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.
You replied to an informative statement about surveillance balloons.
You made the assumption u/CONCORD was making some claim about a specific data collection operation going on.
Your assumption was wrong.
Does that clear things up?
Is that right?
Gregg Phillips hasn't informed the public of anything not already covered in 2000 Mules, so we have no idea what methods were used for data collection or if P-8s or surveillance balloons were utilized other than what is mentioned in that documentary.
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.
You replied to an informative statement about surveillance balloons.
You made the assumption u/CONCORD was making some claim about a specific data collection operation going on.
Your assumption was wrong.
Does that clear things up?
Gregg Phillips hasn't informed the public of anything not already covered in 2000 Mules, so we have no idea what methods were used for data collection or if P-8s or surveillance balloons were utilized other than what is mentioned in that documentary.