Breaking News US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

Robovski

Well-known member

From the article:
"Defence officials said they were confident the "high-altitude surveillance balloon" belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.
But military leaders decided against shooting it down as there were concerns over the danger of falling debris."

This had been trending on Twitter for some hours.



People are generally befuddled as to why we can't shoot it down. Certainly isn't doing the Biden administration any favors.

 
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DarthOne

☦️
Yes; surely you can shoot the thing down in a way that allows for a reasonably soft landing? Even if it doesn't entirely survive, that should be enough to identify where its from.
Pretty sure we already know where it’s from via backtracking it’s path by wind.

Related as to the real reason it hasn’t been shot down:

FoAilhjXEAI2swK
 
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49ersfootball

Well-known member

From the article:
"Defence officials said they were confident the "high-altitude surveillance balloon" belonged to China. It was most recently seen above the western state of Montana.
But military leaders decided against shooting it down as there were concerns over the danger of falling debris."

This had been trending on Twitter for some hours.



People are generally befuddled as to why we can't shoot it down. Certainly isn't doing the Biden administration any favors.


Stop being the fucking WEAKLING & shoot the mother fucker down ASAP!
 

Bacle

When the effort is no longer profitable...
Founder
Eh, there are a few issues with attempting to shoot this thing down.

1) It's really, really high; 60k+ feet, and the only fighters we have that can maneuver and fire at that alt are F-22s. It would be hard to safely hit it with guns without tossing ammo in long arcs that could come down all over the place and F-22s have cannons, not .50 cals, so there would be explosive cannon rounds raining down on the area below the engagement. A missile could do it, but that would be a massive waste of money.

2) No idea where debris would come down if that did hit the payload section; it's up high enough that guess a good 'landing site' for debris ahead of time is almost farcical beyond 100 square mile plots in it's projected path.

3) No idea what other power source could be onboard it besides solar; may have an RTG and that would mean radioactive debris if it is shot down.

4) Not really any more threatening than a low-orbit sat, and US military already has procedures to handle those that amount to 'don't do spicy shit with comms or in the open while it's overhead'.

5) We fly high alt RQ-180 spy drones over the CCP fairly regularly, this is not much different, it's just slower and has more loiter time. Shooting it down, when it's not more threatening than a low orbit sat, is kinda overkill.

I expect this has more to do with CCP dickwaving, the Lunar New Year, and the Blinken visit that just was postponed.

I think what has made this newsworthy is that this time enough civie spotted it and wanted to know what it was, that the military decided not to hide these things floating over us occasionally anymore. The CCP is already saying it's entry into US air space was unintended and due to the limited steering abilities the 'meteorological balloon' has, which reads like a boilerplate excuse for something like this.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
1) It's really, really high; 60k+ feet, and the only fighters we have that can maneuver and fire at that alt are F-22s. It would be hard to safely hit it with guns without tossing ammo in long arcs that could come down all over the place and F-22s have cannons, not .50 cals, so there would be explosive cannon rounds raining down on the area below the engagement. A missile could do it, but that would be a massive waste of money.

The problem with trying to shoot it down with gun is that these balloons usually have cellular structure and fuses are usually not sensitive enough for shells to be denoted, so you need missile, probably sidewinder targeting the side of balloon that is warmed by sun. That is if the balloon is flying at 20k meters and not above it, there is a reason why MiG-25/31 were overengineered as they were.
 

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