at least they are not armed yet

[Yetti]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest?fbclid=IwAR3bL3gcL6_lwu28yoQkbPBPZElesP4PcLwgitfxuDygzk_BlMzcsDeAF_U

[ArtVandelay]

I thought we use one at key west?


Tom

[Oldguy]

There is a tethered one in Key West, or was at one time. Big restricted area around it so you would not end up hitting the tether cable.

[Air pirate]

They used to have one at Marathon key in the old days.

[Yetti]

I am going to say these are smaller.   more like weather balloons with more better electronics.   The data link from the balloon to the ground station would be interesting.   The 1st gen predator drones used an unsecured data link.   The bad guys figured that out and were watching the camera feeds along with the good guys.

[Jim Peace]

On 8/2/2019 at 4:56 PM, Oldguy said:

There is a tethered one in Key West, or was at one time. Big restricted area around it so you would not end up hitting the tether cable.

I flew by it the other day. It was down around 2500 feet. 

[Hank]

On 8/2/2019 at 3:53 PM, ArtVandelay said:

I thought we use one at key west?


Tom

There are several monitoring our borders. These are monitoring and surveilling fellow American citizens! Do we really need Big Brother watching everywhere that everyone goes???

[0TreeLemur]

On 8/2/2019 at 4:14 PM, Air pirate said:

They used to have one at Marathon key in the old days.

You should write a book.  That sounds like the first line of a good one.

[RLCarter]

Along the Mexican border west of McAllen there is one that is huge, half the size of a blimp(?), and it its altitude will very up to 15,000' msl, then there are several smaller mobile ones (bus size) that are on trailers and they are generally at 2500' or so. Also along the Mexican border are ground based cameras, motion detectors and who knows what else, these have been in use since the late 70's

[Yetti]

These are at 65,000 feet.   As I recall that is where the SR-71 would fly for mapping.   But it used film.    I would guess these use all electrics with downlink capabilities.   Or would you just send it up to a VSAT

[RLCarter]

Free balloons don’t bother me near as bad as the 4” cable that would ruin your day, then there are these POS’s at KTXW, and are tethered in the middle of the ramp

[jaylw314]

4 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

Free balloons don’t bother me near as bad as the 4” cable that would ruin your day, then there are these POS’s at KTXW, and are tethered in the middle of the ramp

 

Why......are those tethered in the middle of the ramp??

[Air pirate]

7 hours ago, 0TreeLemur said:

You should write a book.  That sounds like the first line of a good one.

Damn , you know you're getting old when you can say "in the old days"

[RLCarter]

1 hour ago, jaylw314 said:

Why......are those tethered in the middle of the ramp??

All the ones I've seen in the past are blimp shape and gov. owned, the one in the photo above is a private contractor and are based on the field, they are tethered to a trailer up to 500agl. Last month the wind was from the NW, it blew the ballon over the runway mid-field

[jaylw314]

20 minutes ago, RLCarter said:

All the ones I've seen in the past are blimp shape and gov. owned, the one in the photo above is a private contractor and are based on the field, they are tethered to a trailer up to 500agl. Last month the wind was from the NW, it blew the ballon over the runway mid-field

Any idea whose bright idea that is??

[gsxrpilot]

I've flown by this one close enough to get a good look at it. I was in my M20C so it was above me.

[RLCarter]

47 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

Any idea whose bright idea that is??

FAA was down last week for an inspection, and it was back up today for a few hours...its an ugly sucker, reminds me of the raft from Escape from Alcatraz. Airport Board meeting is coming up and I have a few questions, doubt they will know the answers but it might get 1 or 2 of them thinking 

[Hank]

2 hours ago, RLCarter said:

 . . . but it might get 1 or 2 of them thinking .22LR

FTFY!!  

[RLCarter]

15 minutes ago, Hank said:

FTFY!!  

there is actually a gun range for LEO's right next to the airport and inline with the ramp (well close enough)....ricochets do happen 

[tigers2007]

While these balloons and towers have excellent visual range and abilities, they are quite useless for actual apprehension. To add insult to injury, it is not uncommon to see the assets vandalized or even aliens waving at the cameras as they walk by.

[FloridaMan]

On 8/6/2019 at 9:33 AM, Hank said:

There are several monitoring our borders. These are monitoring and surveilling fellow American citizens! Do we really need Big Brother watching everywhere that everyone goes???

According to the article, it’s for monitoring narcotics and homeland security threats, because we all know that both of those consistently originate over the heartland or so-called “flyover states”. 

[N201MKTurbo]

I used to know a pilot for the Customs Service. (That tells you how long ago it was). I asked him how effective the aerostat’s were at detecting aircraft. He said that they were mostly useless. All the planes they were credited with finding, were already known about before they got there. He said the field agents (he did field work too) would know that somebody was bringing a load across at a certain time and date, and they would usually know where they were landing. They would tell the aerostat operators and they would look for it. Then the aerostat gets credit for the bust.

[tigers2007]

A method of clever airborne trafficking I've seen is the use of ultralight aircraft. Easily disposable and extremely cheap. These things have like 254lbs of narcotics on them. I've see Quicksilver clones that had an inconceivable amount of drugs on them. See you just don't read about this stuff in the news that often as its not disseminated through DHS public affairs. I still question the amount of $$$$ DHS spends on useless methods and biblical staffing numbers ($47 Billion in 2018) versus spending 20% of that a year to build solid fortification methods that have worked for over 1000 years. Ask any BP agent and they will agree 100% that it is absolutely ridiculous to risk their lives "playing tag in the desert" night after night to apprehend the same individuals from hours earlier. I digress; what better platform to test these FL650 balloons exists besides 'Murica? They can perfect the technology now and I guarantee it will be a crucial asset in actual theater. Just wait until we scoot these balloons over to Europe and Asia. Canada's attempt at this ended miserably though.

[N201MKTurbo]

I have always said it is crazy to use a pilot to smuggle by air. 

Especially today, it is easy to make an un-maned autonomous cargo aircraft. And with a little effort they could be made cheap, disposable and stealthy.

 

BTW, smuggling is crazy to start with, get a real job.

Edited August 15, 2019 by N201MKTurbo

[jaylw314]

2 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I have always said it is crazy to use a pilot to smuggle by air. 

Especially today, it is easy to make an un-maned autonomous cargo aircraft. And with a little effort they could be made cheap, disposable and stealthy.

Most commercially available drones have useful loads of a few pounds.  More than 5 lbs gets relatively pricey.  10 drones like that costs more than renting a Cessna 150 for the same duty, I'm guessing.