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Post by TKennedy on Feb 6, 2023 19:40:42 GMT -5
Well apparently the ballon was not exactly something that got away from the county fair.
Delay in shooting the balloon down will be ‘well worth its value’
Adding to officials’ comments last week about the balloon that was shot down on Saturday’s ability to maneuver, Kirby said on Monday that the balloon had “propellers” and “a rudder … to allow it to change direction.” But that maneuverability was limited, he said, mostly restricted to “inside the jet stream.”
As far as size, the balloon was 200 feet tall, with a payload the size of a regional jet weighing over a couple thousand pounds, VanHerck said, which fed into concerns of what would happen if it was shot down.
“[Y]ou know from a safety standpoint, picture yourself with large debris weighing hundreds if not thousands of pounds falling out of the sky. That’s really what we’re kind of talking about,” he said. “So glass off of solar panels, potentially hazardous material, such as material that is required for a batteries to operate in such an environment as this and even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon that could have been present.”
VanHerck clarified later that there was not reason to believe there were explosives on the balloon, but said it is an assumption officials have to make out of an abundance of caution.
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Post by jdd2 on Feb 6, 2023 19:46:31 GMT -5
so it flew too close to the sun (the US), got torched and fell into the sea...
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Post by Marshall on Feb 7, 2023 10:41:20 GMT -5
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Post by Village Idiot on Feb 7, 2023 20:04:52 GMT -5
Would you like to ride in my Chinese balloon,
Would you like to ride in my Chinese balloon,
We could drift across the US together you and I,
For we can fly,
We can fly!
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Post by epaul on Feb 7, 2023 20:13:44 GMT -5
Not anymore.
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Post by Village Idiot on Feb 7, 2023 21:03:04 GMT -5
Would you like to be shot down in my Chinese balloon,
Would you like to be shot down in my Chinese balloon,
We could crash into the sea together you and I,
For we are spies,
We are spies!
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Post by jdd2 on Feb 10, 2023 17:16:24 GMT -5
And now, we've taken out a small UFO...
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Post by Shannon on Feb 10, 2023 17:25:18 GMT -5
And now, we've taken out a small UFO... Saw that. I wonder if the Biden administration and/or military took some heat for letting that balloon fly over the US for so long before taking it down. They sure took down this most recent object quickly. |
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Post by howard lee on Feb 10, 2023 18:16:08 GMT -5
And now, we've taken out a small UFO... Saw that. I wonder if the Biden administration and/or military took some heat for letting that balloon fly over the US for so long before taking it down. They sure took down this most recent object quickly.
Perhaps the objective was to wait and see what sort of information it was gathering before shooting it down and recovering its payload.
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Post by Shannon on Feb 11, 2023 10:11:38 GMT -5
Saw that. I wonder if the Biden administration and/or military took some heat for letting that balloon fly over the US for so long before taking it down. They sure took down this most recent object quickly. Perhaps the objective was to wait and see what sort of information it was gathering before shooting it down and recovering its payload.
I have no doubt there was a strategy, and I didn't mean to sound critical at all. I just wonder if there was pressure from some quarters to shoot sooner. I wouldn't want to be the one having to make those decisions. |
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Post by Marshall on Feb 11, 2023 10:25:27 GMT -5
Everything is POLITICAL these days. If it happens on your watch, you own it.
Like the Chinese have been sending these kind of balloons for years now. And gee, we've been spying on them with aircraft and satellites for decades.
This is a military issue. Politicians in DC are just puppets dancing to the latest jig.
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Post by howard lee on Feb 11, 2023 10:31:17 GMT -5
Perhaps the objective was to wait and see what sort of information it was gathering before shooting it down and recovering its payload.
I have no doubt there was a strategy, and I didn't mean to sound critical at all. I just wonder if there was pressure from some quarters to shoot sooner. I wouldn't want to be the one having to make those decisions.
Shannon, by no means was it my intention to imply that you were being critical. I was just offering some more food for thought, especially since I hadn't yet had any breakfast when I posted.
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Post by John B on Feb 11, 2023 11:22:57 GMT -5
One thing that strikes my nerd bone, so to speak, is that we used U2 spy planes to surveil the balloon.
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Post by epaul on Feb 11, 2023 13:00:31 GMT -5
The part I don't understand is why shoot that balloon down with a $400,000 Sidewinder missile when a couple hundred bucks of .50 cal bullets would have done the job.
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Post by Marshall on Feb 11, 2023 13:37:53 GMT -5
The F22 hasn't ever had a chance to shoot any other aircraft down in it's service life. I doubt it has a 50 cal gun. We'd probably have to pull up an old WWII plane to get the 50 cal  |
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Dub
Administrator
I'm gettin' so the past is the only thing I can remember.
Posts: 20,465 
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Post by Dub on Feb 11, 2023 13:47:12 GMT -5
I wouldn't want to be the one having to make those decisions. That’s precisely why I think you should be the one to make them. |
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Post by epaul on Feb 11, 2023 13:56:59 GMT -5
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Post by drlj on Feb 12, 2023 17:42:45 GMT -5
3 more unidentified floating objects blasted from the sky in the same number of days.
How many ETs are now going to have to phone home?👽👽👽!
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Post by jdd2 on Feb 12, 2023 19:23:23 GMT -5
Balloons, with something dangling below them, probably have some interestingly divergent radar/heat signature characteristics, not only for advanced warning and the initial awareness of a 'target' (and then tracking it), but then any fighter intercept and target acquisition--any shooting that would take place.
Many modern air-to-air systems rely on 'seeing' and targeting an aircraft* (and as far beyond visual range as possible--standoff), whereas for a balloon, what those systems see (if at all) is likely the payload (what dangles beneath), and not the balloon, which is what a weapon would need to hit to bring it down.
I wonder if there have been some late nights at raytheon and lockheed-martin working on this.
*or for NORAD, ballistic missiles, in addition to bombers.
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Post by Village Idiot on Feb 12, 2023 21:59:50 GMT -5
I would assume any country capable of doing so has been floating stuff over other countries capable of doing so for quite some time and that there was some sort of mutual agreement of silence going on. After all, what can a balloon get that a satellite can't? But then again, why a balloon instead of a satellite? I can't help but wonder if China is doing this intentionally. They're giving the rest of the world a realistic look at what they are capable of doing in the surveillance world.
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