Objects being shot down

[MillauFr]

The Gulf of Tonkin 2.0.

 

[JLTraveling]

Definitely aliens. But actually, I read an article earlier that said this stuff has always been there, it's run of the mill surveillance, we just have better technology to track it now. Or maybe aliens...

 

[Neapolitan Ice Cream]

Definitely aliens. But actually, I read an article earlier that said this stuff has always been there, it's run of the mill surveillance, we just have better technology to track it now. Or maybe aliens...

Many of the objects have been balloons, simple as. But some have been described as "atypical" and "cylindrical" in nature. Which is suspicious.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm rather fascinated, particularly since the most recent one was shot down relatively close to my area. The Alaska and Yukon ones are the most interesting, though, because the details have been the most curious and the conflicting accounts by the pilots make a fun space for wild theories. The Lake Huron one was described as octagonal and flying at much lower altitude than the others (20K feet as opposed to 40K in AK/YT and 60K in SC), so it doesn't seem like it'll turn out to be quite the same thing as the others. Whatever that last one was looking for, it must have been between where ever it came from and when it was picked up because there's not much of anything noteworthy in the section of Michigan it crossed before meeting its end.

I suspect it will all have a really boring explanation like some country - China, most likely - testing out various types of unmanned spy craft paired with better detection technology or increased vigilance after the first one was shot down, but in the meantime, details like a pilot claiming the thing interfered with his instruments is kind of amusing to speculate about.

 

[dioxide45]

Not really sure what to make of them. If they are from a foreign country, what kind of payloads could they be carrying or carry in the future that could just be dropped. Perhaps something to take out an electrical grid, or even chemical or bio weapons.

 

[Mysterian]

Who could be up to such nefarious chicanery??

"Today's forecast: Cloudy... with a chance of EVIL!"

 

[goofyernmost]

Since there are space satellites that can clearly photograph the license plate on a car, the idea that they are still using civil war balloon spying is bordering on the ridiculas. Just shows that today's technology isn't all there is out there. The one thing we can be sure of is that if they were floating around up there for legitimate reasons we would have heard a major uproar by now. Silence is it's own indicator.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

It doesn’t what they are.
What matters is the US is Sovereign Nation, and we need to protect our boarders.

maybe these balloons are a commercial accident
maybe they are a military exercise to test our resolve….
maybe we will never know.

Bottom line it doesn’t matter

 

[pigletto]

We are in a new Cold War. Things like this were probably common in years past …in fact we know spy balloons were nothing new. A quick Google search will show you the West engages in the same behaivour. The difference is, geopolitical tensions are much higher than they’ve been in recent memory and we are on alert in our airspace. After all, we are pretty heavily involved in a hot war at the moment. My guess is what has changed is the orders to report and deal with these things because of the current tensions.

 

[GAN]

Since there are space satellites that can clearly photograph the license plate on a car, the idea that they are still using civil war balloon spying is bordering on the ridiculas. Just shows that today's technology isn't all there is out there. The one thing we can be sure of is that if they were floating around up there for legitimate reasons we would have heard a major uproar by now. Silence is it's own indicator.

Exactly …which explains why it’s North Korea

 

[MillauFr]

Who could be up to such nefarious chicanery??

"Today's forecast: Cloudy... with a chance of EVIL!"

One million dollars!!!!!!

 

[MillauFr]

We have nothing to fear but fear itself.....

 

[AvidDisReader]

Since there are space satellites that can clearly photograph the license plate on a car, the idea that they are still using civil war balloon spying is bordering on the ridiculas. Just shows that today's technology isn't all there is out there. The one thing we can be sure of is that if they were floating around up there for legitimate reasons we would have heard a major uproar by now. Silence is it's own indicator.

The balloon technology is Not new. During WWII the Japanese sent balloons with bombs to the US. Several actually exploded in US, but they were in remote areas and never were reported.

 

[_19disnA]

Not anything I lose sleep over. Gives the conspiracy crowd something to chat about. If they were going to release some bio/chemical weapon from 60,000 feet as some have speculated, it would disperse long before it ever got to the ground. Does seem a bit strange that China was so anxious to clain ownership of that first one shot down. They could have said nothing and hope we blamed some other country. Perhaps some inept weather research people let one get away in error. All of these apparently float on the jet stream with limited ability to direct where they go. Not very efficient when you can precisely position orbiting satellites if the goal is surveillance.

 

[dioxide45]

Not anything I lose sleep over. Gives the conspiracy crowd something to chat about. If they were going to release some bio/chemical weapon from 60,000 feet as some have speculated, it would disperse long before it ever got to the ground. Does seem a bit strange that China was so anxious to clain ownership of that first one shot down. They could have said nothing and hope we blamed some other country. Perhaps some inept weather research people let one get away in error. All of these apparently float on the jet stream with limited ability to direct where they go. Not very efficient when you can precisely position orbiting satellites if the goal is surveillance.

The bio or chemical weapons might not necessarily disperse at 60,000 feet. It could be dropped and triggered to disperse much lower. Anything is really possible with these. That is of course a worst case scenario and the human psyche is set to dismiss the worst case as not really probable.

 

[DLgal]

Not anything I lose sleep over. Gives the conspiracy crowd something to chat about. If they were going to release some bio/chemical weapon from 60,000 feet as some have speculated, it would disperse long before it ever got to the ground. Does seem a bit strange that China was so anxious to clain ownership of that first one shot down. They could have said nothing and hope we blamed some other country. Perhaps some inept weather research people let one get away in error. All of these apparently float on the jet stream with limited ability to direct where they go. Not very efficient when you can precisely position orbiting satellites if the goal is surveillance.

Its kind of hard to feing ignorance when the manufacturer of the payload is stamped all over it.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

This just in. Several objects were shot down over Phoenix Arizona..... Oh wait. That was the Eagles Superbowl aspirations.

 

[Imzadi]

This just in. Several objects were shot down over Phoenix Arizona..... Oh wait. That was the Eagles Superbowl aspirations.

Speaking of the southwest, why didn't the first spy balloon fly over Area 51? Oh, wait, that's because these aliens already know what's there.

 

[Princesca]

I'm really curious about these as well. I suspect that these are fairly common and we are just seeing more of them now because we're more vigilant after the Chinese balloon incident and/or refinements in our own surveillance tech. These could also be corporate in origin. Though, if they're so common, and they're flying at commercial altitudes, why haven't more commercial planes reported them, or passengers reported seeing any?

Some people have said these are unlikely to be extraterrestrial because of the comparatively rudimentary technology involved, but of course then there's the theory that any advanced civilization wanting to check us out wouldn't use their more advanced tech because it would violate best principles of first contact - not exposing cultures to tech they aren't advanced enough to use responsibly. And I realize it sounds weird to even talk about that, but I think the odds that there isn't sentient life somewhere in our universe, given the massive number of galaxies, is super slim. The law of averages suggests it's almost certain.

Anyway... I'm curious to see how this pans out (though we don't seem to be getting any useful info at any kind of speed) but I'm also going down too many news rabbit holes between following this and the evolving train derailment situation.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Speaking of the southwest, why didn't the first spy balloon fly over Area 51? Oh, wait, that's because these aliens already know what's there.

They did fly over Area 51 and looked in with their invisible mismo beam. They had a cloaking device and released a balloon to distract us.