Comment by nirui | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nirui | Hacker News Reader

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Is it weird for me (a Chinese) to reply this?

I don't really think the three-buses-wide balloon is a good idea for spying since everybody (including the radar) can see it coming, but I imagine this will be quite effective for search and rescue support, battlefield surveillance and all the other short-term missions that could put such disposable flying electronics better good use.

If I remembered it correctly, China Mobile has tested a drone-based base station which can provide cell service over a short period of time, and they were using the system during a earthquake rescue with some success. Maybe using balloon is an better idea.

PS. Funny thing. I was planing to build and release a water probe since I live very close to the Yangtze river. Thought I can probably measure the water speed with the probe by letting it send back it's GPS position, plus some pretty pictures via cell/SMS. I haven't started the project though, due to many hurdles. One of them is to figure out what trouble I can get myself into after the probe encountered something it shouldn't have (because I have no control over it after release). I don't really want to have a chat with CIA, or even worse, the water police (yup, and they got jet boats).

The leading theory US intelligence has put forward is that this was done by mistake, which explains why they haven't shot it down yet. They're trying to draw out this bizarre and embarrassing situation as much as possible while simultaneously showing that they don't feel threatened by it.

If it's truly a mistake and I were tasked on handling this issue, I'll probably publicly notify the US about the the incoming balloon and tell them "feel free to shot it down before it reaches the US to prevent the balloon from causing any trouble".

The silence before the event went public tells me another story through.

Also because of upcoming talks between the US and China on easing Taiwan tensions.

These won't be off to a good start if they'd shoot down something Chinese now.

They're already off to a bad start with the Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over the US in the first place. Incredibly awkward. This kind of thing is not normal. That's why it's front page news. Well within rights to shoot it down or render it inoperable.

It should be shot down if the Chinese won't be up front about what it is and why it's here and continue to deny that it's theirs.

It's in US airspace with no apology or intention by the Chinese to remove it. Shooting it down is totally reasonable

They’ve since admitted that this occurred 3 times during the Trump administration and once at the start of the Biden administration, but never disclosed it to the public. That makes the ‘accident’ theory impossible to believe.

It's a herring; a distraction signal for which the CCP can garner analysis of the United States decision response calculus. If US were to attack the balloon, it would set a jurisdictional precedent bringing into question many considerations of the disputed Taiwanese and South China Sea airspace, perhaps even geo-sync satellites.

Nobody's talking about the spy sats that are further up, balloon is just a caricature to drum up support for either side, humiliate one party, etc.

War never changes.

thats basically what https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loon_LLC was mostly for I think. its a really good idea though, and pretty cool technology.

I think it only makes sense for battlefield surveillance if its augmenting some small gap in existing ISR operations, combined with UAVs + satellites + whatever other aircraft. it definitely would not replace any of those aforementioned vehicles/technologies wholesale.

    PS. Funny thing.

Can you confirm or deny a CCP military base on the ground fired a laser at a USAF pilot causing damage to eyesight?

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