Suspected Chinese spy balloon floats over continental US

[Wolseley]

The Chinese say it's an atmospheric testing device. Pentagon think it's a spy device.

I think it's a measuring device for a possible electromagnetic pulse attack. One blast, and wham!---every last electronic device in the lower 48 states completely fried. No communications, no transport, no radar, no aircraft, no internet, no nuthin'.

And a Chinese invasion force on the way.

China says balloon is for research and entered US after deviating from planned course

The Pentagon said it is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that has been making its way over the United States for several days.

www.cnn.com

 

[Valletta]

Enemies test the United States to see how our country will react.

 

[rocknanchor]

Missing proof, the US does not have a formidable response is also a very real presence.

One blast, and wham!---every last electronic device in the lower 48 states completely fried. No communications, no transport, no radar, no aircraft, no internet, no nuthin'.

So what if they played it thoroughly soft? I would think they would rather have our welcome mat, than the bayonets'. If the balloon (which has been tracked for quite some time, I'm sure) continues right on off out into the Atlantic and nothing else became of it, then the damage is done.

 

[disciple Clint]

The Chinese say it's an atmospheric testing device. Pentagon think it's a spy device.

I think it's a measuring device for a possible electromagnetic pulse attack. One blast, and wham!---every last electronic device in the lower 48 states completely fried. No communications, no transport, no radar, no aircraft, no internet, no nuthin'.

And a Chinese invasion force on the way.

China says balloon is for research and entered US after deviating from planned course

The Pentagon said it is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that has been making its way over the United States for several days.

www.cnn.com

I think it was a test of Biden and he failed again.

 

[chevyontheriver]

The Chinese say it's an atmospheric testing device. Pentagon think it's a spy device.

I think it's a measuring device for a possible electromagnetic pulse attack. One blast, and wham!---every last electronic device in the lower 48 states completely fried. No communications, no transport, no radar, no aircraft, no internet, no nuthin'.

And a Chinese invasion force on the way.

China says balloon is for research and entered US after deviating from planned course

The Pentagon said it is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that has been making its way over the United States for several days.

www.cnn.com

It does NOT add up. They let this thing fly over some incredibly sparsely populated areas and didn't shoot it down for concern over it landing on somebody. There was a whole lot of prairie out there with less than two people per square mile that it flew over. And then as soon as it got out over the ocean they used a Sidewinder missile to blow it up. Overkill much?

I would guess that the USAF has at least one plane that can shoot real bullets, maybe an old A-10 Warthog that could go up to 60,000 feet with some quick and dirty modifications, maybe an old F-15 that still had a gun on board. They could have shot the balloon with ONE non-explosive shot (maybe two or three at most) and caused it to leak and gently come down over the prairie. Soft landing and all. How hard would that have been to do? To recover the thing intact and on land with nary a herd of cattle seeing it. Instead they use a $380,000 Sidewinder. Versus the cost of one 50 cal bullet. Over water where it could sink in about 50 ft of water.

As I said, it doesn't add up. Which makes me think that the official story is lacking in 'the rest of the story'.

Makes me wonder if it had a nuclear payload. If it was a first strike weapon test run. It would have made a fine EMP to blow over Kansas City and put out the whole of the middle of the USA. Or a great way to seed your next bio-weapon. It's all just so strange. And nobody will tell us, or at least not tell us anything near the whole story.

We could look at this as another Biden failure. Or as something way deeper with diplomatic intrigue. But we won't know. For now it does NOT add up.

 

[chevyontheriver]

The Chinese say it's an atmospheric testing device. Pentagon think it's a spy device.

I think it's a measuring device for a possible electromagnetic pulse attack. One blast, and wham!---every last electronic device in the lower 48 states completely fried. No communications, no transport, no radar, no aircraft, no internet, no nuthin'.

And a Chinese invasion force on the way.

China says balloon is for research and entered US after deviating from planned course

The Pentagon said it is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that has been making its way over the United States for several days.

www.cnn.com

I now know why they couldn’t shoot it down over land. It was a rainbow balloon. It couldn’t be shot down where someone might see the result of this violence to rainbows and rainbow balloons and rainbow people everywhere.

 

[RDKirk]

The Chinese say it's an atmospheric testing device. Pentagon think it's a spy device.

I think it's a measuring device for a possible electromagnetic pulse attack. One blast, and wham!---every last electronic device in the lower 48 states completely fried. No communications, no transport, no radar, no aircraft, no internet, no nuthin'.

And a Chinese invasion force on the way.

China says balloon is for research and entered US after deviating from planned course

The Pentagon said it is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon that has been making its way over the United States for several days.

www.cnn.com

The EMP threat is greatly, greatly overstated.

 

[chevyontheriver]

The EMP threat is greatly, greatly overstated.

Yup. It would take four or five to actually blow up every chip in the lower 48. To be really sure one would want to use a dozen.

 

[RDKirk]

Yup. It would take four or five to actually blow up every chip in the lower 48. To be really sure one would want to use a dozen.

Well, first, if the device is unpowered, EMP will do absolutely nothing to it. Second, if it's shielded (such as a Faraday cage), EMP will do nothing to it. Then you can have backups. There are more ways that I'm not sure I can talk about.

But when I was part of the effort to develop the DoD's "Enduring Deterrence," that is, guaranteeing that the nuclear force would survive a first strike and continue to fight, dealing with the EMP of a first strike was pretty much the easiest of our problems to solve.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Well, first, if the device is unpowered, EMP will do absolutely nothing to it. Second, if it's shielded (such as a Faraday cage), EMP will do nothing to it. Then you can have backups. There are more ways that I'm not sure I can talk about.

But when I was part of the effort to develop the DoD's "Enduring Deterrence," that is, guaranteeing that the nuclear force would survive a first strike and continue to fight, dealing with the EMP of a first strike was pretty much the easiest of our problems to solve.

I'm sure the military will do OK with EMPs. Will my car be a brick? If my car isn't a brick will the gas pumps be bricks? Will my bank be a brick? Will my grocery store sell me food if their cash registers are bricks? Will my washing machine be a brick? Will my furnace be a brick? Will my gas utility be a brick? Arr those non-hard things I kind of depend on to not be a stone age kind of guy. I know I'll have work as an IT guy but will the people I contract with have a way of arranging the work and getting me paid? I think an EMP attack would make that all very interesting. Of course a Carrington Event could do the same with no fissionable material used. Huzzah for the military. How much fun will my life be? What will my life expectancy be post EMP?

 

[RDKirk]

I'm sure the military will do OK with EMPs. Will my car be a brick? If my car isn't a brick will the gas pumps be bricks? Will my bank be a brick? Will my grocery store sell me food if their cash registers are bricks? Will my washing machine be a brick? Will my furnace be a brick? Will my gas utility be a brick? Arr those non-hard things I kind of depend on to not be a stone age kind of guy. I know I'll have work as an IT guy but will the people I contract with have a way of arranging the work and getting me paid? I think an EMP attack would make that all very interesting. Of course a Carrington Event could do the same with no fissionable material used. Huzzah for the military. How much fun will my life be? What will my life expectancy be post EMP?

Again, you're overstating the case. EMP, like all radiation, is subject to the inverse square law. Doubling the distance quarters the power. Your "one bomb" scenario would require something ten or more times larger than the Tsar Bomba.

And even then, it wouldn't affect anything that had been unpowered or shielded or sufficiently grounded.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Again, you're overstating the case. EMP, like all radiation, is subject to the inverse square law. Doubling the distance quarters the power. Your "one bomb" scenario would require something ten or more times larger than the Tsar Bomba.

And even then, it wouldn't affect anything that had been unpowered or shielded or sufficiently grounded.

Mine isn’t a ‘one bomb’ scenario.

 

[RDKirk]

Mine isn’t a ‘one bomb’ scenario.

Even a dozen wouldn't do it, unless they were Czar Bomba-sized bombs.

And then...we aren't talking about a dozen simultaneous balloons, are we?