We still use U-2 spy planes? Spy ballon info from the State Dept.

[underpants]

Chinese balloon was capable of collecting communications, U.S. says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/09/chinese-balloon-surveillance-program/

The State Department on Thursday released several data points on China’s high-altitude balloon surveillance program, declassifying information collected by U.S. U-2 spy planes and other sources to expose what it’s calling a sophisticated effort to surveil “more than 40 countries across 5 continents.”

The U.S. government release said that high resolution imagery captured during flybys by U-2 spy planes revealed that the ballon was capable of signals intelligence operations far beyond the abilities of a weather balloon, boasting “multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications,” said the official.

The State Department said China’s balloon spy operations are carried out by the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, using balloons that are manufactured by firm that has a direct relationship with China’s military, according to the PLA’s procurement documents.

“The company also advertises balloon products on its website and hosts videos from past flights, which appear to have overflown at least U.S. airspace and airspace of other countries,” said the State Department official. “These advertised balloon videos seemingly have similar flight patterns as the balloons we have been discussing this week.”

[Ray Bruns]

1. Yes. And the US complaining about other countries invading our sovereignty

Is a little like the pot calling the kettle black

[Irish_Dem]

3. Exactly. And we never talk about surveillance, ours or anyone else.

It's classified.

The whole Chinese balloon story was odd.

[Happy Hoosier]

6. It was noticed by the public.

That pretty much demanded a public response.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Government usually lies.

There have been objects around nuclear silos for a long time.

USAF see them.

Public gets told a story about weather balloons, swamp gas, etc.

[Irish_Dem]

10. During the Viet Nam war, the Reconnaissance pilots used the weather balloon story.

I lived next door to a USAF reconnaissance pilot during the Viet Nam war.
We lived overseas in Southeast Asia.

He was a young captain and lived next door with his wife and children.
I babysat the kids often.

He used to go on TDY (away missions) and I once asked him were he was going before one of his trips.
Which I knew better than to ask, but asked anyway.

He said he was going to a certain location to drop off weather balloons and he would be gone a week.
I know the location was not far from where we were living. No way it would take a week to drop
off some weather balloons.

Just like my USAF Dad, for four years during the VN war if I asked him where he was going he always said
Da Nang. But that was certainly not the case as I learned later.

[mopinko]

12. they did use weather balloons, but not so much in country.

my bro was stationed at fort ord. they launched balloons there to determine the best time to seed the clouds over the ho chi mon trail. he flew those sorties, tho at the time he swore he rarely left cali.

[Irish_Dem]

16. Yes. Exactly the balloons were used for surveillance purposes, to gather info for the war effort.

If my neighbor was dropping weather balloons it was not to tell us on base what the weather would be.
Like my neighbor was implying.

I still had my doubts about that story for some of his other mission activities.

Shortly before, one of my Dept of Defense teachers had talked about teaching the son of Gary Powers.
Famous ex-USAF pilot shot down over Russian in a U2 spy plane.

I also knew that some of the dads, including mine were flying air refuelers for long distance flights.
We knew how far the air refuelers allowed planes to fly.
They were not just going back and forth to South Viet Nam like they said.
Later one of my cousins told me what was happening. He had served in VN.

But when you are a military kid you learn to keep your thoughts and questions to yourself.
You put people in danger if you talk about these things.

But all the talk about weather balloons made me think of the young captain next door flying
missions to Viet Nam with his weather balloons.

[Happy Hoosier]

15. Yeah, but it's not the 1960's anymore...

An in any case, I strongly suspect that Biden decided to make it public as part of effort to push back on the Chinese a bit.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Just talking about the history. "Weather balloons" shouldn't be a shock to people.

Of course Biden released classified info for a clear reason.

I still don't know the reason.

But yes pushback on China perhaps.

Also for some reason he wanted to cancel the upcoming meeting with China and Blinken?

[Darwins_Retriever]

4. You prefer that we not spy on our adversaries

When any country discovers a US spy or detect fly overs, they complain about us invading their sovereignty. How often have you heard the US complain about satellite flyovers? In a previous life, I would receive messages concerning satellite flyovers done by our foes and friends. I would then notify INSCOM units affected by the flyover, and they would close down.

[Ray Bruns]

9. I never said or suggested any such a thing. All I said is we shouldn't get our panties in

tied in a knot when we catch someone doing to us what we regularly do it to others.

[Happy Hoosier]

5. ....

.... The fact that nations (including us) violate airspace for surveillance doesn't mean we just give other nations a free pass. This is a classic case of "everybody does it, but if you get CAUGHT, that shit is on you." So yeah, we do it. But we fully expect our adversaries to attempt to stop us if and when they can, and we act accordingly. So most of our surveillance is going to be using satellites. In the vast majority of cases, that will be plenty good. The use of something like a U-2 (or the SR-71 when that was around, and it's follow-on, which hasn't been revealed) happens when we need an asset over a location at a specific time and we're pretty confident the adversary can't stop it.

[Liberal In Texas]

2. Yep. Good high altitude aircraft.

Even NASA uses variants of them. And they've been modified over the years for different jobs and have had updated engines installed.

[underpants]

11. Must be. I just didn't know we still used them.

[VMA131Marine]

8. Up until 2020 (Trump) the US was a member of the Open Skies Treaty

Russia withdrew shortly after we did. So Trump made it much more difficult to surveil Russian strategic weapons. So there is still a role for manned aerial reconnaissance.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Open_Skies

[sarisataka]

14. I recall the last Russian flight

Under the Open Skies Treaty. There were many critics of the former administration for allowing the Russians to fly over US bases as authorized under the treaty. Some deemed it treason.

Then there was the withdrawal from the treaty which was criticized for making it more difficult to verify compliance with arms control treaties.

Now there is criticism of US action over a Chinese intelligence gathering operation that became very public but had no authorization under any agreement.

Interestingly some seem to believe the Biden administration is lying about the balloon and its purpose while believing Chinese explanations.

It is difficult to pin down the variables but the gist seems to be 'the US is in the wrong'.

[Deep State Witch]

13. I Wish That the Repukes Would Just STFU

And let the IC do their jobs.