8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (3)
#21304911 at 2024-07-27 19:49:37 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #26110: EXPOSURE Is The Key To Breaking [their] Hold Edition
Harris VP Contender Mark Kelly Founded Surveillance Balloon Company With Funding From Chinese Venture Capitalist
Amid the fallout of President Joe Biden's sudden announcement dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, there's talk that Senator Mark Kelly may be her pick for running mate - despite his ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
After his retirement from NASA, Kelly cofounded World View Enterprises in 2012: a Tucson-based aerial surveillance company that contracts with the federal government and has received funding from Tencent Holding Unlimited, one of China's largest tech companies connected to the CCP.
Until China's estimated millions in investments, the company had been focused on commercial space exploration. After, the company shifted its focus to surveillance balloons capturing enhanced imagery of the earth.
With rising concerns over the company's involvement with the CCP during Kelly's initial Senate campaign, World View Enterprises President and CEO Ryan Hartman and their spokesmen have denied Tencent Holding Unlimited having enjoyed any access, input, or control over their company.
Kelly served as a strategic advisor to the company from 2015 to 2019, and maintained his holdings through 2020.
Tencent's U.S. representative donated several thousand to Kelly's campaign in 2019.
Kelly also received a donation from a lobbyist out of Huawei Technologies, a communications technology company with close ties to the CCP. The donation came in despite Kelly's pledge to avoid PAC donations using a loophole of technicalities. The senator was able to receive Huawei Technologies donation by advising wealthy corporate donors to issue donations through personal checks, not corporate PAC checks, so as to keep him true to his word in the loosest sense.
Then, in 2022, Kelly's six-figure investment in another aerospace company selling U.S. technology to China, Boom Technology, was reported on. Kelly was seated on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon's budget, and the Airland Subcommittee, which oversees the Air Force's research budget. Boom Technology enjoyed an increased contract with the federal government after Kelly took office.
And yet, Kelly has spoken and acted in ways that appear in conflict with Chinese interests. He has openly declared China as one of the biggest threats to the U.S. in interviews with the media.
Earlier this year, Kelly cosponsored a bipartisan bill banning U.S.-based facilities receiving CHIPS and Science Act funds from buying chipmaking equipment from companies owned or controlled by China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran. Kelly has supported the advancement of Taiwanese-produced microchips, especially the manufacturing taking place in Arizona.
Last year, Kelly introduced bipartisan legislation to "block" military knowledge from being given to China and other adversaries. Kelly has also issued vocal opposition to the CCP's takeover of Taiwan, most recently at the latest McCain Institute Sedona Forum.
Kelly isn't the only rumored horse in the race for vice president. There's also a slew of governors rumored as considered per a vetting process: Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro, North Carolina's Roy Cooper, Kentucky's Andy Beshear, Illinois' JB Pritzker, North Carolina's Roy Cooper, and Minnesota's Tim Walz.
Though included on some lists of candidates, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer told reporters earlier this week that she wouldn't accept the offer to run.
Biden administration members are also being considered: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
However, some reporting has placed Kelly, Shapiro, and Cooper on the shortlist, citing sources familiar with a vetting team led by former attorney general Eric Holder's law firm.
Reports also suggest that the Harris campaign is considering unnamed individuals who don't hold an elective office.
https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2024/07/24/kamala-harris-eyes-senator-mark-kelly-for-vice-president-despite-ties-to-china/
#18339874 at 2023-02-13 17:51:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #22479: 'Murica, Own It, Love It, Why We Here Edition
>>18339872
"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 the 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 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 surveillance from stratospheric balloons is relatively new, said Michel, author of Eyes in the Sky, a recent book on wide area surveillance: "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 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 probably 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.
#15237523 at 2021-12-22 16:56:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #19274: Dough Ready Edition
U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier Aviation Demonstration (UCAD) MQ-25A aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77)
Dec 22, 2021
A video featuring the Navy's Unmanned Carrier Aviation Demonstration (UCAD) of the MQ-25A unmanned air system prototype aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) in December 2021, which laid the groundwork for future, carrier-based unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations.
The MQ-25 will be the world's first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft and is integral to the Air Wing of the Future Family of Systems.
Its initial operating capability as an aerial refueling tanker will extend the range, operational capability, and power projection of the carrier air wing (CVW) and carrier strike group (CSG).
USS George H.W. Bush delivers operational capability to maintain maritime stability and security in order to ensure access, deter aggression and defend U.S., allied, and partner interests.
(U.S. Navy video produced by Video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric Brann, Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven Edgar, Seaman Ryan Hartman, Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Shelander and Petty Officer 2nd Class Joseph Vazquez)
https://youtu.be/1pqDoCt4UpQ
8kun Midnight Riders Posts (2)
#157660 at 2023-02-14 03:23:18 (UTC+1)
QR Midnight Riders #791: Hunter's Pelvic Thrusts power UAPs WW EDITION
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest
Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US(TheGuardian.com)
Exclusive: the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods
Editor's pick: best of 2019. We're bringing back some of our favorite stories of the past year. Support the Guardian's journalism in 2020.
Mark Harris
Fri 2 Aug 2019 11.00 BST
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
3 years old
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 hi-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.
Google's Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us
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.
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, Colombia, 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, the 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 the 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.
The Ravenstar facility launchpad in South Dakota. Photograph: Google Earth
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 surveillance from stratospheric balloons is relatively new, said Michel, author of Eyes in the Sky, a recent book on wide area surveillance: "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 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 probably 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.
#157589 at 2023-02-13 06:46:58 (UTC+1)
QR Midnight Riders #791: Hunter's Pelvic Thrusts power UAPs WW EDITION
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest
US military
Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US(TheGuardian.com)
Exclusive: the high-altitude balloons promise a cheap monitoring platform that could follow multiple cars and boats for extended periods
Editor's pick: best of 2019. We're bringing back some of our favorite stories of the past year. Support the Guardian's journalism in 2020.
Mark Harris
Fri 2 Aug 2019 11.00 BST
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
3 years old
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 hi-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.
Google's Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us
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.
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, Colombia, 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, the 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 the 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.
The Ravenstar facility launchpad in South Dakota. Photograph: Google Earth
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 surveillance from stratospheric balloons is relatively new, said Michel, author of Eyes in the Sky, a recent book on wide area surveillance: "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 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 probably 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.