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A comment on U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Parent comment

Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by NegativeLatency on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:39PM (#34661135)
It could’ve actually been a “science experiment” just launched at the behest of the military as a test like you say. So they’d have plausible deniability like the “fishing boats” in the South China Sea
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by vkou on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:34AM (#34662536)
Why would there need to be any plausible deniability for flying a spy aircraft over another country?

The U-2 spy plane did just that, as did Project Genetrix (Unmanned surveillance balloons), and then later, the SR-71 Blackbird, and as much as the Soviets complained, complaining and shooting at them was pretty much all they could do.

They shot down/recovered so many Project Genetrix balloons, in fact, that their left-over radiation-hardened film was re-used by the Soviet space program in their Luna 3 Moon probe.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by bandyaboot on Sunday February 05, 2023 @02:02AM (#34662653)
> Why would there need to be any plausible deniability for flying a spy aircraft over another country?

Because they’re denying it. Presumably, they’d want their denial to be plausible.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by Fatnino on Sunday February 05, 2023 @02:40AM (#34662810)
Is the US supposed to not complain now just because the USSR got to complain first?

If something flies over your country, you get to loudly complain about it and shoot at it.

If you are able to hit it too, good for you.

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