Chinese spy balloon

This is my guess since flight trackers seem to show that we’ve had electronic warfare planes flying along with what was its likely track.

Although the (joking) theory that it’s collecting data from phones with TikTok was entertaining.

 

The Chinese claim it's a weather balloon that was blown off course. When it comes to the Chinese we should take their statements for what they're worth.
China says balloon over U.S. is for weather research, was blown off course

 

riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight....

 

Probably filled with Covid virus.

 

Air Force opposes Chinese-owned corn plant for North Dakota | The Hill

The U.S. Air Force has told North Dakota leaders that it believes a Chinese company’s plans to build a wet corn milling plant near its Grand Forks base poses a “significant threat to national security,” prompting city officials to say they’ll move to stop a project once touted as an economic boon.

The Fufeng Group’s planned $700 million facility would be 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, a location that triggered some local concern about potential espionage. Gov. Doug Burgum and U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer — all Republicans — pressed the federal government in July to expedite a review of any security risk.
...................
The Grand Forks Air Force Base is a center for both air and space operations, according to a letter sent to Hoeven and Cramer by Andrew Hunter, an assistant secretary of the Air Force. The senators released the correspondence Tuesday.

“The proposed project presents a significant threat to national security with both near- and long-term risks of significant impacts to our operations in the area,” Hunter wrote. The letter didn’t offer any evidence that Fufeng is a threat, nor did it detail what kind of risks the company’s business might pose.

 

seems like a ripe target for some long range shooters..

 

Non zero chance it’s full of fentanyl

 

apparently this isn't the first time this has happened

US Tracking Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon Spotted Over Montana (businessinsider.com)
A senior US defense official, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said that the US considered shooting down the balloon on Wednesday but decided it was not worth the potential risk of debris falling on people and property below.

"Clearly, the intent of the balloon is first surveillance, and so the current flight path does carry it over a number of sensitive sites," the official said. However, the US has assessed "it does not create significant value-added over and above what the [People's Republic of China] is likely able to collect through things like satellites in low-Earth orbit. But out of an abundance of caution we have taken additional mitigation steps."
.......................
According to NBC, it is believed to have flown over a chain of volcanic islands off the coast of Russia and Alaska, making its way across Canada and reaching Montana on Wednesday.

"It is not the first time that you've had a balloon of this nature cross over the continental United States," the official said. "It's happened a handful of other times over the past few years, to include before this administration. It is appearing to hang out for a longer period of time this time around, more persistent than in previous instances, so that would be one distinguishing factor."

 

So if they send one of those with an EMP device attached to it, we would be (expletive deleted).

 

Since we have the Idiot Du Jour in the White House,
the Chinese are declaring force majeure.

 

Exactly what I thought...

 

Sacre Bleu! Check out the esprit de corps here!

 

The Chinese, first and foremost, are studying how we REACT to it. This isn't an accident...everything they do has long range objectives...

 

So those previous flights were acts of genious by the occupant of the wh at the time?

 

We should let it go all the way to our east coast and bring it down over our territorial waters in the Atlantic. Navy/ CG can pick it up. That way the COVID/fentanyl/other contaminants that might be “protecting” it from our interference no longer threaten us. Now that I think about it, it probably is carrying medicine to be dropped on the sick whales over there. Aren’t all important medicines made in China.

 

The people that have to copy our technology to innovate apparently are also masters of 3D chess and global strategy

 

Or even worse - Covid vaccine

 

Very long range shooters considering the balloon's altitude is reported to be 60,000 feet.

 

It may not be so easy to shoot down the balloon, without missiles or some specialized weapon. Canadians tried to shoot down a weather balloon that was drifting over Iceland towards Norway, and were unable to bring it down after firing 1,000 rounds into it. It was a helium balloon, and it leaked helium and lost altitude, but they could not successfully bring it down.

When a weather balloon went rogue almost 25 years ago, fighter jets fired 1,000 rounds at it and couldn't bring it down (yahoo.com)