The China Surveillance-Balloon Story Is Not Getting Better

[excalibur]

The stonewalling and cover-ups are a huge part of the Biden administration.

This is desperation setting in from the worst Presidency in modern times; an administration full of incompetents everywhere one looks, and that includes Biden, Blinken, Austin, and a whole host of others.

​

What we are learning about the U.S. response to China’s balloon surveillance is not encouraging.​

​

The Biden administration has struggled to explain why the balloon, which was finally shot down off the Carolina coast on Saturday, was permitted to enter American airspace the previous Saturday, and subsequently glide across the length of much of our country for the better part of a week, lingering over such strategic sites as the 341st Missile Wing in Montana, home to scores of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles.​

​

The administration’s first stratagem was to claim there was nothing unusual about this — that it had happened at least three times during the Trump administration, as well as on an earlier occasion during President Biden’s term. The suggestion was that Trump officials knew about these incursions but kept them from the public, and thus that the Biden administration should be forgiven for concealing what it knew until that was no longer possible — members of the public having begun detecting the balloon on Wednesday, which generated local and then national media coverage.​

​

That was disingenuous and indicative of a much worse problem. It turns out that there is a gap in American air defenses. On prior occasions, they failed to detect balloon incursions, learning about them only afterwards from other intelligence agencies. Moreover, according to Air Force General Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command), our forces have not yet solved this vulnerability. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out,” General VanHerck said at a Monday media briefing, according to the Wall Street Journal.​

​

As Rich noted this morning, citing our friend Byron York’s Washington Examiner reporting, several senior Trump administration officials denied that they’d been told about the prior Chinese incursions — in contrast to President Biden, who was briefed early last week but allowed the balloon to continue on its journey. Quite apart from Byron’s explanation that the prior incursions were shorter in duration than last week’s, it now appears that they may not have been detected by our defense capabilities in time to give officials notice and options prior to their leaving our airspace.​

​

The most critical question about last week’s episode was largely ignored prior to the balloon’s being shot down: Did the balloon have the capacity to transmit data it was collecting to the regime in Beijing in real time? John Kirby, Biden’s National Security Council spokesman, declined to answer that question today. For what it’s worth, it seems inconceivable to me that the aircraft would be fitted with sophisticated surveillance capabilities yet not with transmission capabilities – i.e., that China would be content to hope the balloon made it back to a regime-controlled landing site in order to harvest the data.​

​

That is obvious enough that the administration’s big talking point today was that it had taken countermeasures to prevent the balloon from gathering useful intelligence as it passed over sensitive sites. That is possible, given that on this occasion, unlike prior occasions, our air defense detected the presence and path of the balloon. But I would not take this explanation to the bank, especially given how unreliable and unconvincing prior administration statements have been. And of course, it would not tell us what intel China was able to glean on previous occasions, when its surveillance missions might have been completed before our forces realized they’d happened.​

​

On that score, there is this from the New York Times:​

​

[W]hile spy satellites can see almost everything, balloons equipped with high-tech sensors hover over a site far longer and can pick up radio, cellular and other transmissions that cannot be detected from space.

That is why the Montana sighting of the balloon was critical; in recent years, the National Security Agency and United States Strategic Command, which oversees the American nuclear arsenal, have been remaking communications with nuclear weapons sites.

​

​

That would be one, but only one, of the natural targets for China’s Ministry of State Security, which oversees many of its national security hacks.

​

Seems Congressman Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), new chairman of the House Select Committee on China, as well as members of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in both congressional chambers, need to ask a lot of tough questions.​

​

​

The China Surveillance-Balloon Story Is Not Getting Better | National Review

Congress needs to ask a lot of tough questions about gaps in U.S. air defenses.

www.nationalreview.com

 

[Billy_Bob]

The stonewalling and cover-ups are a huge part of the Biden administration.

This is desperation setting in from the worst Presidency in modern times; an administration full of incompetents everywhere one looks, and that includes Biden, Blinken, Austin, and a whole host of others.

​

What we are learning about the U.S. response to China’s balloon surveillance is not encouraging.​

​

The Biden administration has struggled to explain why the balloon, which was finally shot down off the Carolina coast on Saturday, was permitted to enter American airspace the previous Saturday, and subsequently glide across the length of much of our country for the better part of a week, lingering over such strategic sites as the 341st Missile Wing in Montana, home to scores of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles.​

​

The administration’s first stratagem was to claim there was nothing unusual about this — that it had happened at least three times during the Trump administration, as well as on an earlier occasion during President Biden’s term. The suggestion was that Trump officials knew about these incursions but kept them from the public, and thus that the Biden administration should be forgiven for concealing what it knew until that was no longer possible — members of the public having begun detecting the balloon on Wednesday, which generated local and then national media coverage.​

​

That was disingenuous and indicative of a much worse problem. It turns out that there is a gap in American air defenses. On prior occasions, they failed to detect balloon incursions, learning about them only afterwards from other intelligence agencies. Moreover, according to Air Force General Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command), our forces have not yet solved this vulnerability. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out,” General VanHerck said at a Monday media briefing, according to the Wall Street Journal.​

​

As Rich noted this morning, citing our friend Byron York’s Washington Examiner reporting, several senior Trump administration officials denied that they’d been told about the prior Chinese incursions — in contrast to President Biden, who was briefed early last week but allowed the balloon to continue on its journey. Quite apart from Byron’s explanation that the prior incursions were shorter in duration than last week’s, it now appears that they may not have been detected by our defense capabilities in time to give officials notice and options prior to their leaving our airspace.​

​

The most critical question about last week’s episode was largely ignored prior to the balloon’s being shot down: Did the balloon have the capacity to transmit data it was collecting to the regime in Beijing in real time? John Kirby, Biden’s National Security Council spokesman, declined to answer that question today. For what it’s worth, it seems inconceivable to me that the aircraft would be fitted with sophisticated surveillance capabilities yet not with transmission capabilities – i.e., that China would be content to hope the balloon made it back to a regime-controlled landing site in order to harvest the data.​

​

That is obvious enough that the administration’s big talking point today was that it had taken countermeasures to prevent the balloon from gathering useful intelligence as it passed over sensitive sites. That is possible, given that on this occasion, unlike prior occasions, our air defense detected the presence and path of the balloon. But I would not take this explanation to the bank, especially given how unreliable and unconvincing prior administration statements have been. And of course, it would not tell us what intel China was able to glean on previous occasions, when its surveillance missions might have been completed before our forces realized they’d happened.​

​

On that score, there is this from the New York Times:​

​

​

Seems Congressman Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), new chairman of the House Select Committee on China, as well as members of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in both congressional chambers, need to ask a lot of tough questions.​

​

​

The China Surveillance-Balloon Story Is Not Getting Better | National Review

Congress needs to ask a lot of tough questions about gaps in U.S. air defenses.

www.nationalreview.com

We have the mobile ability to render these things useless just as they did to the ones overflying Hawaii during Trumps administration. THOR is a high energy pulse weapon that was used by the US Navy to kill these balloons before they could over flight Hawaii. The Balloons ceased transmissions after they were fried to death by this system.



Source: StackPath

We now have armored vehicles with this capability.

Why do we not use these things? Trump and the US Navy did. Why didn't Biden and his admiral staff? We even have ground-based units that can be placed anywhere on earth.

 

[mamooth]

Trump cult losers, you parroted a stupid story from your masters. You got humiliated. Deal with it.

When down in a stupid-hole, stop digging.

 

[Superbadbrutha]

The stonewalling and cover-ups are a huge part of the Biden administration.

This is desperation setting in from the worst Presidency in modern times; an administration full of incompetents everywhere one looks, and that includes Biden, Blinken, Austin, and a whole host of others.

​

What we are learning about the U.S. response to China’s balloon surveillance is not encouraging.​

​

The Biden administration has struggled to explain why the balloon, which was finally shot down off the Carolina coast on Saturday, was permitted to enter American airspace the previous Saturday, and subsequently glide across the length of much of our country for the better part of a week, lingering over such strategic sites as the 341st Missile Wing in Montana, home to scores of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles.​

​

The administration’s first stratagem was to claim there was nothing unusual about this — that it had happened at least three times during the Trump administration, as well as on an earlier occasion during President Biden’s term. The suggestion was that Trump officials knew about these incursions but kept them from the public, and thus that the Biden administration should be forgiven for concealing what it knew until that was no longer possible — members of the public having begun detecting the balloon on Wednesday, which generated local and then national media coverage.​

​

That was disingenuous and indicative of a much worse problem. It turns out that there is a gap in American air defenses. On prior occasions, they failed to detect balloon incursions, learning about them only afterwards from other intelligence agencies. Moreover, according to Air Force General Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command), our forces have not yet solved this vulnerability. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out,” General VanHerck said at a Monday media briefing, according to the Wall Street Journal.​

​

As Rich noted this morning, citing our friend Byron York’s Washington Examiner reporting, several senior Trump administration officials denied that they’d been told about the prior Chinese incursions — in contrast to President Biden, who was briefed early last week but allowed the balloon to continue on its journey. Quite apart from Byron’s explanation that the prior incursions were shorter in duration than last week’s, it now appears that they may not have been detected by our defense capabilities in time to give officials notice and options prior to their leaving our airspace.​

​

The most critical question about last week’s episode was largely ignored prior to the balloon’s being shot down: Did the balloon have the capacity to transmit data it was collecting to the regime in Beijing in real time? John Kirby, Biden’s National Security Council spokesman, declined to answer that question today. For what it’s worth, it seems inconceivable to me that the aircraft would be fitted with sophisticated surveillance capabilities yet not with transmission capabilities – i.e., that China would be content to hope the balloon made it back to a regime-controlled landing site in order to harvest the data.​

​

That is obvious enough that the administration’s big talking point today was that it had taken countermeasures to prevent the balloon from gathering useful intelligence as it passed over sensitive sites. That is possible, given that on this occasion, unlike prior occasions, our air defense detected the presence and path of the balloon. But I would not take this explanation to the bank, especially given how unreliable and unconvincing prior administration statements have been. And of course, it would not tell us what intel China was able to glean on previous occasions, when its surveillance missions might have been completed before our forces realized they’d happened.​

​

On that score, there is this from the New York Times:​

​

​

Seems Congressman Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), new chairman of the House Select Committee on China, as well as members of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in both congressional chambers, need to ask a lot of tough questions.​

​

​

The China Surveillance-Balloon Story Is Not Getting Better | National Review

Congress needs to ask a lot of tough questions about gaps in U.S. air defenses.

www.nationalreview.com

Tell us President excalibur what you would have done. Personally flew up there and stuck a pin in it.

 

[Billy_Bob]

The stonewalling and cover-ups are a huge part of the Biden administration.

This is desperation setting in from the worst Presidency in modern times; an administration full of incompetents everywhere one looks, and that includes Biden, Blinken, Austin, and a whole host of others.

​

What we are learning about the U.S. response to China’s balloon surveillance is not encouraging.​

​

The Biden administration has struggled to explain why the balloon, which was finally shot down off the Carolina coast on Saturday, was permitted to enter American airspace the previous Saturday, and subsequently glide across the length of much of our country for the better part of a week, lingering over such strategic sites as the 341st Missile Wing in Montana, home to scores of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles.​

​

The administration’s first stratagem was to claim there was nothing unusual about this — that it had happened at least three times during the Trump administration, as well as on an earlier occasion during President Biden’s term. The suggestion was that Trump officials knew about these incursions but kept them from the public, and thus that the Biden administration should be forgiven for concealing what it knew until that was no longer possible — members of the public having begun detecting the balloon on Wednesday, which generated local and then national media coverage.​

​

That was disingenuous and indicative of a much worse problem. It turns out that there is a gap in American air defenses. On prior occasions, they failed to detect balloon incursions, learning about them only afterwards from other intelligence agencies. Moreover, according to Air Force General Glen VanHerck, commander of NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command), our forces have not yet solved this vulnerability. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats and that’s a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out,” General VanHerck said at a Monday media briefing, according to the Wall Street Journal.​

​

As Rich noted this morning, citing our friend Byron York’s Washington Examiner reporting, several senior Trump administration officials denied that they’d been told about the prior Chinese incursions — in contrast to President Biden, who was briefed early last week but allowed the balloon to continue on its journey. Quite apart from Byron’s explanation that the prior incursions were shorter in duration than last week’s, it now appears that they may not have been detected by our defense capabilities in time to give officials notice and options prior to their leaving our airspace.​

​

The most critical question about last week’s episode was largely ignored prior to the balloon’s being shot down: Did the balloon have the capacity to transmit data it was collecting to the regime in Beijing in real time? John Kirby, Biden’s National Security Council spokesman, declined to answer that question today. For what it’s worth, it seems inconceivable to me that the aircraft would be fitted with sophisticated surveillance capabilities yet not with transmission capabilities – i.e., that China would be content to hope the balloon made it back to a regime-controlled landing site in order to harvest the data.​

​

That is obvious enough that the administration’s big talking point today was that it had taken countermeasures to prevent the balloon from gathering useful intelligence as it passed over sensitive sites. That is possible, given that on this occasion, unlike prior occasions, our air defense detected the presence and path of the balloon. But I would not take this explanation to the bank, especially given how unreliable and unconvincing prior administration statements have been. And of course, it would not tell us what intel China was able to glean on previous occasions, when its surveillance missions might have been completed before our forces realized they’d happened.​

​

On that score, there is this from the New York Times:​

​

​

Seems Congressman Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.), new chairman of the House Select Committee on China, as well as members of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees in both congressional chambers, need to ask a lot of tough questions.​

​

​

The China Surveillance-Balloon Story Is Not Getting Better | National Review

Congress needs to ask a lot of tough questions about gaps in U.S. air defenses.

www.nationalreview.com

I find it hard to believe that this thing wasn't seen by civilian doppler radar or our defense radar system. Given what we war gamed in the late 70' and early 80's, this is a primary method of deploying both a tactical nuke/EMP device and/or biological weapons due to its very small radar signature and potential to use scattering technology. Doppler can see rain drops. I have no clue why they did not see this.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Tell us President excalibur what you would have done. Personally flew up there and stuck a pin in it.

They can do what Trump did... Fry it with our mobile versions of THOR. But Biden isn't that smart.

 

[1srelluc]

Incompetence is not a mistake with the Tater administration....It's a feature.

 

[Billy_Bob]

What was still considered science fiction in the 20th Century is fast becoming military reality in the 21st. Some, such as handheld “rayguns” are still a while off, and will require major advances in the size and longevity of small form factor power systems. Still, what only a few years ago required a military 747 to carry now is being fitted on Stryker combat vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

In addition to destroying everything from a single smart phone to an entire continent’s critical infrastructure, permanently and without possibility of repair, high-power electromagnetic weapons offer a degree of stealth; their shrinking size and growing power make it difficult to identify the attacker. They are the perfect weapon for terrorists and saboteurs because they can strike silently, invisibly, and with total devastation.

Our UAV's can break 50,000 feet. WE have had the capability to destroy these small targets up close and personal for some time. Why didnt we?

The new era of high-power electromagnetic weapons

EMP weapons, streams of microwaves, electromagnetic railguns, and high-power lasers offer new ways to bring down swarming drones, sink ships without explosives, and disperse formations...

www.militaryaerospace.com

 

[Calypso Jones]

Biden has no say with the military. They weren't going to tell him...why bother...he's incompetent and incapable of making a decision or acting as an effective CIC. Secondly...they shot it down when THEY wanted to...I'm not convinced Milley isn't a chiCom ASset. What other favors has he done for the chi-com?

The chi-coms learned a LOT from this little experiment.

 

[excalibur]

We have the mobile ability to render these things useless just as they did to the ones overflying Hawaii during Trumps administration. THOR is a high energy pulse weapon that was used by the US Navy to kill these balloons before they could over flight Hawaii. The Balloons ceased transmissions after they were fried to death by this system.

View attachment 754626

Source: StackPath

We now have armored vehicles with this capability.

Why do we not use these things? Trump and the US Navy did. Why didn't Biden and his admiral staff? We even have ground-based units that can be placed anywhere on earth.

The PLA hardened the communications against that, thus one reason for the very large size of the payload.

 

[excalibur]

Trump cult losers, you parroted a stupid story from your masters. You got humiliated. Deal with it.

When down in a stupid-hole, stop digging.

Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Because no one else does and Google translate can't help.

 

[Billy_Bob]

The PLA hardened the communications against that, thus one reason for the very large size of the payload.

And that would be the response expected from the equipment being fried over Hawaii.. Of course, they were transmitting to nearby ships, in real time, so the need to destroy the communications link was paramount.

Until they get this hunk of junk off the ocean floor, and we examine it, we will not know if they got the data by satellite link or if it was a storage unit that was to be recovered. I'm betting that a sat link was on board. I would not have sent something like this into enemy territory without the ability to get the data before it was destroyed.

IF the DOD was tracking this thing and locked its communications path, they now have the code it was using. This however can be changed in an instant. But what did we learn, if infact this is not a total fuck up militarily like Biden is apt to do?

 

[otto105]

They can do what Trump did... Fry it with our mobile versions of THOR. But Biden isn't that smart.

President Biden had the balloon shot down and we quickly recovered it for analysists.

You dick wavers can put them back in your BVDs.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Biden had to wait until the Chinese aircraft completed its mission and completed going over the entire country. Its antennas were capturing communications. Particularly military communications.

 

[Pellinore]

I'm just tired of pointing all this stuff out.

We didn't shoot the others down because we didn't see them. Biden signed an EO in May 2021 upgrading our surveillance, allowing us to see this one.

Biden wanted it shot down over land, but the military pointed out that a) it was no threat, because b) they were watching it, and c) they were "taking steps" to make sure it couldn't send information back to Beijing, and d) it could cause a lot of damage.

Also, the National Review has a bias, and will tell you what you want to hear, rather than reality. Read Reuters, or something.

 

[otto105]

Biden had to wait until the Chinese aircraft completed its mission and completed going over the entire country. Its antennas were capturing communications. Particularly military communications.

President Biden shot the balloon down where we could safely and quickly recover it.

He now has released those findings to expose the Chinese government.


And you’re just waving you dick online.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

President Biden shot the balloon down where we could safely and quickly recover it.































































He now has released those findings t







President Biden shot the balloon down where we could safely and quickly recover it.















He now has released those findings to expose the Chinese government.



President Biden shot the balloon down where we could safely and quickly recover it.







He now has releas



ed those findings to expose the Chinese government.











And you’re just waving you dick online.



























And you’re just waving you dick online.















u dick online.

President Biden shot the balloon down where we could safely and quickly recover it.

He now has released those findings to expose the Chinese government.


And you’re just waving you dick online.

Biden made sure that the Chinese aircraft completed its mission. You, like Biden are a Chinese loyalist.

 

[otto105]

Explain your dick waving.

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

Today’s press conference explains much of what is — and is not — yet known about the three new shoot downs, and puts in context the Administration’s actions. Worth watching, imho:

WATCH LIVE: White House holds briefing with NSC spokesman John Kirby after 3 more objects shot down

Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twGFind more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshourSubscribe to our YouTube cha...

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