Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US

Exclusive: the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods

Mark Harris
@meharris
Fri 2 Aug 2019 11.00 BST Last modified on Fri 2 Aug 2019 14.15 BST

The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.

Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.

The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

[Throck]

1. Past a point won't the balloons just blow away?

The balloons are limited by the wind and jet stream. What happens if the balloon is blowing east and the car heads west? The military certainly has a strange way of wasting money.

[James48]

4. Now think 30 balloons at once covering ten states

and having the ability to watch it continuously. Want to know where that car came from?
Simply rewind the video and follow the car to its origin. Then follow all the other cars coming from that house.

Big Brother IS watching you.

[DemocracyMouse]

2. And past another point, won't our future monarchy start surveilling citizens, critical journalists?

[Everyman Jackal]

5. Can you imagine what the facists would be saying

if this was done while President Obama was still President?

[GeorgeGist]

3. DOD is involved in civilian monitoring?

Besides being illegal, what could possibly go wrong.