Well it is the US Air Force we're talking about, even if they wanted to shoot it down immediately nobody wants to make the call out of fear for getting in trouble, so spending a whole day playing hot potato up the chain of command trying to find someone that will make the decision wouldn't surprise me.
But really, it's not a military problem, it's a diplomatic one, and frankly I'm surprised it even got dealt with before the thing was just long gone
Well it is the US Air Force we're talking about, even if they wanted to shoot it down immediately nobody wants to make the call out of fear for getting in trouble, so spending a whole day playing hot potato up the chain of command trying to find someone that will make the decision wouldn't surprise me.
But really, it's not a military problem, it's a diplomatic one, and frankly I'm surprised it even got dealt with before the thing was just long gone
Haha, does that actually sound like the US military to you? That sounds like the exact opposite to me, where they’d shoot it down and find out it was only a weather balloon after the fact.
Haha, does that actually sound like the US military to you? That sounds like the exact opposite to me, where they’d shoot it down and find out it was only a weather balloon after the fact.
When they're deployed sure, that thing would have lasted about 30 seconds in the air if it was over Iraq 10 years ago. But at home? I'm amazed they were even cleared to put some hours on an F-22, probably had some good idea fairy Colonel trying to figure out how to shoot it down with the simulator
They couldn’t have been all that concerned. They let it fly all the way across the country before they shot it down. If that was a concerning aircraft it would’ve been taken down before it was in the media at all.
Imagine the backlash Biden would have gotten had he blew up a balloon with as much as 1000lbs of surveillance equipment over land and it killed someone on the ground.
They couldn’t have been all that concerned. They let it fly all the way across the country before they shot it down. If that was a concerning aircraft it would’ve been taken down before it was in the media at all.
I wouldn't be surprised if it does turn out to be a weather balloon, but it was a test run to see if they could get a balloon through undetected. The fact they didn't seem to warn anyone that it was entering the airspace seems kind of incriminating.
I also wouldn't be surprised if the delay of shooting it down was to hear China's explanation first to see if they had a believable explanation for diplomatic purposes.
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Imagine the backlash Biden would have gotten had he blew up a balloon with as much as 1000lbs of surveillance equipment over land and it killed someone on the ground.
Not only that, it would create a serious international incident.
I guess the Mylar has a strange radar signature, my guess is they have spent the last 2 or 3 days desperately trying to reprogram the missile so that it can see the balloon
I guess the Mylar has a strange radar signature, my guess is they have spent the last 2 or 3 days desperately trying to reprogram the missile so that it can see the balloon
Definitely a possibility, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were wary of using a fox 2 missile and it losing the heat track over a live population. Woopsie doodle. 9x is an incredible piece of kit but even it struggles with low heat tracks
I guess the Mylar has a strange radar signature, my guess is they have spent the last 2 or 3 days desperately trying to reprogram the missile so that it can see the balloon
Look like sim 9x targeted the heat source they didn’t use radar guided missile
Why not go clean and go for guns kill? Surely they can get a slow balloon 3 bus length swithout missiles
It has happened a few times in history but there's been cases where it takes a really long time to actually deflate enough to come down. I imagine by the time this decision got made they just wanted the quickest solution. Plus live ammo fired not on a range, they want every round accounted for. One shot one kill this way
F15E is too heavy and the C can only go that high with no missiles and a half fuel load. F-22 can do it with missiles stored internally
Fully loaded the F-15E can go to 60,000 which is where the balloon was at, but truth be known no fighter including the F-22 likes 60k plus, the air is so thin you can't maneuver worth sh_t and if you don't keep near full power you'll fall from the sky.
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Why not go clean and go for guns kill? Surely they can get a slow balloon 3 bus length swithout missiles
I read about a similar incident and they tried this and it took thousands of rounds and still did nothing. The balloon isn’t really under pressure. I’ll see if I can find it.
Quote:
Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter aircraft spotted the balloon over Newfoundland and fired more than 1,000 rounds at it. The AP reported that the jets, Canadian variants of the American F/A-18 Hornet, hit the balloon, but rather than popping or exploding and crashing to the earth, it slowly began leaking helium. The big balloon was still in the air.
