• aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    This is like the reverse of when the US would send objects to Cuba to trigger their Soviet air defense radars, to figure out how to build aircraft that could fly over there undetected. But now it's China probing the US defences. And the US has figured out how to reliably track these objects now. At least that's what I think.

    But with every object shot down, China learns more about how the US air defense and fighter planes work. And if the objects don't get shot down, well China knows that they've evaded detection by the US. A win win situation for China, if you put diplomacy aside.

    In essence, during the early 1960s, the CIA launched radar reflectors on balloons off Cuba's coastline via a U.S. Navy submarine and employed an electronic warfare system called PALLADIUM that would trick the latest Soviet radar systems into showing their operators that enemy aircraft were rushing toward Cuban shores or doing all types of crazy maneuvers. This coaxed the Cuban air defense system and its radars to light up and spurred rapid communications between air defenders on the island.

    The balloon-borne radar reflectors of different sizes also showed up on the Soviet radars, and by monitoring the targets that the radar operators concentrated on, and thus could detect, it was determined how sensitive their Soviet radar systems actually were.

    From an article written during 2021

    Would be incredibly funny if China is using 1960s CIA ops against the USA lol

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think it's stupider than that and they just went off course

      • invalidusernamelol [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, this lines up with actual serious weather events. I think the bigger play is the US increasing "preparedness" and previously ignored civilian incursions are now triggering interceptions.

        Also all these pilots are finally on clearance to go live and are finding any excuse to shoot shit that they can.

        • alcoholicorn [comrade/them, doe/deer]
          ·
          2 years ago

          How long until some retired engineer just cruising around in a home-made gyrocopter gets shot down?

          Or a sidewinder misses the balloon and decides to target a civilian plane?