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> Who among us hasn’t, at some point, mistaken a party balloon for a cartel drone? Let him cast the first stone.
by throwaway0q5347 8mo ago
> Who among us hasn’t, at some point, mistaken a party balloon for a cartel drone? Let him cast the first stone.
- esseph 8mo agoIt's a shame the F-22 wasn't publicly allowed to get its second A2A kill! ;)
- toast0 8mo agoFyi, the f-22 logged a second kill shortly after the first: https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-shoots-down-unknown-flying-object-175f9078d1df36e392b2956ba771001e https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-shoots-down-unknown-flyi...
- duskwuff 8mo agoWhich is generally believed to have been a radiosonde launched by hobbyists in the US: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/18/1158048921/pico-balloon-k9yo https://www.npr.org/2023/02/18/1158048921/pico-balloon-k9yo
- joe_mamba 8mo agoFirstly, how is the world's most powerful military afraid of "cartel drones"? Don't they already have some sci-fi laser/EW gizmos to take care of those considering how much taxpayer dollars go to the defense sector? Secondly, contrary to popular belief, cartel leaders are smart enough to know not to directly mess with and attract the wrath of the US military when that's not good for their core business.
- outside1234 8mo agoThis wasn't the military. It was DHS, who is lead by the cosplaying cowboy hat lady, so this sort of incompetence should be completely expected.
- opello 8mo agoReally making you wonder why does DHS have direct access to this hardware?
- andrewflnr 8mo agoIt's pretty directly relevant to "homeland security", anti-terrorism, etc. I wouldn't say that's the problem. Make no mistake, the actual drone terrorism is coming. I guess you could say that only the actual military should handle it, but... Why?
- organsnyder 8mo agoNuclear weapons are also directly relevant to "homeland security" (at least as a deterrent), yet I doubt many would be in favor of putting them under DHS as well.
- kube-system 8mo agoNuclear weapons are controlled more specifically by law. Lasers are not.
- andrewflnr 8mo agoThat both of those are labelled "homeland security" is almost a coincidence. Strategic security vs a fancy brand name for counter-terrorism.
- opello 8mo agoI may have foolishly accepted the premise of incompetence in posing my question. Basically it seemed to me like the complaint was untrained/experienced (incompetent) people were deciding/deploying the fancy laser munition. That seemed worth of rebuke. After some brief searching I'm less clear about who took what action. It seemed more like giving police forces (or allowing them to buy) APCs, armored Humvees, etc. Less trained/experienced people using things made for a different use case, ultimately exposes the people to more risk. Instead of say coordinating with the DOD to deploy the system and personnel accepting requests or being the decision maker for "take action" after some level of expertise in the area of evaluating targets and whatever else need be considered has also contributed to the process. I don't know how it does work, let alone have enough context to imagine how it should. While I do agree "things to deter drones are appropriate border defense tools," the rest of the details painted a picture that seemed less reasonable.
- jeffbee 8mo agoThe laser gizmo is central to this story.
- milesskorpen 8mo agoReading between the lines, it sounds like the FAA maybe did not trust CBP to "test" operate the high powered laser near civilian aviation, in part given that they mistakenly identified a balloon for a cartel drone.
- nixosbestos 8mo ago[flagged]
- esseph 8mo agoI am not sure how much the average person realizes that drones in both a reconnaissance and observation role or an attack role have changed the nature of warfare and have threatened localities. We don't have good tools to deal with them, especially groups. It would be trivial, right now, for a few fpv drones to cause extreme chaos somewhere like a popular highway in Los Angeles, and the amount of economic damage that could do. It's a technological shift in how warfare is conducted, but from a protection standpoint, the tools aren't great to counter them yet.
- sixothree 8mo agoIf we had tools, the airport would never have been shut down.
- andrewflnr 8mo agoYeah the answer to > Don't they already have some sci-fi laser/EW gizmos to take care of those considering how much taxpayer dollars go to the defense sector? Is pretty much a flat "no". Or at least "not yet".
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 8mo agoIt wasn't the military it was DHS.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- kube-system 8mo agoCustoms and Border Patrol is not the military. They weren't "afraid" of it, their job is to control the border. They do have laser gizmos, that's what they used.
- Forgeties79 8mo ago>their job is to control the border Thank god they’re here defending us from rogue party balloons. Where would we be without their vigilance?
- kube-system 8mo agoI think it's clear they were mistaken, I don't really think the sarcasm is adding to the conversation.
- Forgeties79 8mo agoFair enough
- dcrazy 8mo agoThe problem isn’t the mistake, it’s the recklessness.
- kube-system 8mo agoI never said otherwise.
- exe34 8mo agoso why are you defending instead of condemning them?
- kube-system 8mo agoI'm not defending anything? Replying to someone doesn't mean I hold an opposite viewpoint. You don't have any clue what my opinion is because I haven't posted it.
- Johnny555 8mo agoDon't they already have some sci-fi laser/EW gizmos to take care of those Isn't that the problem? Someone (but apparently DHS, not the military though there were military staff present, maybe?) had one of those sci-fi laser gizmos and used it without authorization or proper notifications. I don't think we'll ever learn the real details about exactly what happened, the audit trail (if there was one) is probably in shredder baskets by now
- hulitu 8mo ago> Firstly, how is the world's most powerful military afraid of "cartel drones"? They sent an aircraft carrier to fight "cartels". /s
- itopaloglu83 8mo agoWhat can drones do to a civilian airport? A lot of damage and it’s not easy to stop at all. There are a lot of CombatFootage subreddit videos showing how bad it can go. I don’t want to image how forcefully the US will respond if that type of terror attack were to happen.
- krferriter 7mo agoThe military isn't afraid of them. And they do have the capability to take them down and are always developing new methods, including lasers like this. The issue is that cases of mistaken identity of sensor glitches or ambiguity do happen, and if you have trigger-happy people at the wheel (like the DHS in this case, and the DOD who stepped in to help lie to cover it up) it can spiral out of control.
- throwup238 8mo agoI once mistook a Scottish lake monster for a narcosub, but can’t say I’ve ever mistaken a party balloon for a narcodrone.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]