I see you're still avoiding answering the question as to what this has to do with Raven Aerostar.
In another comment thread, u/CONDOR was comparing the map Phillips posted on Truth Social with the capabilities of the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, and mentioned the fact MonkeyWerx has noticed strange flight ops going on with these. The P-8s are used for Intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance.
This prompted u/VetforTrump to mention P8s have magnetic anomaly detectors and wondered what other mapping capabilities they may have. u/CONDOR mentioned some of these additional capabilities- "Ground penetrating radar and sensors share technical operating parameters of salt water / water penetrating radar and sensors. Also, thermal sensors will detect hot spots associated with bunkered facilities."
This prompted a reply from u/MAGAdeburger who posted a clip from the Dark Knight describing similar capabilities and the mention of a possible scene from Narcos where an airplane was used to detect the drug cartel/
u/CONDOR responded by stating MonkeyWerx has been tracking deployment of Raven Aerostar balloons as well and mentioned if you get "6 or 7 of these babies up in the right areas and you have coverage of the lower 48, southern Canada and northern Mexico." No claim was made here.
At this point, you entered the thread and asked a poorly worded question that changed from "Coverage of what, exactly?" to "Coverage of/for what?" to "For what are they looking?"
I can't spell out something u/CONDOR never claimed in the first place. I can't answer a question you haven't even properly fleshed out. The confusion is on your end.
The article states the balloons are often used in "intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions and acting as communications relays and also serve roles in augmenting navigational systems."
If you'd read and understood the article, and/or watched the video I linked to, you would know these balloons contain advanced sensors of all kinds. With 6 or 7 balloons in the right location, those advanced sensors are able to scan the entire continental United States as well as southern Canada and northern Mexico.
What exactly are you unable to wrap your head around here? And you realize this is simply information sharing about balloons Monkey Werx tracks, right?
A claim was made that the balloons are a part of "cast iron coverage." Of what? What is being tracked?
The "coverage" part of "cast iron coverage" refers to a coverage area, which was defined as "the lower 48, southern Canada and northern Mexico."
The adjective "cast iron" refers to how solid and redundant that coverage is. In other words, because these balloons are "linked to satellite networks, ground stations and airborne assets," it's very hard to stop the download of any information acquired by these balloons.
What is being tracked? Anything the people operating the balloons want to as long as the capability exists. Vehicle and people movement could be easily tracked, as an example.
From the article -
Raven Aerostar produced a brief video in July of 2020, seen below, explaining the Thunderhead’s capabilities, emphasizing its ability to linger at extremely high altitudes over contested airspace. The company underscored that by networking balloons together, they can provide months of persistent services over a very large area. In the military and intelligence sense, these can include advanced networking capabilities, as well as carrying advanced radar sensors, electronic intelligence gathering systems, electronic warfare packages, optical payloads, and much more. Due to their high altitude, they can remain out of reach of many traditional anti-air countermeasures.
The cameras on these balloons are able to take photos with a quality of five centimeters per pixel, which means they can take a picture of your smart phone screen from 60,000 feet in the air.
In another comment thread, u/CONDOR was comparing the map Phillips posted on Truth Social with the capabilities of the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, and mentioned the fact MonkeyWerx has noticed strange flight ops going on with these. The P-8s are used for Intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance.
This prompted u/VetforTrump to mention P8s have magnetic anomaly detectors and wondered what other mapping capabilities they may have. u/CONDOR mentioned some of these additional capabilities- "Ground penetrating radar and sensors share technical operating parameters of salt water / water penetrating radar and sensors. Also, thermal sensors will detect hot spots associated with bunkered facilities."
This prompted a reply from u/MAGAdeburger who posted a clip from the Dark Knight describing similar capabilities and the mention of a possible scene from Narcos where an airplane was used to detect the drug cartel/
u/CONDOR responded by stating MonkeyWerx has been tracking deployment of Raven Aerostar balloons as well and mentioned if you get "6 or 7 of these babies up in the right areas and you have coverage of the lower 48, southern Canada and northern Mexico." No claim was made here.
At this point, you entered the thread and asked a poorly worded question that changed from "Coverage of what, exactly?" to "Coverage of/for what?" to "For what are they looking?"
I can't spell out something u/CONDOR never claimed in the first place. I can't answer a question you haven't even properly fleshed out. The confusion is on your end.
Here's the original comment you linked to-
The article states the balloons are often used in "intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions and acting as communications relays and also serve roles in augmenting navigational systems."
If you'd read and understood the article, and/or watched the video I linked to, you would know these balloons contain advanced sensors of all kinds. With 6 or 7 balloons in the right location, those advanced sensors are able to scan the entire continental United States as well as southern Canada and northern Mexico.
What exactly are you unable to wrap your head around here? And you realize this is simply information sharing about balloons Monkey Werx tracks, right?
The "coverage" part of "cast iron coverage" refers to a coverage area, which was defined as "the lower 48, southern Canada and northern Mexico."
The adjective "cast iron" refers to how solid and redundant that coverage is. In other words, because these balloons are "linked to satellite networks, ground stations and airborne assets," it's very hard to stop the download of any information acquired by these balloons.
What is being tracked? Anything the people operating the balloons want to as long as the capability exists. Vehicle and people movement could be easily tracked, as an example.
From the article -
Raven Aerostar produced a brief video in July of 2020, seen below, explaining the Thunderhead’s capabilities, emphasizing its ability to linger at extremely high altitudes over contested airspace. The company underscored that by networking balloons together, they can provide months of persistent services over a very large area. In the military and intelligence sense, these can include advanced networking capabilities, as well as carrying advanced radar sensors, electronic intelligence gathering systems, electronic warfare packages, optical payloads, and much more. Due to their high altitude, they can remain out of reach of many traditional anti-air countermeasures.
The cameras on these balloons are able to take photos with a quality of five centimeters per pixel, which means they can take a picture of your smart phone screen from 60,000 feet in the air.