Pentagon decides not to shoot down Chinese spy balloon over US

[MechAg94]

Because if you tell the Chinese that they've got another three years of lockdowns to look forward to then Xi is going to have his hands full.

And my impression is that it hit them hard if not harder than it did the West.

[WLJ]

Biden Announces U.S. Surrender To Chinese Balloon
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-announces-us-surrender-to-chinese-balloon/

[WLJ]

'Why, Hello There Beautiful!' Says Eric Swalwell Suavely Approaching Sexy Chinese Spy Balloon
https://babylonbee.com/news/why-hello-there-beautiful-says-eric-swalwell-suavely-approaching-sexy-chinese-spy-balloon

[MechAg94]

[WLJ]

Pentagon says another Chinese spy balloon is traveling over Latin America
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-another-chinese-spy-balloon-traveling-over-latin-america

[WLJ]

Did they shoot the first one down?
Some reports are saying no so what is going in?

'Explosion in the sky' above Billings Montana where Chinese spy balloon was spotted infiltrating U.S airspace - as residents report seeing jet zoom by after officials came under fire for refusing to shoot it down
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11712125/Explosion-sky-Billings-Montana-Chinese-balloon-spotted-U-S-airspace.html

[MillCreek]

Compare and contrast the PRC spy balloon with the American spy aircraft that have been flying over the PRC for decades.

[cordex]

Compare and contrast the PRC spy balloon with the American spy aircraft that have been flying over the PRC for decades.

Flying over mainland PRC?

[WLJ]

Flying over mainland PRC?

Yeah, I was going to say.
They stay in international airspace nowadays unlike what we were doing in the 1950s.
Modern missiles are just too lethal nowadays

[Ben]

Apparently Canada has reported a potential balloon #2 over their airspace.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-china-spy-canada-idUSL1N34J08B

[Ben]

Did they shoot the first one down?

At this point they might not want to shoot it down as there are Rivet Joint aircraft following it.

[MillCreek]

Flying over mainland PRC?

One article describing Blackbird flights over the PRC in the 70's:
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/29/archives/us-spy-flights-over-china-ended-to-avoid-incident-missions.html

[Nick1911]

One article describing Blackbird flights over the PRC in the 70's:
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/29/archives/us-spy-flights-over-china-ended-to-avoid-incident-missions.html

Think everyone just does that with satellites anymore (correct me if I'm wrong), though as previously mentioned lower altitude equipment can probably kick up the resolution.

[RocketMan]

Did they shoot the first one down?
Some reports are saying no so what is going in?

'Explosion in the sky' above Billings Montana where Chinese spy balloon was spotted infiltrating U.S airspace - as residents report seeing jet zoom by after officials came under fire for refusing to shoot it down
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11712125/Explosion-sky-Billings-Montana-Chinese-balloon-spotted-U-S-airspace.html

Not a shoot down. Just a weirdly lit contrail buffeted by upper level winds.

[MillCreek]

Think everyone just does that with satellites anymore (correct me if I'm wrong), though as previously mentioned lower altitude equipment can probably kick up the resolution.

The U-2 spyplane is still in use today, and for the past several years, there have been rumors that the US is flying a successor to the SR-71, nicknamed the 'Aurora'.  The planes are supposed to have higher imaging resolution equipment than the satellites, and can be easily tasked at short notice to go anywhere, as opposed to waiting for the target of interest to come into view of a satellite.

I have read many books on this over the years, and one of the saddest part of US spy overflights is the number of lost planes and crew over the decades.  The number is considerable.  There are credible rumors of planes being shot down over the Soviet Union and PRC and the crews eventually dying in Communist prison camps. 

[cordex]

One article describing Blackbird flights over the PRC in the 70's:
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/29/archives/us-spy-flights-over-china-ended-to-avoid-incident-missions.html

Ah. I took “for decades” as referring to more recent decades.

[WLJ]

Ah. I took “for decades” as referring to more recent decades.

Me too.

[WLJ]

How convinced are some that this a spy balloon and not as the Chinese are claiming a wayward weather balloon?

[MillCreek]

Ah. I took “for decades” as referring to more recent decades.

As WLJ mentioned earlier, I think modern ground to air missiles have made spy overflights of Russia and China pretty risky business nowadays. The heyday of spy overflights were the 50's to the 80's.  I think the spy overflights of today are over the Middle East, North Korea, and other countries without ground to air missiles capable of very high altitude strikes.

When Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his U-2 over Sverdlovsk in 1960, a salvo of 14 missiles were fired at him and one took down the U-2.  At least one of the missiles shot down one of the Soviet fighters sent to intercept the U-2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aerial_reconnaissance_of_the_Soviet_Union

[WLJ]

IIRC one of the reason we sold F-14s to pre-revolutionary Iran was to stop recon MiG-25 overflights of that country. F-14s armed with AIM-54s were capable of reaching out and touching them. Once they received the F-14s the overflights stopped.

[Ron]

No surprise that Clown World has balloons.

[WLJ]

Biden saying once it's over the ocean they're going to shoot it down.

[Ben]

Biden saying once it's over the ocean they're going to shoot it down.

At that point, what's the point?

[cordex]

At that point, what's the point?

Someone gets to chalk up a kill.

[Ben]

Apparently the US knew about this last week, when the balloon entered US airspace in Northern Idaho (sub prototyping center by the way), then went back into Canada before reentering US airspace.

https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2023/02/04/report-wh-knew-about-the-chinese-spy-balloon-a-week-ago-but-opted-to-hope-nobody-would-notice-it/