Emergency Update: Chinese Spy Balloon

hello again everyone and welcome back to the underground uh this is the emergency Intel update for the 3rd of February 2023 uh regarding the recent U.S airspace violations and uh potential threats uh so right up front sorry everyone if you kind of hear some background noise I'm working on monitoring a few aircraft that are in kind of my area as well as some emergency uh hfgcs traffic that is going out on the main US Air Force frequencies so trying to keep kind of abreast as to what's going on because uh in case you haven't been on social media or seen what's going on over the past few days uh there's been a pretty serious uh incident regarding uh Chinese incursions of U.S airspace so let's get right to it yesterday afternoon we became publicly aware via a DOD uh leak to NBC news that a Chinese surveillance balloon or possible surveillance balloon is currently in United States airspace it is currently over the state of Montana and has been there and has been in the United States airspace for several days according to the dod uh right up front just want to let everyone know that there is very little information surrounding this the dod is actively concealing the location of the the S p front just want to let everyone know that there is very little information surrounding this the dod is actively concealing the location of the the Spy device itself uh alleged spy device so we don't really know much about it we are also making the assumption that the aircraft itself is unmanned and we're making the assumption that it is a surveillance device we don't know if there's any kind of weapon on board the question hasn't really been broached apparently or I haven't seen anybody really kind of raise that question is is this thing armed is this a weapon is this a first strike capable device that is now you know hover covering over American airspace so as we can see there are really kind of a lot of unknowns but we're going to most certainly be tracking this because it is a very very significant incident I also want to mention that uh Canadian defense officials earlier this morning slash last night made the announcement that there is a potential second balloon inbound to American airspace so apparently that one's over Canada right now we again don't know much about it we don't have any pictures of it again Canadian defense officials are being well they haven't said it all w ight now we again don't know much about it we don't have any pictures of it again Canadian defense officials are being well they haven't said it all where it is so there's kind of a lot of unknowns as to what's going on right now as far as what the US military response has been um the dod press statements have have indicated that they discussed originally shooting the balloon down but decided against that due to the potential to harm people on the ground with debris because this apparently this this this device this aircraft is very very large now now I would like to point out which is what everyone with common sense in the United States has pointed out which is Montana where the balloon is currently is one of the least populated areas of the United States so if you had to pick a place for this balloon to be kinetically engaged to be shot down with a missile or by aircraft uh this is one of the places you would pick because it's one of the least populated places the safest place to down a hostile aircraft so I'm sorry if I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what's going on because um again this is a very serious incident and I'm I've tried umping ahead a little bit I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what's going on because um again this is a very serious incident and I'm I've tried to kind of uh bring my own thoughts into some kind of solidification on this to be a little bit more coherent but I'm afraid that that this is kind of uh kind of shocking to me so I don't think we've ever seen anything like this usually airspace incursions involve uh shooting down the aircraft right this is why we have a Sovereign Nation that's what part of being a Sovereign Nation is we engage potential threats to the Homeland and right now there is a direct clear and present danger a direct threat to the U.S Homeland over American soil right now and we're apparently not going to be doing anything about it as far as what the dod is going to do in the future and what they're doing right now so let me address what they're doing right now first right now there are pretty much every intelligence collection sensor that the United States has is in the air and around that area uh yesterday and slightly this morning I think there were three strato tanker aircraft parked over the western part of Montana and just kind of the region which were slightly this morning I think there were three strato tanker aircraft parked over the western part of Montana and just kind of the region which were intended to refuel almost certainly the fighter aircraft that are probably orbiting this this bad boy uh quite quite a lot so there are also a few rivet joint aircraft a few rc-135s circling the area I've seen at least two I've also personally noticed an E3 Century off the east coast and several p8 poseides doing unknown stuff off the east coast as well I picked those up with my own sensors so yeah a lot of activity this is this is a big deal as one might expect one of the more concerning aircraft uh to to be in the air yesterday I noticed was also an e4b this is the aircraft that serves as the national Airborne operations center and is basically the the command center for World War III so when these kind of aircraft get up and and going the the aacp the advanced Airborne command post when it gets up and going this is kind of a big deal we never want to see Night Watch aircraft in the air uh it's fairly regular we used to have these in the air a lot more often than we have lately but obviously this is one of those incidents where wher r uh it's fairly regular we used to have these in the air a lot more often than we have lately but obviously this is one of those incidents where where we put up our you know break glass in case of World War III assets and those assets are most certainly uh in the Skies over the United States right now as one might expect so as far as what the dod is planning to do with this there are currently no plans that we're aware of to shoot this thing down and it looks like we might just be letting it make its way through U.S airspace so I I don't know if that's going to happen or not but based on the Wind charts that we've seen from NOAA it looks like it's going to be over some fairly populated areas pretty soon that that is if it is in fact unguided my sneaking suspicion is that it's probably got some kind of station keeping you don't put a surveillance aircraft up in the sky that's the size of three school buses and uh just kind of Let It Go where the wind takes it now there's going to be some kind of control method on board that's just my guess so a lot of information to unpack this is very much a developing situation so all of that being said I want to take a moment to kind of bring th guess so a lot of information to unpack this is very much a developing situation so all of that being said I want to take a moment to kind of bring things back and kind of calm things down a little bit because I've said a lot of scary stuff admittedly so um with regards to this incident and I will admit it is a very very concerning incident I don't think that we have seen an incident this concerning especially with regards to China in my lifetime so so this is a once in a lifetime kind of thing and uh but you know it's it's one thing for a a bear you know tu-95 to be off our Coast is another thing for a t142 to be doing some stuff in Europe or but this is way more concerning than any of that so with all of that being said I just want to bring things back to kind of a more central location I guess and say that I'm not exactly looking for missiles to be flying through the air you know I'm not looking for you know nuclear attacks in you know the next 24 hours or so but again this is the kind of thing you might expect if that was the case right sending over very sophisticated aircraft to another nation's Homeland airspace deep inside their terrain we haven't done this stuff since you k right sending over very sophisticated aircraft to another nation's Homeland airspace deep inside their terrain we haven't done this stuff since you know the Francis Gary power shoot down incident right um so that's the last uh serious incident like this I mean even we had the the P3 incident the Heinen island incident specifically with China we weren't even flying in their airspace and they uh clipped one of our p3s a few years ago and that caused a big International big big international incident that kind of got a lot of people worried about the potential for an open conflict between the U.S and China and this right here is is a huge huge escalation I don't think we've seen an escalation like this since the Cuban Missile Crisis and even then the Cuban Missile Crisis was just Khrushchev trying to park some you know missiles 90 miles off the coast of Florida perfectly legally you know there's nothing internationally wrong with doing that at the time now we have airspace violations deep into the heartland of a Sovereign Nation every single nation on earth that is a Sovereign Nation would be concerned with this and would have taken steps to defend themselves from this Potential Thre ingle nation on earth that is a Sovereign Nation would be concerned with this and would have taken steps to defend themselves from this Potential Threat now I want to address some concerns that people might or thoughts people might have had Regarding why we haven't shot it down yet I suppose the main theory that is I guess common sense is that we might not want to shoot it down now because it's probably too late to shoot it down anyway because it's already got the information intelligence uh collected that it wanted so really we want to to try to capture it and see what's on board that's not a bad Theory however I think that kind of goes right out the window when it violates American airspace right if we were to capture this thing before it made its way over our nuclear fields in Montana you know our our nuclear launch sites our missile silos if we had intercepted it before that you know maybe that would have been a better idea than letting it get this far look I'm an Intel guy and I understand the impact that this would have like you know we we've gone through an awful lot of effort to recover uh Soviet submarines or Soviet helicopters right we've gone through an awful lot of effo know we we've gone through an awful lot of effort to recover uh Soviet submarines or Soviet helicopters right we've gone through an awful lot of effort in the past to get the this technology so something like this is a really juicy Target for intelligence assets here in the United States so that they can exploit it and figure out what China was up to and stuff like that right however even me the Intel guy whose job it would be to do something like that says we're out of that right we're out of that this is now a direct threat to the Homeland land and we should have engaged this thing long before it got over land that's just my own personal opinion on it but and that's not even really an opinion that's just how things are you know a Sovereign Nation gets their airspace violated they shoot it down no matter what it is right so all of this being considered I'm trying to be as realistic as possible and not you know spread undue Panic with regards to this incident um but again I am not perfect and I'm having a hard time myself uh trying to curtail my own instinctive kinds of knowledge about these sorts of incidents right again like I've mentioned before with regards to when something s o curtail my own instinctive kinds of knowledge about these sorts of incidents right again like I've mentioned before with regards to when something serious in the globe happens we're off the manual right we are off the standard operating procedure there is no manual for what's going on right now because we have far surpassed it so yeah I don't really know what to do I don't really know what is going to happen and uh all I know is that every Instinct I have have a for both professionally and and personally is is um is kind of on alert right now so as far as what the average citizen can do there's nothing you can do uh for this right here our if our own Department of Defense if our own nation is not going to protect its Homeland then I'm not really sure what American citizens can do it's already far too high we don't even know what altitude this thing's flying at or the second one for that matter we don't know what altitude it's flying at but we're there are some reports that it's over 60 000 feet up so the only thing that can shoot this thing down is a military asset right it's not like you're going to be hopping in a Cessna and going to town right so there's uh you know a componen is thing down is a military asset right it's not like you're going to be hopping in a Cessna and going to town right so there's uh you know a component where we have to rely on our government we have to rely on our military to defend us from foreign threats and that's not happening right now so this is one of those incidents where I feel like I'm taking crazy pills because I'm very concerned more concerned than I have been in a very very long time and I feel like our nation's leadership and our defense leadership is not is not on the same page I feel like this is one of the things that you run into every historian knows what I'm talking about out there like if you read a history book you know what's what's coming right so again as far as what the average citizen can do and what the average citizen should do uh I don't know I honestly don't know I'm sure everyone's going to want to know hey should I turn my cell phone off when it gets near me I don't know I I don't know what to tell you uh it's almost certainly going to collect Intelligence on that but again if you have you know certain apps on your phone anyway China has that information um I doubt that the Chinese you know militar gence on that but again if you have you know certain apps on your phone anyway China has that information um I doubt that the Chinese you know military is trying to surveil uh your cell phone I don't think they care about you I think they want to take pictures of nuclear missile silos uh that is if this thing is not a direct kinetic attack which we still don't know if it is or not we're just taking the dod at their word that this thing is a surveillance balloon right and not some kind of targeting platform uh and the dod has already proven themselves to be Liars they have concealed this the existence of this balloon and they're actively concealing that location from us U.S citizens right now so so yeah uh as far as what to do I I just don't know I don't know what to tell you but I I can tell you what I'm going to do and uh what I'm doing right now so what I'm doing right now is monitoring uh traffic in my local area I've got a pretty good adsb setup and I can monitor a pretty good chunk of of my State uh and several uh surrounding states uh from where I'm at right now so I'm doing that and monitoring for any kind of US military traffic you're not going to be able if you have an ads tes uh from where I'm at right now so I'm doing that and monitoring for any kind of US military traffic you're not going to be able if you have an adsb setup I would very strongly recommend uh hopping on it and making sure it works and getting everything up and going you're not going to be able to track the balloon the balloon has is emitting no signal as far as adsb um so you're not going to be able to track the balloon with an adsp setup however you will be able to track all of the fueling tankers that are uh you know cutting race tracks in the Skies over the United States and kind of get a general idea as to where it's at now a lot of people are going to be aware of this and I want to point out that the fueling tankers are not going to be exactly where the balloon is at those fueling tankers are going to be a pretty good distance away close enough for fighter jets to refuel but far enough away for that balloon to not pose a threat to the refueling aircraft right this is standard Warfare 101 kind of stuff as far as other signals to monitor I can I can guarantee you that balloon is communicating with something and uh the US military is very well aware of that otherwise they would monitor I can I can guarantee you that balloon is communicating with something and uh the US military is very well aware of that otherwise they would not have put up rivet joint and you know e6b aircraft so obviously there's some kind of component uh you know Signet collection opportunity here with regards to that balloon and you the private citizen might be able to pick up something as well so if you have a wideband SDR and a directional antenna uh you can probably collect Intelligence on this balloon as it's flying over the United States that is assuming your equipment doesn't get fried by the jamming assets that are almost certainly being used right now surrounding that balloon again this is all speculation we don't really know what the dod is doing all we can do is monitor the aircraft that have taken off and responded and as far as you know one might expect there have been a significant amount of intelligence collection assets over U.S soil over the past few days regarding this balloon so another thing to monitor is other traffic so I'm also monitoring uh traffic here on the East Coast mostly because I can and trying to see what other things might be lurking if this balloon is so I'm also monitoring uh traffic here on the East Coast mostly because I can and trying to see what other things might be lurking if this balloon is trying to Transit its way through the United States it's going to have to make it back to China somehow and it might be trying to meet up with a ship out in the Atlantic Ocean so keeping an eye on AIS tracking any kind of Chinese asset if they were bold enough to send a freaking balloon to the United States you know to our airspace then they're probably going to be bold enough to recover it right you know in front of our faces with a Chinese flagged vessel or some kind of PRC registered vessel off the east coast so again that's you know if that's what they want to do it may just fly all the way back to China in a few weeks who knows something also to keep in mind obviously would be Taiwan uh this could be a Prelude to the conflict with Taiwan kicking off and it could be a message to the United States uh to not get involved with what's going on there or what's about to go on there again pure speculation nobody really knows as far as the stoplight chart I was working on there I haven't really seen any kind of indications and warnings t pure speculation nobody really knows as far as the stoplight chart I was working on there I haven't really seen any kind of indications and warnings that you know war is imminent but there have been several indications and warnings of a conflict in the near future so there have been quite a few exercises and drills and increasingly aggressive flight patterns from China in the Taiwan Strait and around you know the nation of Taiwan I like many of you are trying to figure out what the end game is here uh we don't really know what is going on but I myself am kind of focused on the direct direct threat the clear and present danger that this device whatever it is uh poses to the American people again I'm sorry if this seems a bit you know over the top or or if you disagree with the threat that this uh the Potential Threat that this device this aircraft poses uh I know a lot of people out there are going to say this is not that big of a deal uh they're or they're going to say that it's you know a super big deal I understand there's going to be varying levels of assessment out there with regards to how serious this incident is I can only tell you my thoughts on it and we've gotten to the p be varying levels of assessment out there with regards to how serious this incident is I can only tell you my thoughts on it and we've gotten to the point in in the world where things happen that are so scary that you don't even want to report on them because people will point the finger at you and say that you're you know fear-mongering or something like that well you know there's there's no way on this Earth that I could have briefed this topic without someone pointing the finger at me and saying that this is fear-mongering because I tell you it's a pretty serious incident uh so even it's and it's made more serious every day that this thing is not engaged so again Zara there really isn't much more information about the balloon right now there's really not a whole lot to go off of we're really uh this is one of those incidents where the average American citizen is having to dip their toe into International defense right where we're we're here now uh and it's uh it's kind of a Shaky Ground for all of us I think uh I know that I most certainly did not have this incident on my 2023 bingo card uh although it most certainly is now uh so I guess we'll just have to kind of play it by ear ertainly did not have this incident on my 2023 bingo card uh although it most certainly is now uh so I guess we'll just have to kind of play it by ear and see what happens again we don't know where the balloon's going uh we can kind of uh generally uh predict where it's going based off of wind charts but again if this thing is this big I'm gonna bet it's got some station keeping uh assets on board some kind of propulsion of something you know it may generally be following the wind to conserve you know fuel or electricity but for the most part I would be willing to bet that uh this thing isn't going to go exactly where the wind is pushing it uh so we'll we'll see though we'll have to we'll have to see how it how it goes again the kind of action plan moving forward is to monitor adsb uh keep an eye on the skies above us at least with regards to American platforms that we can kind of keep an eye on gonna also be keeping an eye on AIS Transmissions at least the ones that we can detect we're not going to detect them that far out but at least we can do do something there and also we're going to try to uh keep an eye on what kind of signals are coming from or going to that aircraft as it st we can do do something there and also we're going to try to uh keep an eye on what kind of signals are coming from or going to that aircraft as it flies over the United States so again just monitoring things is basically the only thing we can do and being aware of where it generally is would be advised if you are generally in the area I know this is a very sparsely populated part of the United States but if you're generally in the area I would try to keep an eye on it visually because you can see it even though it's you know again uh over at least over sixty thousand feet up so yeah that's pretty much all I've got for now uh I know it's not a whole lot but um I guess we'll have to see what what happens here with this I'll try to keep you updated as much as possible like clockwork this kind of incident happened to hit me personally and the rest of the team here at kind of a very busy and inopportune time so uh this is has not been super great as usual but I guess it's a great training exercise for when uh foreign assets invade the United States their space at least so again things I thought I would never say in my life uh anyway I guess we can only do the best we can right so we' nited States their space at least so again things I thought I would never say in my life uh anyway I guess we can only do the best we can right so we'll uh we'll keep doing that and we'll uh we'll let you know if anything changes or any major developments with regards to this balloon hopefully we'll be able to get a pretty good location on it uh soon but no no guarantees on any of this stuff but thanks again for watching everybody thank you for your support and uh hopefully we can all kind of get through this incident uh as on the scathed as possible I guess this is the way we should phrase it anyway thanks again and we'll see you next time and as always and I guess these days perhaps possibly literally fight in the shade