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The military isn’t allowed to shoot down drones in the US. There was a WSJ story last month about drones flying over Langley for 2 weeks. All the general could

The military isn’t allowed to shoot down drones in the US. There was a WSJ story last month about drones flying over Langley for 2 weeks. All the general could do is stand on the roof and watch

ANewFormation 2y ago
Yeah they can only shoot down unidentified weather balloons.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  IIRC there were multiple instances of the balloons and the one they shot down was intentionally shot down in a relatively safe area.
  - ANewFormation 2y ago
    They shot down at least 3 including one that 100% belonged to a local club, meaning the military had no clue what they were launching missiles at. One was shot down over Lake Huron, and the pilot actually even managed to miss the balloon with his missile. It's like 99 Red Balloons meets Idiocracy. Obviously the military can shoot down whatever they want, let alone use EM tech, which is highly effective at grounding drones. Drones keep getting sighted near the exact areas that would be testing out drone militarization, and not getting shot down. Gee, I wonder who's they might be. People would be so dramatically more informed if they dropped social media and corporate news.
    - obmelvin 2y ago
      1) there was a very public delay to shoot down anything even remotely above people. They just aren’t going to shoot something down over a city From the WSJ article I mentioned: “ Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn’t qualify, though some lawmakers hope to give the military greater leeway” 2) as you probably know, the pilot doesn’t really guide the missile…calling the pilot an idiot just clearly shows you have an axe to grind. Also, it’s not like the seekers are calibrated to take out balloons. 3) regarding EW - the tech is obviously still evolving and not always deployed “ U.S. officials said they didn’t know who operated the drones in Nevada, a previously unreported incursion, or for what reason. A spokeswoman said the facility has since upgraded a system to detect and counter drones.” Also, it is certainly possible to harden drones against EW as is being done in Ukraine on an evolving basis
      - ANewFormation 2y ago
        Just think rationally - in one case you had completely harmless weather balloons, and the government completely freaked out, scrambled fighters and even recklessly launched missiles at them. Here you have supposedly car sized drones operating, in large numvers, in high risk areas and the government response is nonexistent. Nearby flights have not even been diverted as they do when there's the slightest security risk in an area.
        ANewFormation 2y ago
        Check any radiation map to see what's probably happening. Parts of New York, in the vicinity of the sightings, are showing extremely high radiation levels. Its probably just drones searching for the source with the secrecy aimed at trying to avoid a mass panic.
        AlexeyBelov 2y ago
        Can you link a map?
        ANewFormation 2y ago
        A web search will turn up a bunch. Here's one - https://www.gmcmap.com https://www.gmcmap.com
        llamaimperative 2y ago
        Looking at the history of the one counter currently showing elevated levels (northjerseymike), it looks like the current value is well within variance of historical levels. I jumped back 10, 50, and 100 pages and without plotting, it didn't seem anything is notable about more recent data. Also... why wouldn't the feds just say they're inspecting infrastructure and avoid the entire question...? IMO this is almost certainly a commercial LIDAR mapping effort plus right wing conspiratorial hysteria.

The military isn’t allowed to shoot down drones in the US. There was a WSJ story last month about drones flying over Langley for 2 weeks. All the general could do is stand on the roof and watch

ANewFormation 2y ago

Yeah they can only shoot down unidentified weather balloons.

bee_rider 2y ago
IIRC there were multiple instances of the balloons and the one they shot down was intentionally shot down in a relatively safe area.
- ANewFormation 2y ago
  They shot down at least 3 including one that 100% belonged to a local club, meaning the military had no clue what they were launching missiles at. One was shot down over Lake Huron, and the pilot actually even managed to miss the balloon with his missile. It's like 99 Red Balloons meets Idiocracy. Obviously the military can shoot down whatever they want, let alone use EM tech, which is highly effective at grounding drones. Drones keep getting sighted near the exact areas that would be testing out drone militarization, and not getting shot down. Gee, I wonder who's they might be. People would be so dramatically more informed if they dropped social media and corporate news.
  - obmelvin 2y ago
    1) there was a very public delay to shoot down anything even remotely above people. They just aren’t going to shoot something down over a city From the WSJ article I mentioned: “ Federal law prohibits the military from shooting down drones near military bases in the U.S. unless they pose an imminent threat. Aerial snooping doesn’t qualify, though some lawmakers hope to give the military greater leeway” 2) as you probably know, the pilot doesn’t really guide the missile…calling the pilot an idiot just clearly shows you have an axe to grind. Also, it’s not like the seekers are calibrated to take out balloons. 3) regarding EW - the tech is obviously still evolving and not always deployed “ U.S. officials said they didn’t know who operated the drones in Nevada, a previously unreported incursion, or for what reason. A spokeswoman said the facility has since upgraded a system to detect and counter drones.” Also, it is certainly possible to harden drones against EW as is being done in Ukraine on an evolving basis
    - ANewFormation 2y ago
      Just think rationally - in one case you had completely harmless weather balloons, and the government completely freaked out, scrambled fighters and even recklessly launched missiles at them. Here you have supposedly car sized drones operating, in large numvers, in high risk areas and the government response is nonexistent. Nearby flights have not even been diverted as they do when there's the slightest security risk in an area.
      - ANewFormation 2y ago
        Check any radiation map to see what's probably happening. Parts of New York, in the vicinity of the sightings, are showing extremely high radiation levels. Its probably just drones searching for the source with the secrecy aimed at trying to avoid a mass panic.
        AlexeyBelov 2y ago
        Can you link a map?
        ANewFormation 2y ago
        A web search will turn up a bunch. Here's one - https://www.gmcmap.com https://www.gmcmap.com
        llamaimperative 2y ago
        Looking at the history of the one counter currently showing elevated levels (northjerseymike), it looks like the current value is well within variance of historical levels. I jumped back 10, 50, and 100 pages and without plotting, it didn't seem anything is notable about more recent data. Also... why wouldn't the feds just say they're inspecting infrastructure and avoid the entire question...? IMO this is almost certainly a commercial LIDAR mapping effort plus right wing conspiratorial hysteria.