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Balloons like the one just shot down over Myrtle Beach are part of a Chinese military operation that has been going on for at least three years, perhaps longer.
The Pentagon, it appears, has systematically covered up intrusions into US airspace. Former President Trump. former Defense Secretary Mike Esper, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former NSC Adviser John Bolton, former NSC Adviser Robert O’Brien, former Director of National Intelligence Ric Grinnell and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe say they never heard of any intrusion into US airspace by Chinese balloons. Either they are all lying, or the Pentagon never told them, because the Pentagon has the tools to detect and follow them.
On February 14th and 15th 2022 a Chinese balloon entered Hawaiian air space over the Pacific Missile Test Range facility, the world’s largest instrumented missile test range. It is where American interceptor missiles and radars are tested against anticipated threats. This is during the Biden presidency. Whether Biden was told about the Chinese balloon isn’t known. If he was told, nothing was done about it. If he wasn’t told, how come?
Another Chinese balloon hovered over India’s Port Blair where there is a strategic naval base and where the Andaman-Nicobar Command center is located. The focus of this command is to help India protect its back door and is concerned with keeping the Straits of Malacca open. The Command is aimed at keeping China away from India’s southern coast.
In 2020 a Chinese balloon was observed in Japan in Sendai where Japan maintains an integrated command, North East Army Headquarters and its 6th Army division. This command protects many vital areas including Fukushima. It is probable China was watching Japan’s nuclear program.
In the latest round in the United States China’s balloon operated over US and Canadian airspace from January 28th until February 4th. It covered US strategic installations in Alaska (where we have the Ground Based Interceptor and long range missile defense radars), Malmstrom Air Base in Montana where the US has around 100 missile silos, and other US air bases in Minot North Dakota, Ellsworth Air Base in South Dakota, Warren Air Force base in Wyoming, and Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri.
None of these events can be attributed to unintended intrusions by a weather balloon.
For the record the Chinese Balloon is steerable.
We don’t know what sensors were onboard. A good guess would be multispectral imaging cameras and synthetic aperture radar plus very high resolution color cameras.
The payload of the Chinese balloon was huge, the size of two to three yellow school buses. That’s enough to dump multiple nuclear bombs on the United States and elsewhere. It is enough to set off EMP explosions knocking out US strategic communications.
The debris field from the newly exploded balloon is seven miles long and is in fairly shallow water, around 47 feet. It is 13 miles from the coast and some of it is probably going to wash up on shore. The Pentagon is warning the public not to pick up any of the debris (Is it radioactive?)
It is very strange indeed that Mark Milley, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed shooting down the Chinese balloon. In fact, no one would have even known about it if it had not been spotted by a civilian in Montana. Milley has been remarkably friendly with China and is known to have called and reassured his Chinese counterpart, doing so on his own and not following guidance from the White House or even his Secretary of Defense.
Many of the Pentagon statements and arguments fall wide of the truth. The same can be said of statements from Biden and the White House. Given the possible danger to national security, misleading the public is a terrible idea with serious consequences.
So do the Chinese have really crappy satellites? Is that it?