Sounds like something out of Aeon Flux...



The US military is conducting wide area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.

Travelling in the stratosphere at altitudes of up to 65,000ft, the balloons are intended to “provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats”, according to a filing made on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, an aerospace and defence company.

The balloons are carrying high tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.


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Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”

The tests have been commissioned by the US Southern Command (Southcom), which is responsible for disaster response, intelligence operations and security cooperation in the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Southcom is a joint effort by the US army, navy, air force and other forces, and one of its key roles is identifying and intercepting drug shipments headed for the United States.

An aerial photograph of a residential development in Des Moines, Iowa. The US military is launching unmanned surveillance balloons over portions of the midwest.
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An aerial photograph of a residential development in Des Moines, Iowa. The US military is launching unmanned surveillance balloons over portions of the midwest. Photograph: Alamy
“We do not think that American cities should be subject to wide area surveillance in which every vehicle could be tracked wherever they go,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union.


“Even in tests, they’re still collecting a lot of data on Americans: who’s driving to the union house, the church, the mosque, the Alzheimer’s clinic,” he said. “We should not go down the road of allowing this to be used in the United States and it’s disturbing to hear that these tests are being carried out, by the military no less.”

For many years, Sierra Nevada has supplied Southcom with light aircraft packed with millions of dollars’ worth of sensors, which then flew over Mexico, Columbia, Panama and the Caribbean sea. But planes require expensive crews and can only fly for a few hours at a time. In a report to the Senate armed services committee this February, Southcom’s commander Admiral Craig Faller wrote: “While improving efficiency, we still only successfully interdicted about six percent of known drug movements [in 2018].”

The new balloons promise a cheap surveillance platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods. And because winds often travel in different directions at different altitudes, the balloons can usually hover over a given area simply by ascending or descending.

Neither Sierra Nevada nor US Southcom responded to requests for comment on this story. However, rival balloon operator World View, recently announced that it had carried out multi-week test missions in which its own stratospheric balloons were able to hover over a five mile diameter area for six and a half hours, and larger areas for days at a time.

“The very nature of [these balloons] is that they can operate for weeks and months,” said Ryan Hartman, the CEO of World View. “The challenge is how to harness the stratospheric winds to be able to create a persistent station-keeping capability for customers.”

Raven Aerostar, the company that is supplying the balloons for Southcom’s tests and launching them from its facility in South Dakota, told the Guardian that it has had balloons remain aloft for nearly a month. Raven also makes balloons for Alphabet subsidiary Loon, which uses them to help deliver internet and cellphone service from the stratosphere.

The FCC documents show that Southcom’s balloons are carrying small, satellite-like vehicles housing sophisticated sensors and communication gear. One of those sensors is a synthetic aperture radar intended to detect every car or boat in motion on a 25-mile swath beneath the balloon.

The balloons also have advanced mesh networking technologies that allow them to communicate with one another, share data and pass it to receivers on the ground below.

The Ravenstar facility launchpad in South Dakota.
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The Ravenstar facility launchpad in South Dakota. Photograph: Google Earth
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The FCC filing notes that this networking includes video information. That suggests that the balloons might also carry a Sierra Nevada video capture system called Gorgon Stare. This wide-area surveillance system comprises nine cameras capable of recording panoramic images across an entire city simultaneously.

While Gorgon Stare is usually deployed on drones, Michel said that the US army has used tethered spy blimps in Afghanistan, and that US Customs and Border Protection has experimented with low-altitude balloons along the Mexico border.

But wide area surveillance from stratospheric balloons is relatively new, said Michel: “The higher the altitude of the system, the wider the area that you can cover. The trade-off is that depending on the area and the system, you may get lower resolution images.” Balloons are also subject to fewer restrictions and regulations than drones.

It is unclear from the FCC documents whether Southcom’s tests within the US are linked to any active narcotic or counter-terrorism investigations. Also, none of the parties involved would say whether the midwest vehicle data would be deleted, stored or passed on to other federal or local agencies.

“[We would like to know] what they are they doing with that data, how they are they storing it, and whether they are contemplating deploying this in the US,” said the ACLU’s Stanley. “Because if they decide that it’s usable domestically, there’s going to be enormous pressure to deploy it.”

The Southcom surveillance tests are likely just the tip of the iceberg. Scott Wickersham, the vice-president of Raven Aerostar, told the Guardian that it has also been working with Sierra Nevada and the Pentagon’s research arm Darpa on a “highly sophisticated and challenging development around the stratosphere”. This refers to the agency’s Adaptable Lighter-Than-Air (ALTA) program, an ongoing effort to perfect stratospheric balloon navigation which has included multiple launches across the country, Wickersham said.

Ryan Hartman said that World View had also completed a dozen surveillance test missions for a customer it would not name, capturing data he would not specify.

“Obviously, there are laws to protect people’s privacy and we are respectful of all those laws,” Hartman said. “We also understand the importance of operating in an ethical way as it relates to further protecting people’s privacy.”

Meanwhile, World View is currently preparing for its next surveillance flight, and Sierra Nevada’s tests in the midwest continue.LINK

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
Ryan Hartman said that World View had also completed a dozen surveillance test missions for a customer it would not name, capturing data he would not specify.

Because that gives me confidence that this would be true:

quote:

“Obviously, there are laws to protect people’s privacy and we are respectful of all those laws,” Hartman said. “We also understand the importance of operating in an ethical way as it relates to further protecting people’s privacy.”

Riiiight.

Link? That sounds like one of those foil-hat sites news stories.

Google had at one point applied for a patent on weather-balloon enabled WiFi neworks (Project Loon). Could be related or someone just read some tech docs and came up with their own ideas.

I sadly wouldn't be surprised if this was being tested though.

quote:

Gorgon Stare

I wonder if they are more along the lines of blimps / aerial platforms than just some dingy weather balloon.

If they are utilizing Gorgon Stare / ARGUS-IS imaging or some evolution of it - that really isn't something that we just want as an eye in the sky domestically.

Here is a clip demonstrating ARGUS-IS from PBS back in 2013.

Just another boondoggle,we spent trillions to put satellites in space for that purpose.

I see the tethered aerostat anchored at Ft. Huachuca all the time

Link is at end of OP, and was at time of posting.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
Link? That sounds like one of those foil-hat sites news stories.

The LINK is the last word in the article. (Don’t know if it was added after your post, but the message doesn’t say it was edited and it was posted an hour and two minutes before your post.) It goes to The Guardian. I dunno if The Guardian is clickbait conspiracy theories now (they all look like clickbait to me), but once upon a time it was a respected newspaper in the UK.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I see the tethered aerostat anchored at Ft. Huachuca all the time

The CG used to use aerostats in the 80’s and 90’s. They worked great for what they were, this forced smugglers to adopt newer style of craft to avoid radar...hence the partially submerged, “Alto tu barca”, craft used today....

Funding killed the program....

Since when does the U.S. military run anti-drug operations? Isn’t that a pervue of the FBI and in the domestic realm?

The military has been doing drug interdiction for decades.
Ever seen the US Coast Guard on the news?

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I see the tethered aerostat anchored at Ft. Huachuca all the time

IIRC, that is looking for small planes carrying drugs into the country from Mexico.

flashguy

The article is conspiracy crap.

I have photographs of these projects from years ago, often being launched at small airports. Google, launching small packages under the balloons, and they're being launched all over the world. I've seen them in a number of other countries and continents. The official story is that they're for widespread wireless internet access.

Google is in the business of collecting data (and of course sharing it, too, as it suits their interests).

Border aerostat balloons are for surveillance, and contain sensor packages and cameras.

Aircraft are tracked on radar, and by other aircraft.

There was one out here.

UDPATE: The area where the object was spotted this morning matches the flight pattern of a high-altitude balloon as part of Project Loon, which seeks to create an aerial wireless network. The flight pattern of the balloon can be seen on the flightradar24.com website.

*********

Maui Now has gotten several emails describing either a stationary object or slow moving object spotted in the skies south of Kīhei this morning.

Our newsroom contacted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) office in Honolulu where a representative said they had no information about what it could be, but was willing to look at any pictures of the said object if anyone had any.

If you or anyone you know has pictures of this object please send to newsdesk@mauinow.com and we will forward to our contact at the FAA. Mahalo.

https://mauinow.com/2019/07/31...d-in-sky-near-kihei/

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
The article is conspiracy crap.

I have photographs of these projects from years ago, often being launched at small airports. Google, launching small packages under the balloons, and they're being launched all over the world. I've seen them in a number of other countries and continents. The official story is that they're for widespread wireless internet access.

Google is in the business of collecting data (and of course sharing it, too, as it suits their interests).

Border aerostat balloons are for surveillance, and contain sensor packages and cameras.

Aircraft are tracked on radar, and by other aircraft.

How is the article conspiracy crap? If the official story is that these balloons are for widespread internet use but the CEO of the company has said they are being used for surveillance, that's pretty telling.

Perhaps these balloons aren't being used in a nefarious way against ordinary people yet, but how often have we read on this forum and elsewhere about the rights of non-criminals being ignored by the powers-that-be because of The Patriot Act, FBI abuse of power, eminent domain, etc., etc.

I thought the article was balanced and well-written. It certainly was news I hadn't heard before and does give me cause for concern about who's controlling the program, how they are collecting data, on whom the data is being collected, and what is/will be done with the gathered information. I don't see it as fearmongering or conspiracy theory to report information that could be detrimental to a person's privacy or well-being. Maybe the concerns about inappropriate use will never come to pass, but at least people are informed about what could happen and can, hopefully, guard against any illegal or unwarranted intrusions.

quote:

Originally posted by jbcummings:
Since when does the U.S. military run anti-drug operations? Isn’t that a pervue of the FBI and in the domestic realm?

FYI

(FBI) Currently, the FBI's top priorities are

Protect the United States from terrorist attacks
Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage
Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes
Combat public corruption at all levels
Protect civil rights,
Combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises
Combat major white-collar crime
Combat significant violent crime
Support federal, state, local and international partners
Upgrade technology to enable, and further, the successful performances of its missions as stated above

*Note there's nothing about Anti-Drug Missions

(DEA) The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) (/di.iˈeɪ/) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the United States.

(SOCOM/DOD) U.S. Special Operations Command invests a great'deal of time, manpower and equipment to train Domestic Law Enforcement Agencies in conducting counterdrug operations and to assist foreign governments in their efforts to combat the production and distribution of illegal drugs.
SOF also conducts detection, monitoring and interdiction along the U.S. southwestern land border and throughout the Caribbean basin.

*Military involvement in anti-drug missions has been in existence for decades. Among the vast array of US government agencies involved in drug control efforts, the Department of Defense (DOD) is on the front line of the war on drugs in Latin America, a role mandated by the 1989 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The act designated DOD as the "single lead agency" for the detection and monitoring of illicit drug shipments into the United States. Congress backed this directive with dollars, quadrupling DOD's counter-drug budget between Fiscal Year (FY)1988 and FY1992, when it peaked at $1.22 billion. Billions more have been spent since then.

As the perceived threat of communism faded and eventually collapsed in the 1980s, the drug war replaced the Cold War as the military's central mission in the Western Hemisphere. Few in the military establishment, however, embraced the counternarcotics mission enthusiastically. While many regional commanders and their officers reluctantly complied with the Pentagon's directive to develop plans for carrying out the new mission, the Panama-based US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) eagerly took it on.

(USCG) The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the coastal defense and maritime law enforcement branch of the United States Armed Forces[6] and one of the country's seven uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the U.S. military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission (with jurisdiction in both domestic and international waters) and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set.

Missions

The eleven statutory missions as defined by law are divided into homeland security missions and non-homeland security missions:

Non-homeland security missions

Ice operations, including the International Ice Patrol
Living marine resources (fisheries law enforcement)
Marine environmental protection
Marine safety
Aids to navigation
Search and rescue

Homeland security missions

Defense readiness
Maritime law enforcement
Migrant interdiction
Ports, waterways and coastal security (PWCS)
Drug interdiction
Search and rescue