And our military
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“No, no! The gender equity division says ‘don’t shoot’! “
Confirmed: That Chinese spy balloon made fools of the Biden administration
The Chinese spy balloon that was allowed to spend a week flying over the U.S. was able to transmit secret intelligence to Beijing about several military bases “in real time,” according to a Monday morning news report.
Three unnamed officials told NBC News that Communist China was able to “gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites.”
The intel China gathered “was mostly from electronic signals,” according to NBC, “which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials said.”
The balloon could be remotely controlled, allowing it to loiter over military installations like Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. Malmstrom is home to more than 3,000 Air Force personnel of the 341st Missile Wing. They operate three squadrons of Minuteman III nuclear missiles — one-third of our ground-based nuclear deterrent.
The balloon also spent a little time over Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Whiteman, by the way, is where the Air Force bases its only unit of B-2 Spirit stealth heavy bombers.
You’ll love this next part, also courtesy of NBC News. The Chinese spy balloon was able to report back to Beijing “despite U.S. efforts to block it.”
You know what would have put a stop to the spying?
Not by jamming the signal, which the story made no claims ever happened anyway. Not by playing hide-and-seek, which is only good against video spying and not the signals intel the balloon was gathering. And certainly not by publicly dithering over what to do.
The correct course of action, when a rival’s spy balloon flies into our airspace, is to shoot the thing down. That’s exactly what the Biden Administration finally did, after Beijing’s aircraft had finished its cross-country tour of the continental United States. It even “at times [flew] figure eight formations” over our most sensitive military installations, including our nuclear missiles and nuclear-capable stealth bombers.
This assessment sounds spot-on:
…. The first mission, of course, was a leisurely tour of American military bases. The second mission was publicly humiliating the dithering Presidentish Joe Biden.
If I had to guess, the second mission — while not its primary job — revealed far more about America’s readiness than anything it saw or heard over Malmstrom or Whiteman Air Force.
