4 ms·

rather than shooting it down when it was still over Alaska I am entirely guessing but outside of Alaska the ocean is incredibly deep and on-land most of Alaska

rather than shooting it down when it was still over Alaska I am entirely guessing but outside of Alaska the ocean is incredibly deep and on-land most of Alaska would be quite difficult to bring recovery equipment to. Even bush planes have limited places to land and those planes can't carry more than a couple hundred pounds. Another reason given was they wanted to monitor communications from the satellite gear. This implies to me that it was either not encrypted or they were able to decrypt it.

MichaelZuo 4y ago
> Another reason given was they wanted to monitor communications from the satellite gear. This implies to me that it was either not encrypted or they were able to decrypt it. Doesn't this suggest it really was civilian?
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  Doesn't this suggest it really was civilian? I have no idea what decryption capabilities the military have these days. It would not surprise me to find out that China and the US have each others secrets. We used to play these games with the former Soviet Union and would share/brag back and forth each others results.
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    This seems highly doubtful, do you have a link to concrete cases where the US or Soviet Union could decrypt each other's top secret communications?
    - LinuxBender 4y ago
      I would be surprised if this were publicly documented anywhere. It's not a secret AFAIK just not common knowledge. I knew several people involved in these exercises. They are no longer with us and it was not specifically about decrypting data. This was about intercepting communications via scrambled radio, RF signals and sub-carriers, spread spectrum radio, electronic typewriters in hardened shielded vaults, lights. So your only link I suppose is me. There are probably a few other old timers out here with a similar circle of friends and associates. I'm sure nowadays it is about intercepting keys, custom ciphers, etc... I'm just not in those circles any more. And those things are usually stolen and/or blackmailed out of people, almost nothing technical about it. In my time blackmailing people was about gay bars. We had cameras monitoring all the local gay bars. Nowadays it's probably more along the line of Epstein/Maxwell and related events. I do not know what else would be considered highly taboo these days. Is anything even taboo any more? Prior to being in the military I always assumed the US and the Soviet Union were enemies, as in everyone hated everyone. It turned out that was incredibly far far from the truth. We played a lot of friendly games and also exchanged a lot of equipment. We acquired numerous 15KW transmitter tubes from them for example and that conversation started with "Why is the ceramic pink?" and my follow-on question was "We bought them from ... who??"
      - MichaelZuo 4y ago
        This just sounds like hearsay? Is there any part that could be verified with 2023 insights?

MichaelZuo 4y ago

> Another reason given was they wanted to monitor communications from the satellite gear. This implies to me that it was either not encrypted or they were able to decrypt it. Doesn't this suggest it really was civilian?

LinuxBender 4y ago
Doesn't this suggest it really was civilian? I have no idea what decryption capabilities the military have these days. It would not surprise me to find out that China and the US have each others secrets. We used to play these games with the former Soviet Union and would share/brag back and forth each others results.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago
  This seems highly doubtful, do you have a link to concrete cases where the US or Soviet Union could decrypt each other's top secret communications?
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    I would be surprised if this were publicly documented anywhere. It's not a secret AFAIK just not common knowledge. I knew several people involved in these exercises. They are no longer with us and it was not specifically about decrypting data. This was about intercepting communications via scrambled radio, RF signals and sub-carriers, spread spectrum radio, electronic typewriters in hardened shielded vaults, lights. So your only link I suppose is me. There are probably a few other old timers out here with a similar circle of friends and associates. I'm sure nowadays it is about intercepting keys, custom ciphers, etc... I'm just not in those circles any more. And those things are usually stolen and/or blackmailed out of people, almost nothing technical about it. In my time blackmailing people was about gay bars. We had cameras monitoring all the local gay bars. Nowadays it's probably more along the line of Epstein/Maxwell and related events. I do not know what else would be considered highly taboo these days. Is anything even taboo any more? Prior to being in the military I always assumed the US and the Soviet Union were enemies, as in everyone hated everyone. It turned out that was incredibly far far from the truth. We played a lot of friendly games and also exchanged a lot of equipment. We acquired numerous 15KW transmitter tubes from them for example and that conversation started with "Why is the ceramic pink?" and my follow-on question was "We bought them from ... who??"
    - MichaelZuo 4y ago
      This just sounds like hearsay? Is there any part that could be verified with 2023 insights?