
NSA Blimp Spied in the United States - ycnews
https://theintercept.com/2017/04/24/nsa-blimp-spied-in-the-united-states/
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SEJeff
I find it interesting that this blimp is called Hover Hammer. I was stationed
in Ft Lewis and went to Iraq (OIF II 2003-2004) and as part of a RSTA
(reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition) cavalry squadron, our unit
had these "Prophet" SIGINT listening devices. They were humvees with
telescoping antennas. The antennas would go up maybe 2-3 stories high and they
look like this:

[https://www.army.mil/article/76623/Soldiers_train_on_upgrade...](https://www.army.mil/article/76623/Soldiers_train_on_upgraded_PROPHET_systems)

The NSA operated a much larger immobile version called the "Prophet Hammer",
which there doesn't appear to be much on the internet about:

[https://icwatch.wikileaks.org/search?company_facet=Prophet+H...](https://icwatch.wikileaks.org/search?company_facet=Prophet+Hammer)

Given the similarity, I can't help but think that the NSA uses "HAMMER" for
their main SIGINT collection hardware. Something to note when reading some of
the released documents full of codewords and internal DoD lingo.

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influx
Is it appropriate to post this kind of sensitive material on the internet?

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jackhack
The real question is whether it is appropriate for a government to be using
weapons of war against its own civilian populace, in direct violation of human
rights and constitutional prohibitions.

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jjtheblunt
What?

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onion2k
I hate the idea that government agencies can deploy technology like a blimp
that flies around for 6 months at a time listening to _everything_ in order to
spy on citizens who should have a right to freedom and privacy, but a little
part of my brain can't help but think "That is _so_ cool."

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LordKano
The last time I was near Baltimore, I saw one of those things and it gave me
the creeps.

What really stuck with me was the way the locals blithely accepted it, like
"Oh, those are always up there".

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a3n
Like Eloi and Morlocks.

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oblio
Quick, bring out the biplanes! :)

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astrodust
Naturally they'd probably want something like those absurdly high-resolution
real-time drones put into a package that can be kept aloft not just for hours
but perpetually.

[https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/146909-darpa-shows-
off-1...](https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/146909-darpa-shows-
off-1-8-gigapixel-surveillance-drone-can-spot-a-terrorist-from-20000-feet) is
an example of an existing drone. That kind of equipment could easily fit into
a blimp.

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razzmataz
These look like the TARS blimps or DEA blimps used for border surveillance and
trying to catch drug smugglers.

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mythrwy
They've had blimps at the border for some time.

[https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/frontline-november-
aerostats](https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/frontline-november-aerostats)

But ya, the pictures do look the same.

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SomeStupidPoint
What are they alleging it spied on?

I hear about test operations and the targeting of international traffic.

Was there domestic targeting for non-test purposes? Or even any domestic
targeting at all?

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mmjaa
They are alleging that it spied on any and all electronic communications that
occurred in the Long Island, New York area .. not just international shipping,
though that was included, but potentially everything else as well.

And that's really the point: we don't know. Unless someone investigates and
pulls the evidence, we won't know, for sure, that this device isn't being used
by the political elite in order to maintain their powers.

Such is the nature of a nation run on secrets.

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deftnerd
The terminology made me think that they just had a VHF receiver up there and
were listening to AIS traffic
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_identification_syste...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_identification_system)

It's similar to the ADS-B systems that airplanes use to report their location
and altitude and heading.

AIS has a built-in messaging system for ship-to-ship communications and to
receive alerts.

You can detect AIS traffic from satellite, but ground-based antennas are
cheaper and more sensitive. Having a aerostat to increase range would be good
for monitoring maritime traffic over a larger area.

UPDATE: After reading some more, I think this is a perfect fit for AIS
monitoring. Ground-based solutions have a horizon limitation of 46 miles.
Satellite systems get overwhelmed with too many ships reporting in and data is
lost. A balloon based system would be in a sweet spot where it would allow the
US to extend the AIS monitoring a few hundred miles out from the borders while
not having to put more satellites into orbit.

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mmjaa
Nothing in the article indicates that they are 'only spying on AIS traffic' \-
this is an assumption, and a poor guess, possible diversion tactic, at best.

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willstrafach
The source material linked in the article (SIDtoday newsletter) is what states
it was used for AIS traffic.

I am curious as to what else you believe it is used for?

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logfromblammo
I'd guess they were monitoring every signal from radio bands that have a line-
of-sight or one-bounce range limitations, as they could get the rest of the
spectrum from their ground-based antennas.

They're experts in signals intelligence and have no practical budget
limitations. They're recording _everything_ , automatically processing to find
the interesting bits, and assigning real life humans to look at those
interesting bits.

I'm guessing that in the NYC area, at the very least Russia, China, and Canada
are sucking up the same EM signals, or trying to.

We mere mortals tend to assume that such a tool would be used for one thing in
particular, because don't have cults of patriotism or bottomless bank
accounts.

