High altitude object shot down
Suitable headgear on...
Interesting times. Tidbits such as 'no visible means of propulsion', 'interfered with sensors', 'stopped in flight', 'grey and cylindrical' are typical UFO descriptors. It can be quite useful for aircraft to be popularly thought to be UFOs. It's good, if only temporary, misdirection - as in the early days of the U-2.
Wait a mo! If there are things there and people are seeing them, you say that they are seeing things?
We shouldn't be surprised at all. This article from July 2021 reported the construction of an airship hangar: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ip-development
My highlighting in the quote below:
The airships have been spotted before, as ORAC mentioned: https://www.ibtimes.com/unidentified...photos-3649678
May be China is now deploying them in the northern hemisphere as well. Seems likely.
My highlighting in the quote below:
China's expansive far western regions are well-suited to hosting facilities to support various kinds of military research and development and test and evaluation activities, as well as ostensibly civilian work that could also have military applications, especially in the air and space arenas. These areas of the country, which are also highly remote, help to keep all of these activities away from prying eyes. As such, they are practically littered with notable or otherwise curious infrastructure.
One particularly interesting facility that appears to have largely escaped public attention, features, among other things, an absolutely massive hangar—you could fit a Nimitz class supercarrier inside with 100 feet to spare on either side—and is situated near other sites associated with missile defense and anti-satellite activities. The hangar clearly has to do with the development of lighter-than-air craft, which could include large unmanned airship designs capable of operating in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
One particularly interesting facility that appears to have largely escaped public attention, features, among other things, an absolutely massive hangar—you could fit a Nimitz class supercarrier inside with 100 feet to spare on either side—and is situated near other sites associated with missile defense and anti-satellite activities. The hangar clearly has to do with the development of lighter-than-air craft, which could include large unmanned airship designs capable of operating in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
Earlier reports based on satellite images have indicated that China has deployed an operational airship in the disputed region, to strengthen its military reconnaissance ability in the South China Sea.
While stratospheric airships fly higher than regular fighter aircraft, their shape and slow speed also make it hard for traditional radars to track and intercept them, enabling airships to pass over areas unopposed to collect surveillance data.
At least two of China's uncrewed solar-powered airships — the Tian Heng and Yuan Meng — have external propulsion and other systems meant for operations at stratospheric altitudes, the War Zone report said.
While the status of the airship projects itself is unclear, the War Zone said in a 2021 report that, based on several satellite images, a huge airship hangar located south of Bosten Lake in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region had grown significantly since it was first constructed in 2013.
While stratospheric airships fly higher than regular fighter aircraft, their shape and slow speed also make it hard for traditional radars to track and intercept them, enabling airships to pass over areas unopposed to collect surveillance data.
At least two of China's uncrewed solar-powered airships — the Tian Heng and Yuan Meng — have external propulsion and other systems meant for operations at stratospheric altitudes, the War Zone report said.
While the status of the airship projects itself is unclear, the War Zone said in a 2021 report that, based on several satellite images, a huge airship hangar located south of Bosten Lake in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region had grown significantly since it was first constructed in 2013.
What would be the benefit of one nuclear bomb dropped from a balloon???
The immediate response would be hundreds of ICBM strikes and would likely impede the initial attackers possibilities for second strike!? You couldn't conceive anything much more suicidal than this.
People not reading too many phantasy/tinfoil- hat literature would attribute this to something as mundane as an airship.
My sense is that whereas a satellite can look straight down, an airship can amongst other abilities, help provide a more 3D landscape.
Right now there is yet another Chinese ship measuring the sea floor around the islands of Japan.
Chinese naval survey vessel enters Japan's waters | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Right now there is yet another Chinese ship measuring the sea floor around the islands of Japan.
Chinese naval survey vessel enters Japan's waters | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Perception is both powerful and pliable.
Update:- from the Seattle Times:
While Trudeau described the object Saturday as “unidentified,” Anand said it appeared to be “a small cylindrical object, smaller than the one that was downed off the coast of North Carolina.” A NORAD spokesman, Maj. Olivier Gallant, said the military had determined what it was but would not reveal details.
If you can put a device with a low/undetectable radar signature over a foreign country then you have a useful means of first-strike attack.
The only problem I can see is that to avoid being visibly detected you would have to stay in cloud. And balloons navigate by varying their height so as to stay in a layer of wind moving in the direction they want to go, so they might have to move out of cloud occasionally. But this could be handled by waiting until the right meteorological conditions....
The only problem I can see is that to avoid being visibly detected you would have to stay in cloud. And balloons navigate by varying their height so as to stay in a layer of wind moving in the direction they want to go, so they might have to move out of cloud occasionally. But this could be handled by waiting until the right meteorological conditions....
Gas balloons can gain height by dropping ballast and lose height by venting gas but they still go downwind and there is a limit to how many times it can be done. Moreover, ballast is carried at the expense of payload.
I am pretty sure a satellite can take an oblique optical image too, no to mention they can use other sensors to produce 3D imagery (otherwise how would we have 3D mapping of the Moon and Mars?)
???
What would be the benefit of one nuclear bomb dropped from a balloon???
The immediate response would be hundreds of ICBM strikes and would likely impede the initial attackers possibilities for second strike!? You couldn't conceive anything much more suicidal than this.
What would be the benefit of one nuclear bomb dropped from a balloon???
The immediate response would be hundreds of ICBM strikes and would likely impede the initial attackers possibilities for second strike!? You couldn't conceive anything much more suicidal than this.
They were trying to demonstrate that they have a capability to fly over other countries with a low probability of detection. They got away with this for a few years. In the past few weeks not so much.
They were gathering vast amounts of short range comms data. My bet is that they've downloaded (and uplinked) gobsmackingly large amounts of this. The key stuff will be encrypted but they now have a very large database of transmissions to feed into their decryption/hacking/jamming processes. Not many other ways to do this. Only other way is people on the ground with covert receivers near enough to the transmitting sources.
For the tinfoil hat brigade there are other, very light, and debilitating/lethal weapons that are ideal for release from balloons/airships. Something non-lethal would be ideal. Just releasing a massive cloud of influenza virus would be a very effective weapon. Sick people don't fight well. Another option is to use them to carry incendiaries and start big forest fires. As we've seen, natural forest fires absorb a lot of military manpower and assets to tackle.
There is history of the use of balloons as intercontinental weapons. The Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb If they had been steerable and had solar propulsion (as the Chinese UAV airships are) then they could have been a lot more effective.
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Call me old fashioned, but telling whoever launched it that it interfered with their F-22 sensors is giving away technical intelligence. It points whoever it was that launched it that they are on the right track to develop a system to disrupt the F-22 systems.
So let's see.
There was an object. Check.
It was flying. Check.
It was not identified. Check.
Maybe we should call it an OFNI, or, er... an OFU?
There was an object. Check.
It was flying. Check.
It was not identified. Check.
Maybe we should call it an OFNI, or, er... an OFU?
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The US is playing exactly into Chinas hands, what have they got to lose by sending barrages of balloons over there? Nothing! By the way Cylindrical objects with no form of propulsion sounds like a helium filled balloon to me. This is basic crap that comes from the WW2 playbook, the US should know better. This is a test, possibly a diversion I’m not sure but I’m pretty sure as hell it’s time to forget niceties and prepare to take on the Commie bastards! History has shown Communism always degenerates into dictatorship time and time again.
???
What would be the benefit of one nuclear bomb dropped from a balloon???
The immediate response would be hundreds of ICBM strikes and would likely impede the initial attackers possibilities for second strike!? You couldn't conceive anything much more suicidal than this.
What would be the benefit of one nuclear bomb dropped from a balloon???
The immediate response would be hundreds of ICBM strikes and would likely impede the initial attackers possibilities for second strike!? You couldn't conceive anything much more suicidal than this.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/wp-c...detonation.png
Not sure how the US or Canada are at fault here? China is deliberately violating their airspace with reconnaissance balloons and then taking a page from the Russian playbook - Deny, cast doubt, mock. We've seen this exact tactic played over and over the last year. It's a sure sign they're up to no good.
I find it a worrying turn of events - why do they feel the need to do this now?
Perhaps to probe US Nuclear capabilities pre-Taiwan invasion, or to pass Intel to their Russian friends? All it takes is a satellite uplink. Maybe one day a balloon manages to get over the mainland with a bucket of sunshine.
I dont blame them for shooting them down.
I find it a worrying turn of events - why do they feel the need to do this now?
Perhaps to probe US Nuclear capabilities pre-Taiwan invasion, or to pass Intel to their Russian friends? All it takes is a satellite uplink. Maybe one day a balloon manages to get over the mainland with a bucket of sunshine.
I dont blame them for shooting them down.
But I do take issue at the shoot first policy which seems to be in place for UFO, because that is what they have so far admitted the second two objects are. As I said before, maybe they did know more than they are saying, and the use of force is justified. But the use of force should be a last resort, not the first, as seems to be the case here for, what seems to me, largely political reasons.
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That would have been true a few decades back, but if you have onboard power (e.g. solar) , then you can use pumps and valves to inflate or deflate a separate bladder in order to adjust the buoyancy (and therefore control altitude) indefinitely. These are known as "air ballast" systems and have been used in research balloons since at least the turn of the century.
The ballonet was first described in 1783 by Jean Baptiste Meusnier, then a lieutenant in the French Army.
A ballonet is an air bag inside the outer envelope of an airship which, when inflated, reduces the volume available for the lifting gas, making it more dense. Because air is also denser than the lifting gas, inflating the ballonet reduces the overall lift, while deflating it increases lift. In this way, the ballonet can be used to adjust the lift as required.
Ballonets may typically be used in non-rigid or semi-rigid airships, commonly with multiple ballonets located both fore and aft to maintain balance and to control the pitch of the airship.
Ballonets may typically be used in non-rigid or semi-rigid airships, commonly with multiple ballonets located both fore and aft to maintain balance and to control the pitch of the airship.
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