https://apnews.com/article/faa-el-paso-texas-air-space-close...
I'd say these trigger-happy clowns chasing tough-guy optics are going to get innocent people killed, but then they already have -- multiple times.
(Less alarmingly but more personal: my personal prediction to this effect, expressing distrust about statements like this in real time, got flagged right here on HN because apparently our leaders lying to our faces about news relevant to our community is "politics" and unseemly to discuss.)
If some American civilians (if not illegals) flying by at the time of the foreign incursion are put in harm's way as sacrificial collateral damage in order to protect us in the heat of the moment, that's just the cost of freedom and we should all celebrate it, else leave for somewhere abroad with values that better align with an urge to welcome foreign invasion. Such a tragedy would be so easily avoided if the borders were simply closed and everyone stopped welcoming Mexican cartels into their communities, right? Balloon news is a distraction.
Firing lasers at party balloons in American cities, everyone else be damned. OPSEC is clear.
That was a long-standing set of bad routes that was going to kill someone eventually.
A 53" balloon costs $9.99. You could shut down all large and medium hubs in the US for $629.37/day. The asymmetry is astounding and I'm surprised we don't defend against this kind of attack more efficiently.
Responding to a single party balloon with a giant laser, thus causing a saner government official to close the airspace because some moron is firing giant lasers into the air, is unusual. Probably not a usable asymmetric attack vector.
Is the implication here that someone firing laser weapons at things flying near the airport has no realistic danger for planes flying near the airport and therefore this was an overreaction?
More pragmatically, such a system would cost multiple millions, and would take years to actually stabilize in a manner that would recover the fictitious costs to shutting down the airports with gaps. (i.e. I'm surprised you so easily bought into the 500k figure)
All because a bunch of idiots lost track of their one balloon, once? The asymmetry is banal. There are cheaper ways that require less planning than that.
I'm surprised you saw it in my comment. It's reminiscent of an airport seeing a would be drone.
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.
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
Thank god they’re here defending us from rogue party balloons. Where would we be without their vigilance?
Also, most laws that do restrict weapons specifically exempt government law enforcement anyway.
I think it might have actually been DOD people operating the system even, but there's conflicting reporting and I'm not sure. Either way it seems like there was at the very least some kind of coordination failure.
Make no mistake, the actual drone terrorism is coming. I guess you could say that only the actual military should handle it, but... Why?
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.
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.
> 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".
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-shoots-down-unknown-flyi...
Could have been little green men! But what exactly happened is probably (or should be) classified.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/airspace-closure-followed-spat-...
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford on Tuesday night decided to close the airspace — without alerting White House, Pentagon or Homeland Security officials, sources said.
...
Customs and Border Protection used the laser weapon earlier this week after training from the U.S. military, according to multiple sources familiar with its deployment. Officials had recently given the FAA a 10-day window in which the technology would be used.
The anti-drone technology was launched near the southern border to shoot down what appeared to be foreign drones. The flying material turned out to be a party balloon, sources said. One balloon was shot down, several sources said.
The Mexican cartels have been running drones on the border lately, the sources said, but it was unclear how many were hit by the military's anti-UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) technology this week. One official said at least one cartel drone was successfully disabled.
> Three U.S. military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been using the technology without issues before Tuesday's shutdown and expressed confusion as to why the shutdown was deemed necessary. [0]
It was definitely the army [1] who fired the laser causing the shutdown of El Paso airport, but the army doesn't seem to understand the alarm on the part of the FAA, because DHS (Border Protection) has been using it for some time now without the same alarm from the FAA. Someone at the FAA reacted differently to this army firing than they had to previous DHS firings.
[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/senator-says-el-paso-airpor... [1] https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/aeroviron...
99 ministros de guerra
Fósforos y bidones de gasolina
Se creían gente muy astuta
Ya olfateaban un gran botín
Gritaron: “¡Guerra!” y querían poder
Hombre, ¿quién lo hubiera pensado?
Que alguna vez llegaría tan lejos
Por culpa de 99 globoshttps://1023thebullfm.com/texas-bans-outdoor-balloon-release...
You don't need a balloon. A real gun will do.
https://abcnews.com/US/tsa-fails-tests-latest-undercover-ope...
"The news of the failure comes two years after ABC News reported that secret teams from the DHS found that the TSA failed 95 percent of the time to stop inspectors from smuggling weapons or explosive materials through screening."