China balloon & Airship Development

escobar

Brigadier
The United States used high resolution imagery from U-2 flybys to determine the balloon’s capabilities. The balloon had multiple antennas in an array that was “likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications.” Solar panels on the machine were large enough to produce power to operate “multiple active intelligence collection sensors,”
U.S. government was “confident” that the company that made the balloon had direct commercial ties with the People’s Liberation Army, “The United States will also explore taking action against P.R.C. entities linked to the P.L.A. that supported the balloon’s incursion into U.S. airspace,”
American officials do not know exactly what kinds of communications the satellite was trying to collect and have not determined what sites the balloon was targeting, U.S. officials say.
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- TUP
 
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supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
A lot of beliefs/thoughts/theories, no evidence

They aren’t sure that the company has solid connections with the PLA…

They aren’t sure if there were targets…

Sounds like they aren’t sure about anything.

Useless brief.

With all the planes tracking this, they don’t have a pretty good idea of what signals this balloon was transmitting?

If they were actually concerned about espionage, they would have let it fly over 3/4 of the continent before doing anything?

Just shows how dumb they consider the average population.
 

escobar

Brigadier
Even if you took the PRC at their word, a weather balloon isn't just a weather balloon. Up-to-date weather data is needed to inform mission planning for cruise and ballistic missiles. We understate the importance on weather on the performance of ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Accurate weather, topographic, gravity, and geodetic data is militarily important. Up to date atmospheric data is crucial for the operation of OTH radars as well as the accuracy of ballistic and hypersonic vehicles.
Review of US Military Research and Development
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Flight Test Evaluation of RV Accuracy

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Standard Target Materials for Autonomous Precision Strike Weapons
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ICBM Reentry Vehicle Navigation System Development at Honeywell
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Hadoren

Junior Member
Registered Member
Spy balloons are crucial for modern-day intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance.

On SDF we frequently see photos of the PLA's sixth-generation spy balloon, the BS-20.

Spy balloons are super-useful and definitely cannot be shot down within six minutes of entering the Atlantic Ocean. That is why the PLA flies thousands of stealth spy balloons over Taiwan and America's Pacific military bases every year. Of course the Taiwanese and American militaries cannot see the thousands of BS-20 spy balloons above them because they are invisible. They cannot be detected by radar, nor even by the naked eye, due to their radar-absorbent stealth balloon coating.

The usefulness of hot air balloons for spying is proven by the extensive use of spy balloons in Ukraine. As we all know, Russia and Ukraine are using thousands of invisible Soviet-era spy balloons on the battlefield. The Ukrainians have recently requested the modern American spy balloon, the FUK-16.

Ukrainians and Russians also extensively use Chinese civilian spy balloons. You may have heard of DJI, but have you ever heard of DJK? That's China's most advanced balloon company, whose balloons are widely used in the Ukrainian battlefield. Shockingly, Americans have discovered hot air balloon involvement in the Uyghur genocide and Uyghur surveillance. Recent BBC and CNN investigations reveal that every Uyghur house has a DJK hot air balloon above it, which watches them while they're sleeping. China's spy balloons have also been found to mass rape and sterilize Uyghurs in concentration camps.

escobar, I have reason to believe that China has even sent a CCP spy balloon above your house to spy on you while you sleep.

You cannot see the balloon clearly in daylight of course because of its stealth coating. But if you look at the clouds sometimes the invisibility fails and you can catch a glimpse.

You can also see your CCP spy balloon above your house at night. It takes the form of a slowly moving dot of light. Of course sometimes those slowly moving lights are just airplanes or satellites. But most of the time they are the CCP's sixth-generation stealth BS-20 spy balloon, which hovers invisibly above every American's house and spies on them as they sleep.
 

Hadoren

Junior Member
Registered Member
I've posted a picture of the CCP spy balloon, the sixth-generation stealth BS-20.

original.jpg


It's near the bottom.

It's hard to see with the naked eye because its radar-absorbent stealth balloon coating makes it invisible. But if you closely study the bottom, parts of it may appear.

If you're in America, you can also see an invisible Chinese spy balloon above your house if you squint and use your imagination.
 

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
Even if you took the PRC at their word, a weather balloon isn't just a weather balloon. Up-to-date weather data is needed to inform mission planning for cruise and ballistic missiles. We understate the importance on weather on the performance of ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Accurate weather, topographic, gravity, and geodetic data is militarily important. Up to date atmospheric data is crucial for the operation of OTH radars as well as the accuracy of ballistic and hypersonic vehicles.
Review of US Military Research and Development
View attachment 106960
Flight Test Evaluation of RV Accuracy

View attachment 106961
Standard Target Materials for Autonomous Precision Strike Weapons
View attachment 106962View attachment 106963
ICBM Reentry Vehicle Navigation System Development at Honeywell
View attachment 106964
It is not about "believing" the PRC's claims.

No one is doubting that there can be military value in this. There can be military value in anything.

Huawei has military value by developing strong wireless technology.

BYD has military value because of battery technology.
You know how many jerry cans of diesel a command post requires to run generators 24/7?

All those Chinese people (not just citizens) getting PhDs or post-grad research in MIT/CalTech/other US/Western Universities can go back to China and help the military. In fact, the DOJ is already claiming this. Since you have 1000's of such people, inevitably there are going to be some. So you can find any enemy that you want to create.

Do you just execute them all as traitors (like blowing up every balloon)?

I'm not saying US is wrong to blow up the balloon, it is their airspace, they have a right to manage it as they see fit. However, this theatrical production is a joke. Worse than the performance of the PRC departments that you believe to be incompetent. If you think that the US narrative has captured the majority of the mindshare of the US people, then the issue is not with the PRC's PR, but the education level of Americans.

The balloon has had EC-series ELINT aircraft, all kinds of fighters, U2s, NORAD systems, satellites, etc. available to track it. It is doubtful that they do not have an idea of transmission power, frequency, latency, signal reception capability from antenna arrays. From this they can probably derive packet size or even intercept any transmission if non-encrypted. They know the average power generation ability from the size of the solar array, and can calculate likely capabilities from that.

I can theorize this with absolutely zero professional RF/electrical knowledge. I would only hope that the US military has access to far smarter and more capable people than myself to decipher what the balloon was up to.

If they thought there was absolutely anything valuable to be obtained from this balloon, it would have been quietly brought down and recovered as intact as possible instead of gloriously exploded by a Sidewinder over the ocean. This is just common sense.

We are really supposed to believe all their conjecturing in this press conference-cum-sitcom? It's a joke because they stupidly painted themselves into a corner.

- If it is not a super high tech spy device, then you spent millions to blow up a science project.
- If it is a super high tech spy device, then it basically completed its mission before you did anything.

So they conjure up all these idiot theories to confuse people and hopefully not think about the two very simple explanations above.
 

escobar

Brigadier
A second balloon over alaskan airspace in the last 24 hours? The military took it down at 40k feet
We do not know who owns it, whether it's state owned or corporate owned or privately owned per US National Security Council spox Kirby. Object has "no significant payload". "It was much much smaller than the spy ballon we took down last Saturday. Not classifying it as a balloon, kirby says. it was an object

 
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