effectively, they have to be at lower altitudes than what satellites fly at.

[Mark17]

Which is why it should have been shot down immediately upon entering US airspace.

Bingo MM. It should have shot down over the Aleutians. I am not 100% sure, but I think there are F-22s at Elmendorf.

[crusty old prospector]

One would think we have the ability to detect if someone is probing our communications.

[CivilWarBrewing]

In a REAL world, Biden, Milley and others would be brought up against a MILITARY TRIBUNAL and charged with TREASON for aiding the enemy.

INTERESTING THOUGHT that this balloon MAY HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED AND STEERED BY Chinese operatives ON THE GROUND WITHIN THE UNITED STATES. Has anyone else thought about that other than myself?

STRANGELY, the most detailed photograph I have seen of this craft was a JOKE IMAGE and here it is. Don't know if this is an actual photo or not (ignore the text on the balloon of course).

[Sacajaweau]

Biden approved!

[Sacajaweau]

It’s putting coordinates on THEIR system so we can’t block.

[T.B. Yoits]

Monitor? Certainly but the Communist Chinese government could also have been communicating with the Democrat operatives in the U.S.

https://thefederalist.com/2018/03/02/fusion-gpss-anti-trump-researcher-avoid-surveillance-ham-radio-license/

Since FTX was exposed, the Communist Chinese government could also be transmitting cryptocurrency payments directly to Democrats.

[CivilWarBrewing]

[pfflier]

Sigint is a business all major powers engage in, not a surprise to find this out. They want to know how our command and control communications work, frequencies, encryption, protocols, even personalities etc.

We do it with RC-135s, EC-130s.

[1Old Pro]

Why not just use the tik tok app on millions of phones.