Journal damn_registrars's Journal: What if China wanted the balloon shot down? 5
We took down the Chinese Spy Balloon over the Atlantic coast off the Carolinas. We might - or might not - ever hear from our government what was actually on the balloon in terms of monitoring equipment.
Lots of people are playing Armchair General over when we should have shot down the balloon, and of course lots of them are getting important facts wrong about who said what when. I'm interesting in proposing a different hypothesis on the matter here; I'm confident others have considered it but I haven't heard it brought up.
What if China sent it specifically for us to shoot it down? It sounds a little odd at first, but something like this makes for an interesting penetration test for a country's military. Considering all the different weapons we could throw at it, a certain decision had to be made on which weapon to use - as well as the where and the when. If the balloon was operating in or above the jetstream (which google suggests to be 4-8 miles above the earth), that does restrict the weapon choices somewhat.
It would of course be really useful to know what was on the balloon. I fully support the notion that it was monitoring something from up there, and likely wasn't just taking pictures as China has their own spy satellites in orbit do to that. I do wonder though if being shot down might have been one of the operational goals of the balloon's mission.
Lots of people are playing Armchair General over when we should have shot down the balloon, and of course lots of them are getting important facts wrong about who said what when. I'm interesting in proposing a different hypothesis on the matter here; I'm confident others have considered it but I haven't heard it brought up.
What if China sent it specifically for us to shoot it down? It sounds a little odd at first, but something like this makes for an interesting penetration test for a country's military. Considering all the different weapons we could throw at it, a certain decision had to be made on which weapon to use - as well as the where and the when. If the balloon was operating in or above the jetstream (which google suggests to be 4-8 miles above the earth), that does restrict the weapon choices somewhat.
It would of course be really useful to know what was on the balloon. I fully support the notion that it was monitoring something from up there, and likely wasn't just taking pictures as China has their own spy satellites in orbit do to that. I do wonder though if being shot down might have been one of the operational goals of the balloon's mission.
The goal is distraction (Score:1)
Worked like a charm
Re: (Score:2)
Who is trying to distract who, from what?
Re: (Score:1)
:-) It's whom. "Who is trying to distract whom?" and you (collectively) need to be distracted from the corrupt politicians you just reelected for the umpteenth time. This week it's a balloon that could have been launched by a couple of college students for all you know. Truly hilarious
Re: (Score:2)
I see nothing's changed here.
*yawn*
Re: (Score:1)
:-) Gee, you woke up just to post that?
Hard to excite the party regulars...