Breaking News... That Chinese Spy Balloon. Thoughts?

Murrmurr said:
My point was about haste; the Russian military acted without reliable evidence or confirmation, only suspicions.

Our military claims they knew the airship was there, began tracking it, contacted Chinese officials about it several times, then came up with a safe plan, and executed it. IMO, they knew what they were doing and they made the right decisions.
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My first thought was shoot it down until my daughter said it might contain viruses that could attack a wide group of folks. Think the right decision was made.
 

570EA9F7-3D3A-4A68-940E-A60AAF6AF0F9.jpeg

Si: “We are not amused that you have shot down our spy, I mean, WEATHER balloon!”
Am: “No, we are NOT amused!”
Si: “Did you know that we are now considered racist Asian stereotypes?”
Am: “Pfft! We are just cartoon characters in a Disney movie!”
Si: “Point well taken! But I always thought we were pretty cool.”
Am: “As you are, and so am I!“
Si: “We are Siamese, if you please!”
Am: “We are Siamese, if you don’t please!”

(And so it goes with China…). 🐈‍
 

I read they sent an F-22 Raptor up and fired a Sidewinder into the balloon to bring it down. Someone was thinking for a change. I suggested an F-35, only because of its speed. I saw the F-35 Lightning about 2 months ago demonstrating its maneuverability while in Jacksonville. Very impressive.
 
I also read that the president ordered the balloon to be shot down asap and he may well have, however, the shoot down order would not come from the president, although he would have to sign off on it, the order of the shoot down, could have come from a couple different Officers. I’m not sure what the chain of command is now, but previously, Senior Officials would give the order. That particular person or persons is never named for obvious reasons.
 
Been There said:
I read they sent an F-22 Raptor up and fired a Sidewinder into the balloon to bring it down. Someone was thinking for a change. I suggested an F-35, only because of its speed. I saw the F-35 Lightning about 2 months ago demonstrating its maneuverability while in Jacksonville. Very impressive.
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Indeed it is reported a Raptor fired missile brought down the SvB. Initially, I posted it was the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Wishful thinking on my part as the F-16 may have been operationally challenged above 'Angels Eight.'

Anyway, guess the F-22 crew will be getting a new unit patch. Raptor proving its quality as a multi-mission platform.

Another option would have been to bring it down with a drone fired missile. Truly would have been a Twenty-First Century statement. Hopefully there was some passive engagement of the SvB by U.S. drones. Good practical stick time for the guys and gals in the vans. Guess we'll never know.

Wondering how and if Posse Comitatus played a role in the decision to hold off shooting it down over U.S. airspace, or if PC only applies to U.S. ground force intervention inside our borders?
 
Yeah, no doubt this extended SvB drift-over provided an excellent training opportunity to defeat the threat early on next time. Might be worthwhile considering co-locating balloon busting drones at our northern missile sites. They're less maintenance and aircrew intensive than a fixed wing presence - and can operate STOL - even make use of existing roadways for launch and recovery.

Lot of good can come out of this once the AAR (After-Action Review) is published.
 
ArnoldC said:
Indeed it is reported a Raptor fired missile brought down the SvB. Initially, I posted it was the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Wishful thinking on my part as the F-16 may have been operationally challenged above 'Angels Eight.'

Anyway, guess the F-22 crew will be getting a new unit patch. Raptor proving its quality as a multi-mission platform.

Another option would have been to bring it down with a drone fired missile. Truly would have been a Twenty-First Century statement. Hopefully there was some passive engagement of the SvB by U.S. drones. Good practical stick time for the guys and gals in the vans. Guess we'll never know.

Wondering how and if Posse Comitatus played a role in the decision to hold off shooting it down over U.S. airspace, or if PC only applies to U.S. ground force intervention inside our borders?
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I doubt, really doubt if PC had anything to do with the downing of the balloon. It doesn’t fit the situation.
 
Much media news nonsense magnified by ignorant ordinary social media folks. Technological advanced nations do surveillance from satellites with special cameras and RADAR that cross the globe everywhere and can see most anything. That it is a "spy" balloon is ridiculous. Probably some upper atmosphere research. The US military shooting it down only plays into it being an anti-China media stunt for defense budget purposes of neocons like Bl as if the horrible proxy Ukraine war wasn't enough.
 
Liberty said:
This isn't the first time a Chinese balloon has been over the USA...there were several times in past years. They didn't get shot down though. Maybe we'll learn something from this "weather" balloon this time....lol.
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Yes, and the ones in the past were not shot down at all. Now people are becoming unhinged about 'violating our sovereignty', what did they say in the past? LOL. I'd say more but political discussion is not permitted on this forum. It is good if we learn information this time around, and I'm sure we will.
 
David777 said:
Much media news nonsense magnified by ignorant ordinary social media folks. Technological advanced nations do surveillance from satellites with special cameras and RADAR that cross the globe everywhere and can see most anything. That it is a "spy" balloon is ridiculous. Probably some upper atmosphere research. The US military shooting it down only plays into it being an anti-China media stunt for defense budget purposes of neocons like Bl as if the horrible proxy Ukraine war wasn't enough.
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Satellites aren't good at ground-penetrating imaging/surveillance, and there's a few other things a balloon can do that a satellite can't, so I don't think spy balloons are ridiculous. It's true, the CCP will tell their people that shooting it down proves the US is anti-China, but so what? They say that all the time. And probably well over 50% of the people don't trust anything the CCP says, anyway...they've been lied to all their lives and they know it. They're not stupid.
 
Mike said:
It is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted,
they saved the Chinese the trouble of collecting it after it
had finished the job, plus it has sunk, beside the Titanic and
it will take years to find!

Mike.
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I don't know what we were able to retrieve, but there were 2 jets and several helicopters tracking it all the way to the surface of the ocean, and some navy ships nearby.

Did you see the video of its descent? It created a pretty sizable debris field.
 
Murrmurr said:
I don't know what we were able to retrieve, but there were 2 jets and several helicopters tracking it all the way to the surface of the ocean, and some navy ships nearby.

Did you see the video of its descent? It created a pretty sizable debris field.
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Depends on how bad the DOD or whoever wants to retrieve things. We can do a pretty good job of retrieving most of the debris from plane crashes, and got a whole lot of the Challenger. This time it went down in what was described as shallow water, and at least some preplanning happened.

I am sure it is scattered over a large area, but that just means it will take a lot of looking and money to find.

We may never know, it may be kept secret...
 
Alligatorob said:
Depends on how bad the DOD or whoever wants to retrieve things. We can do a pretty good job of retrieving most of the debris from plane crashes, and got a whole lot of the Challenger. This time it went down in what was described as shallow water, and at least some preplanning happened.

I am sure it is scattered over a large area, but that just means it will take a lot of looking and money to find.

We may never know, it may be kept secret...
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Yes, it will probably be kept secret....or a lot of it will be. The rest will be lied about :p.
I just hope that'll be for our benefit and not our military's.
 
A wild theory

The governments south of the border got together to bribe China to launch a balloon to distract Americans. By focusing on the balloon traveling across America no one would be watching the southern border to see undocumented migrants entering.
 
This is good news! However, if our DOD works like they should, the public will only receive a bit of all the particulars at this time.
Too much info for the public to handle, and the speculation will go on and on. I don't have to know details, only that any danger has been avoided.
 
ArnoldC said:
Indeed it is reported a Raptor fired missile brought down the SvB. Initially, I posted it was the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Wishful thinking on my part as the F-16 may have been operationally challenged above 'Angels Eight.'

Anyway, guess the F-22 crew will be getting a new unit patch. Raptor proving its quality as a multi-mission platform.

Another option would have been to bring it down with a drone fired missile. Truly would have been a Twenty-First Century statement. Hopefully there was some passive engagement of the SvB by U.S. drones. Good practical stick time for the guys and gals in the vans. Guess we'll never know.

Wondering how and if Posse Comitatus played a role in the decision to hold off shooting it down over U.S. airspace, or if PC only applies to U.S. ground force intervention inside our borders?
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Your comment is not only "Spot on" but an accurate assessment of the Raptor engaging the target using the historically accurate fire and forget AIM-9 or AIM-120 Sidewinder air to air missiles equipped with heat seeking warheads. Excellent post.


f22r 2.jpg

f22r 3.jpg

www.space.com/chinese-spy-balloon-destroyed-f-22-jet

www.lockheedartin.com/en-us/products/f-22.html

www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/02/f-22-shoots-down-chinese-balloon-coast-south-carolina/382598/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin__F-22_Raptor






BTW: IMHO even though the project was canceled the Raptor was already equipped with an emergency use tail hook for trap landings possibly using future planned ruggedized landing capabilities a carrier group would be a formidable opponent.

www.nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-dont-f-22s-fly-aircraft-carriers-197534

 
Alligatorob said:
From BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64530102 :

The debris landed in 47ft (14m) of water - shallower than they had expected - and is spread over seven miles (11km).

That will make recovery easier than most plane crashes. I suspect we knew what we were doing when the shoot down spot was chosen.
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One of the messages to the pilot right after he shot the thing down: "Good kill on the balloon!"

:LOL:
 

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