Spy Balloon

[struth]

Several things here...................

First off, the balloon is in unregulated air space, meaning that it could set off an incident if it was shot down.

Second, the F22's service ceiling is 50,000 ft. The balloon is floating at 60,000 ft, meaning it would be very difficult to take it down with an aircraft. The chances of shooting it down are very slim.

And no....................it's not being guided over our most sensitive areas. All a balloon can do is adjust it's altitude to ride whatever winds happen to be at that altitude. It's not "guided" in the traditional sense.

And even if they were floating over our sites, they're not gonna get much information from the photos that they probably don't already have. Most of what you see when you go by them is a fence with a small building, as most of the silo is underground. I know, because I lived in Great Falls MT (where Malmstrom AFB is), and would drive by the silos every now and again while traveling. My cousin is also married to someone in the AF who does work out on them, and when I go home, we talk a bit of shop (I'm retired Navy) and he tells me some of the stuff that he can that isn't classified when we talk.

Now...............if the balloon were equipped with some kind of bomb like the Japanese tried to do in WWII, THEN I'd be a bit concerned, but over a surveillance balloon? Not so much. They won't get much more data than what they can already get with satellites.

We've put men on the moon and brought them back, we can shoot a balloon down....if we wanted to...Xiden of course doesn't want to upset his puppet masters in the CCP

 

[Rambunctious]

I imagine we can and should shoot it down but that would also give China the right to shoot down our satellites spying on them.

If they could they would.... I guarantee that....

 

[Billiejeens]

The evidence of Xiden being owned by the Chinese continues to pile up....this is open and obvious...but the cultist will still find a way to defend him

Of course it's their prime directive.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Capture it and reversed engineer it to see what if anything they could learn.

How exactly do you propose we capture it?

 

[Rambunctious]

Biden is being blackmailed and its putting every American and our nation at risk....

 

[g5000]

 

[ABikerSailor]

We've put men on the moon and brought them back, we can shoot a balloon down....if we wanted to...Xiden of course doesn't want to upset his puppet masters in the CCP

Guess you don't understand the logistics of what you are proposing. And, while the balloon might be fairly large compared to the size of a person, it's still a very small target and hard to hit, especially when you're traveling at very high speed trying to control an aircraft that is in an environment with very little atmosphere.

 

[Calypso Jones]

the left just doesn't get memes does it.

 

[Rambunctious]

Guess you don't understand the logistics of what you are proposing. And, while the balloon might be fairly large compared to the size of a person, it's still a very small target and hard to hit, especially when you're traveling at very high speed trying to control an aircraft that is in an environment with very little atmosphere.

It should of been taken down while it was over water but they let it cross into Canada and head straight down to our silos in Montana....
Why?....

 

[Billiejeens]

How exactly do you propose we capture it?

Tractor beam.

 

[g5000]

Someone tell me what a "spy balloon" can do that a satellite can't do.

 

[struth]

Guess you don't understand the logistics of what you are proposing. And, while the balloon might be fairly large compared to the size of a person, it's still a very small target and hard to hit, especially when you're traveling at very high speed trying to control an aircraft that is in an environment with very little atmosphere.

We can literally see it from the ground....it could be done....the DOD didn't say it wasn't possible.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I imagine we can and should shoot it down but that would also give China the right to shoot down our satellites spying on them.

yeah... uh huh.. they have technology to shoot down satellites.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Guess you don't understand the logistics of what you are proposing. And, while the balloon might be fairly large compared to the size of a person, it's still a very small target and hard to hit, especially when you're traveling at very high speed trying to control an aircraft that is in an environment with very little atmosphere.

The boys over at FE Warran AFB think it can be captured... What do they know that we don't?

 

[progressive hunter]

I imagine we can and should shoot it down but that would also give China the right to shoot down our satellites spying on them.

satellites are in space,, the balloon isnt,,

 

[Billiejeens]

The boys over at FE Warran AFB think it can be captured... What do they know that we don't?

Is it everything?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Biden's mouthpiece in the Pentagon said "too dangerous" - falling debris.
Absurd bullshit.
It is in Montana for God's sake.
OBVIOUSLY it can be shot down strategically so the debris is in an empty space.
Two - we have smart missiles that can detonate by lasers, a laser paints the target, a missile detonates the exact millisecond it reaches the focal point.
The debris would be small particles.

 

[pknopp]

yeah... uh huh.. they have technology to shoot down satellites.

China Joins Russia in Preparing to Shoot Down US Comms Satellites

 

[ABikerSailor]

It should of been taken down while it was over water but they let it cross into Canada and head straight down to our silos in Montana....
Why?....

Might wanna look at a weather map sometime and see where the jet stream is and in what direction it goes. Right over the top of Montana incidentally. And, according to the OP's link, it was in unregulated airspace, meaning that they couldn't shoot it down without good cause. Would almost be like shooting at a Russian spy ship in international waters just because they were looking at our ships (which I saw happen quite often while out at sea on deployment, especially when we were doing UNREP or running flight operations).

And, like I've said before, they wouldn't get much intel from photographing a silo than what they (probably) already have. I've been by those silos many times, and all you see is a small building surrounded by a fence. That's about it. There isn't any strange looking technical gear laying around, as almost all of that structure is underground.

 

[1srelluc]

I understood that at first Tater wanted to shoot it down over water but the .mil advised against it.