Thread by @KanekoaTheGreat

THREAD🚨 #ChineseSpyBalloon

Similar high-altitude surveillance balloons and airships have previously been spotted over Hawaii, Japan, India, and the Phillipines.

2) @TuckerCarlson: "The Pentagon is tracking a very high altitude Chinese spy balloon over the northern US. The Pentagon has decided to not shoot down the balloon even though it's flying over 'sensitive sites.' There are intercontinental ballistic missile silos in that area."

3) The same type of reconnaissance balloon was spotted over Sendai, Japan, on June 17, 2020.

Japanese officials said:

"We have absolutely no idea what it is. It may be some kind of weather monitoring equipment, but it definitely isn’t ours."

4) Japanese officials confirmed that the balloon was "equipped with a cross part hanging beneath it as well as two propellers," but were unable to determine the purpose or owner of the balloon.

mainichi.jp/english/articl…

5) The same type of reconnaissance balloon was spotted over Port Blair, India, on Jan. 6, 2022.

Indian officials were unaware of its origins.

"Zoomed photograph showed some eight dark panel-shaped equipment/objects attached to the flying object."

andamansheekha.com/101331/

6) The Air Force scrambled F-22s to investigate the same type of reconnaissance balloon off the coast of Hawaii on Feb. 16, 2022.

An Air Canada flight spotted the balloon on approach to Honolulu.

thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4…

7) Indo-Pacific Command visually confirmed that it was "an unmanned balloon without observable identification markings" floating in the air near the island of Kauai.

https://twitter.com/HawaiiTAG/status/1494131284314001408

8) The Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai's west coast is one of the US military's most advanced testing sites.

The Navy describes it as "the world's largest instrumented multi-environmental range capable of supporting surface, subsurface, air, and space operations."

9) The USAF F-22s intercepted the "high altitude unmanned balloon" floating north of Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility.

thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4…

11) Hawaii news reported:

"Kauai residents said it looked like jets shot it down, and some heard loud booms. But, the military said it did not fire at the balloon."

hawaiinewsnow.com/2022/02/19/res…

12) A high-altitude surveillance airship was spotted over Pangasinan, Phillippines, on Dec. 18, 2022.

Images of the airship – taken about 62 miles from Subic Bay in the northern Philippines – were first posted on Facebook, then Reddit.

reddit.com/r/LessCredible…

13) Chinese state media reported:

"There is no evidence the airship was from China, though its design appears similar to types on display at the Zhuhai air show."

14) Brazilian media reported that the airship seemed to turn "transparent" and had broad similarities to high-altitude airships that Chinese companies are known to have been working on.

The US and other nations have also developed similar airships.

thedrive.com/the-war-zone/w…

15) A Chinese-language poster depicting the Yuang Meng airship.

China's domestically developed floating airship Jimu-1.

A satellite image showing a Chinese airship in the Spratly islands in the South China Sea in 2019.

A US military airship in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2014.

16) The current Chinese spy balloon flying over the US is flying over "sensitive sites," like the Malmstrom Air Force Base, which holds well over 100 nuclear-tipped ICBM silos.

Red symbolizes active missile fields.

Black is deactivated.

thedrive.com/the-war-zone/c…

17) Meteorologist Dan Satterfield (@wildweatherdan), backtracked the balloon's course and traced it to central China.

https://twitter.com/wildweatherdan/status/1621293636943052801

18) Reporter: "Why not take it down?"

DOD: "Considering the size of the payload, looking at the potential for debris and the impact on civilians... We assessed that it does not pose a risk to people on the ground as it traverses the United States."

Follow👉@TheChiefNerd

19) China does not need to fly a spy balloon over the USA when President Joe Biden's son admitted to working for the "spy chief of China."

The balloon is merely symbolic of China's control over the POTUS.

https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1614794440643874816

20) The intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities of high-altitude spy balloons.

This demonstration features the Raven Aerostar lighter-than-air platform used by NASA, Google, and the U.S. Air Force.