Indian Army Mistook Planets For Spy Drones

hackingbear writes "BBC reports that India's army spent six months watching 'Chinese spy drones' violating its air space, only to find out they were actually Jupiter and Venus. Between last August and February, Indian troops had already documented 329 sightings of unidentified objects over a lake in the border region next to China. India accused the objects being Chinese spy drones. The incident even escalated to a military build-up and a stand-off at border between the two countries. Residents of the solar system are glad that India does not possess the capability to shoot down such high altitude objects."

Comments

Just FYI

[jtownatpunk.net]

India has nuclear weapons. Sleep tight.

Re:Just FYI

[cold fjord]

India has more than nuclear weapons. It has nuclear armed neighbors (Pakistan, China) with designs on its territory. One of those neighbors, Pakistan, has fought several wars against India, and has been both a host and sponsor of terrorism against India. Pakistan is riddled with terrorists and faces an insurgency by Islamists of the Taliban flavor for control of the country, and ultimately its nuclear weapons. India is not far from Afghanistan, long a hot bed of extremist Islam and terrorists. India has fought skirmishes against the Chinese army in the past, and Chinese troops have occupied territory claimed by India. India also has an insurgency in part of the country by Maoist guerillas. (That would be Mao as in Chairman Mao, former leader of the People's Republic of China.) There is little distance separating India from Iran. Iran is a major sponsor of Islamist extremists, and terrorism world wide. Iran also has long range missiles, and has been found to have developed plans for a nuclear warhead that would fit their missiles. Iran is currently refining uranium on a growing number of centrifuges. Another neighbor is Myanmar nee Burma, which was reported to be developing nuclear weapons with cooperation from North Korea (which also isn't that far away).

Now India as well as China has long range ballistic missiles: Signs of an Asian Arms Buildup in India’s Missile Test. Pakistan has medium and intermediate range missiles.

India is developing a missile defense system: India to have shield from missiles of 5,000 km range

India, as well as China, is buying and building aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines.

Nearly all European nations resist nuclear weapons. Many Europeans and Americans resist missile defense. Europe's defenses have been shrinking massively since the end of the Cold War. The next century may be very interesting indeed. Some may find it humbling.

Re:Just FYI

[Anonymous Coward]

So has 'MERICA. About 77 TIMES those of India. And more active ones than the rest of the world COMBINED.

Plus is LOADED with crazy religious extremist lunatics. (Basically, a majority of the population is gravely mentally ill with extroverted schizophrenia and other illnesses.)

PLUS the most heartless dog-eat-dog law-of-the-jungle-glorifying society on the planet. And that has be scientifically shown. It's not just a statement of mine. (My own country was number 3, by the way. But we don't have religion nor nukes.)

Sleep tighter. Glow brighter.

Re:Just FYI

[Bigbutt]

When you spend $300 for a "hexiform rotational compression device" that conforms to MILSPEC-93-5475-32-J which include requirements of max torque of 132 ft/lbs for 5,000 hours of usage in temperatures ranging from -40F to +130F or be fined $10,000 per failure (AKA 'nut') spending more than everybody else isn't that difficult.

Fixed that for you. Anyone can go to Ace and buy a nut. But if I don't want to get fined $10,000 per failure, I'll hire metallurgists and engineers to make sure the 'nut' I supply exceeds the required specs.

[John]

Walk before you run

[asmkm22]

This is what happens when your society tries to leapfrog technological advancements without understanding the stuff that preceded them.

Re:Walk before you run

[Anonymous Coward]

I would pay to see that. Especially the dance sequence.

Re:Walk before you run

[cusco]

In all fairness, if Mr. Singh was from a low altitude and this was his first high altitude posting it's somewhat understandable that he wouldn't recognize the planets for what they were. Jupiter and Venus are really bright at altitude, brighter than he would ever have seen anything that wasn't human in origin. That he noticed a delay of four minutes each day is surprising, and really quite commendable.

Re:I will restrain from comment...

[ZombieBraintrust]

Technically the goverment got it correct. Army officers reported unidentified objects they believed to be drones. A branch of the goverment checked and discovered they were planets. So +1 for goverments versus stupid individuals.

Ironically

[wcrowe]

...from a nation that practically invented astronomy.

Re:I will restrain from comment...

[Beeftopia]

I have to say, I was impressed people didn't get slaughtered over the border dispute they had with China recently. Both countries avoided people getting slaughtered over literally a few hundred yards of frozen ground. Something humans thought was normal until quite recently.

So, that's real progress.

But yeah, they have nukes too.