Chinese Balloon Satellite Over Montana

[Joe_K]

https://twitter.com/UpwardNewsHQ/status/1621287908383625220

92846

The Official Early Reporting Narrative TM. Is that this thing floated all the way across the Pacific from China to spy on us. Because getting one of the 5.4 Million Chinese living in the US right now to take a tourist selfie in front of whatever the CCP supposedly wants to see would be too hard.

[asystejs]

Must be one of the advanced GPS guided balloons.

[eddiememphis]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chinese-spy-balloon-house-speaker-mccarthy-asks-gang-eight-briefing-flying-object-found-us

Chinese balloon spying on missile installations.
Or is it?

https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-confirms-balloon-theirs-spokesperson-claims-civilian-research-airship

"China claimed that the airship is a civilian research craft that was blown far off course by prevailing winds"

https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-spy-balloon-mtg-calls-biden-to-shoot-it-down-2023-2

Shoot it down!
"Marjorie Taylor Greene called on the Biden admin to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon."

https://time.com/6252551/chinese-weather-balloon-shoot-down/

Leave it alone!
?The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.?

Who knew balloons could be so scary?

92847

[eddiememphis]

Oops!

Didn't see JoeK had already posted this in politics...

[Joe_K]

Oops!

Didn't see JoeK had already posted this in politics...

We could merge them?

[hollohas]

This doesn't pass the smell test.

- No one noticed it until it made it far inside our borders? Yeah right.

- "It's a spy balloon" Ha, China has satellites, why would they need a balloon? (that's traveling higher than some satellites
apparently?)

- "We can't shoot it down, it may hurt someone". In one of the least populated areas in the country? When weather balloons fall out the sky every time they are used? Nobody seemed to care about big balloons falling before...

- A big balloon out smarted our $2T defense budget? Not likely.

- Why wouldn't we bring it down to figure out for a fact what it is?

Either our $2T defense did just get outsmarted by a balloon (let that sink in), we missed this thing completely and just showed the Chinese that they can float balloons over the US with ease, allowing them to float "cargo" our way. Or, this thing already has some sort of dangerous "cargo" on it and that's why we don't want to bring it down.

[JoeRoss]

And where will it release it's cargo load of COVID....the next chapter? [Evil]

[colorider]

It's studying climate change. That's why Biden doesn't care about it much. [Sarcasm2]

[Eric P]

Why was it not showing down once it entered our airspace over the Pacific? They were tracking it before it entered our airspace.

[eddiememphis]

Maybe it came from The 5th Dimension!




Anyone who gets that joke is really, really old.

[BushMasterBoy]

WX package. I wonder if they will share the data with NOAA? For free? Too late, I already stole it!

[Joe_K]

This doesn't pass the smell test.

- No one noticed it until it made it far inside our borders? Yeah right.

- "It's a spy balloon" Ha, China has satellites, why would they need a balloon? (that's traveling higher than some satellites
apparently?)

- "We can't shoot it down, it may hurt someone". In one of the least populated areas in the country? When weather balloons fall out the sky every time they are used? Nobody seemed to care about big balloons falling before...

- A big balloon out smarted our $2T defense budget? Not likely.

- Why wouldn't we bring it down to figure out for a fact what it is?

Either our $2T defense did just get outsmarted by a balloon (let that sink in), we missed this thing completely and just showed the Chinese that they can float balloons over the US with ease, allowing them to float "cargo" our way. Or, this thing already has some sort of dangerous "cargo" on it and that's why we don't want to bring it down.

92848

[eddiememphis]

Is Falcon Heene missing again?

[O2HeN2]

Is Falcon Heene missing again?
...that's where my mind went when I heard about this...

O2

[Great-Kazoo]

Maybe it came from The 5th Dimension!




Anyone who gets that joke is really, really old.

Doesn't look like my beautiful, my beautiful balloon

Up, Up and away

[Joe_K]

92850

The folks at Pixar tried to warn us about Chinese Balloons and an old Man in charge.

[buffalobo]

We could merge them?

Done.

[battlemidget]

They shoulda put Rick Astley on the side of it.

[eddiememphis]

Doesn't look like my beautiful, my beautiful balloon

Up, Up and away

Maybe we are dawning on a new age and we need to let the sun shine in?

[hollohas]

2nd and 3rd reported balloons over Canada and Latin America.

Now there's been a reported explosion over Montana.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11712125/Explosion-sky-Billings-Montana-Chinese-balloon-spotted-U-S-airspace.html

[BPTactical]

https://youtu.be/wqlFiTOi6QQ

[hollohas]

Here's the clearest picture I've seen so far. My dumbass initially thought the balloon was so high someone by pure luck took a picture as a low orbit satellite passed under it. The solar array is part of it.

That's a lot of solar power for an innocent climate monitoring balloon with no navigation control...

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230204/82ea651521cbfbba918429ddc2d32fbe.jpg

[Great-Kazoo]

Maybe we are dawning on a new age and we need to let the sun shine in?

Not sure if the moon is in the 7th house, but oddly enough. Jupiter is almost aligned with mars.


Flow it

show it

Long as God can grow it.

[eddiememphis]

Not sure if the moon is in the 7th house, but oddly enough. Jupiter is almost aligned with mars.


Flow it

show it

Long as God can grow it.

Last night, I didn't get to sleep at all

[Great-Kazoo]

Last night, I didn't get to sleep at all

If you had 1 less bell to answer. You might get some sleep.

[Singlestack]

Suspended under a twilight canopy
We'll search the clouds for [a star] an air force base to guide us

[JohnnyDrama]

Just for general interest...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb

This isn't the first time US airspace has been violated by lighter than air craft. Prevailing weather patterns had a lot to do these balloons too.

[BushMasterBoy]

I'd rather the USAF had shot it down with a 20MM instead of a missile. The descent would have been much slower and the electronics would have been more intact. I hope it wan't powered by a radioisotope thermionic generator.
On the other hand it was heading south for Colorado. The JCS would have had to explain if any damage occurred to assets.

Some pilot got a DFC and a promotion for this. LOL

[StagLefty]

Maybe it came from The 5th Dimension!




Anyone who gets that joke is really, really old.

I resemble that remark !!! [ROFL2]

[flogger]

There was a story online a few days ago about an errant balloon they tried to shoot down 20 years ago. A "weather balloon" launched in Canada got away and ended up heading towards the North Atlantic. Authorities were concerned about the hazards to air traffic and scrambled Canadian F-18's to shoot it down but no luck. They estimated 1000 rounds.

Also, some sources said this balloon is controllable, but they didn't elaborate.

Speaking of balloons! https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/page/5/

[colorider]

Here is what is going to happen. Ballon?s are going to be dropped by another country as soon as they enter their airspace. They will report back there is major spy tech and info collected. Biden will once again look like a buffoon for shitty response and his choice to do nothing. 2 more years of the same will follow.

[hollohas]

So they might shoot it down over the Atlantic...why wouldn't they have just shot it down over the Bering sea before all this started? Let the damn thing float over the entirety of the country then shoot it down? WTF?

This is fn fishy.

[hollohas]

Just for general interest...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb

Prevailing weather patterns had a lot to do these balloons too.

Two balloons supposedly originate from the same location and end up in entirely different hemispheres? These things had navigational capabilities.

[battlemidget]

A lieutenant with extra gas could probably splash that thing out of the air without going kinetic, or maybe one of those UAPs could do us a solid.

[JohnnyDrama]

Here is what is going to happen. Ballon?s are going to be dropped by another country as soon as they enter their airspace. They will report back there is major spy tech and info collected. Biden will once again look like a buffoon for shitty response and his choice to do nothing. 2 more years of the same will follow.

That would tie things up too neatly. The other balloons will be shot down with the intent of investigating what they are loaded with only to have them self-destruct and wipe the drives on board. More mysteries....

Biden will still look like a buffoon though.

[hollohas]

It's been shot down. With video.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1621957515427577865

[flogger]

Pretty cool, I like that contrail screaming by below it in the video.

[BPTactical]

That’s so awesome!
Waiting until its mission was complete to knock it down and where recovery of the payload will be virtually impossible.

Top men!

[Aardvark]

And the big guy gets his 10% from Xi for further selling us out.

[buffalobo]

What a fukkin joke...

If you're unarmed, you are a victim.

[JohnnyDrama]

It's been shot down. With video.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1621957515427577865

I went just for the comments.

[JohnnyDrama]

And the big guy gets his 10% from Xi for further selling us out.

The level of ineptitude and corruption demonstrated by this administration makes the Clintons look good.

[bradbn4]

Hmm; the picture dose look odd - what looks like solar panels seemed to be a bit warped..almost like it is inflated versus structural.

[thebolt]

The balloon sprayed it's load of the new and improved COVID in the designated zone before it was shot down. Biden has shown his fierce power and courage to the world.

[flogger]

Meanwhile, back to Hunter Biden...

[hollohas]

Here's a bit closer view of the shot. Looks like they hit the very bottom of the balloon so the equipment fell free. Too bad the ruptured balloon didn't stay attached to the equipment to slow it's fall a bit. That thing is going to turn into little bits. And apparently we don't have a salvage ship in the area...

Almost like we didn't want to recover it.

https://twitter.com//status/1621977638293180418

[BPTactical]

By not knocking down the ballon immediately this administration actually protected ChiCom intelligence gathering resources.


Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

[earplug]

Is it possible for a infrared homing missile to lock on to a inert balloon? I was figuring they used a radar guided missile. The IR missile would have saved us about $600.000.00 over a radar missile.
China could launch several balloons a day and quickly have us tossing millions a dollars away shooting down balloons.

[DFBrews]

Low effort rhetorical conspiracy theory

The ballon had a new never before seen high level multilevel encrypted block chain secured transmitter that took 4 days for the alphabets to crack

[00tec]

The close up video I saw looked like it struck the payload and the resulting shrapnel took out the balloon

Edit: Stole it from reddit and uploaded to youtube
https://youtu.be/XhqQ-WRzV7g

[BushMasterBoy]

I have concerns this is what the Chinese wanted. Targets that gather attack data. Electronic signatures of the F-22, F-15 and AMRAAM. The Montana recovered debris should reveal what they really are. I need a budget increase.

[theGinsue]

So they might shoot it down over the Atlantic...why wouldn't they have just shot it down over the Bering sea before all this started? Let the damn thing float over the entirety of the country then shoot it down? WTF?

This is fn fishy.

Yep, and this is the correct answer to your question:


That?s so awesome!
Waiting until its mission was complete to knock it down and where recovery of the payload will be virtually impossible.

Top men!

BINGO!

yoy4_h7Pb3M

[eddiememphis]

The balloon was called
加夫里洛.普林西普

The Chinese have been using balloons in warfare for 2000 years. Why not start WW3 with one?

[Martinjmpr]

Yay, we shot down a balloon!

I feel safer already.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlbMdVae4d4

[hollohas]

Waiting to shoot it down until it was over the Atlantic and then destroying the important bits with slim chance of recovery...either a complete failure, or planned that way. I know our leadership is dumb, but didn't think they were all 100% retarded.

So I have to ask, why would they want it destroyed and unrecoverable?

[Madusa]

Why didn’t Canada shoot it down? It flew over Alaska, Canada and continental US.

[JohnnyDrama]

Why didn’t Canada shoot it down? It flew over Alaska, Canada and continental US.

BAD JOHNNY! BAD!....

We could have shot it down over Canada and blamed it on them. What's Justin going to do?

[Scanker19]

Why didn’t Canada shoot it down? It flew over Alaska, Canada and continental US.

Becuase it wasn’t in a semi-truck honking it’s horn….

[TFOGGER]

https://scontent-den4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/329149110_1561763357649299_2422041454709018002_n.p ng?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=TQcafKkhXj0AX8IaHZ1&_nc_ht=scontent-den4-1.xx&oh=00_AfBflRaF914fJc2cc1-86OJhDjJV2Apk76TRXg_Cn5ZMLg&oe=63E6C168

[BushMasterBoy]

USAF shot it down and severed the tether cable. This is an AIM-9X and it will blow your head clean off.

Does this sound familiar?

[00tec]

USAF shot it down and severed the tether cable. This is an AIM-9X and it will blow your head clean off.

Does this sound familiar?

They quite clearly hit the payload

[hollohas]

Memes are top notch as usual.

https://twitter.com/mymemetop/status/1622183207046205440
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230206/2bd485d017efc559aee64690112997ab.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230206/8818a107913aed894373e8288fd27c33.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230206/2d6ccb2c198744b9e6c5fa199c6fd9f9.jpg

[Bailey Guns]

PSA never lets a crisis go to waste:

92917

[Mtneer]

https://youtu.be/Ex8CTtgqUS0

[Mtneer]

https://youtu.be/tbezqLxT750

[hollohas]

F-22https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230206/8e28a0a6085481bee012d36073a4a628.jpg

[BushMasterBoy]

The F22 is the 500 lb gorilla sitting in the corner. Anybody here ever sit in a cockpit on active duty?
Just curious...

[Scanker19]

The F22 is the 500 lb gorilla sitting in the corner. Anybody here ever sit in a cockpit on active duty?
Just curious...

92918

[Doc45]

A variation on post #62

https://i.postimg.cc/cL9pNqz6/B2C3AA8D-F1E8-4273-A7C8-CFF79D43416E.jpg (https://postimg.cc/pmjGDSRt)

[hollohas]

A variation on post #62

https://i.postimg.cc/cL9pNqz6/B2C3AA8D-F1E8-4273-A7C8-CFF79D43416E.jpg (https://postimg.cc/pmjGDSRt)Hahaha. Much more accurate.

[BushMasterBoy]

92918

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

[Delfuego]

Cheapest, most successful, PSYOP ever...

[Joe_K]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/02/pentagon-balloons-surveillance-midwest

I am doubtful it was a Chinese balloon.

[Madusa]

F-22https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230206/8e28a0a6085481bee012d36073a4a628.jpg

Ok, I worked on the F22 project, I can?t let you bad mouth it. Speed, altitude. It can do anything the the F15 can do and more. As far as I know an American F15 has never been shot down. The F22 is the shit. I wonder why they used the F22 for the balloon shoot down, It would be cool if they used bullets out of an older aircraft. Think about it we could have shot it down with an stolen old mig.

[Eric P]

Ok, I worked on the F22 project, I can?t let you bad mouth it. Speed, altitude. It can do anything the the F15 can do and more. As far as I know an American F15 has never been shot down. The F22 is the shit. I wonder why they used the F22 for the balloon shoot down, It would be cool if they used bullets out of an older aircraft. Think about it we could have shot it down with an stolen old mig.

Needed to spend the cash on a new missle so the lobbyists get thier monthly bonus.

[BushMasterBoy]

I'm just shocked the kinetic rod severed the cable. I really love semiconductor physics. The Air Force bought me a really cool laboratory when I was 14. I was building hand held computers and miniature radios. This evolved into the cell phone we use today.

[babarsac]

Goodnight table, goodnight moon

Goodnight Chinese spy balloon.

[hollohas]

Ok, I worked on the F22 project, I can?t let you bad mouth it. Speed, altitude. It can do anything the the F15 can do and more. As far as I know an American F15 has never been shot down. The F22 is the shit. I wonder why they used the F22 for the balloon shoot down, It would be cool if they used bullets out of an older aircraft. Think about it we could have shot it down with an stolen old mig.It's all good. Jets are all cool. But nothing is off limits to memes. ;)

[BREATHER]

Raw News is reporting that balloon is Bidens and it was spying on militias in Montana, but that's raw news

[BushMasterBoy]

China, which owns an estimated $972 billion in U.S. Treasuries, is the number-two investor among foreign governments.

The U.S. debt sat at nearly $30.6 trillion in the second quarter of 2022.

So it was a debt collector balloon?

[Aloha_Shooter]

https://youtu.be/9WfUXU9N7YA

Big thing Lemoine raises is that the balloon's altitude was such that the F-22 was the best tool for the job. I still think it would have been better to use guns earlier to make the balloon deflate more slowly and allow a softer impact. A week also would have been sufficient to rig up a C-130 with a cowcatcher like was used to recover film capsules decades ago but I'm guessing that intelligence platform below the balloon weighed too much to safely capture while falling.

Investigating all those options and briefing senior officials would have taken 3 or 4 days. A desire to understand what the ballloon was capturing and relaying back to Beijing while also not tipping our hand on our operational timelines would also have been a decent reason for waiting until the balloon got to the East Coast.

The counterpoint to all of that is the imperative of demonstrating that incursions of US airspace will not be tolerated. Strategic messaging is sometimes more valuable than collecting intelligence.

[eddiememphis]

If the US will not take any action against a balloon over its own country, can the Chinese safely assume the US will do nothing when they start flying over Taiwan?

[Joe_K]

Hopefully foreign Nations will wake up and realize no one is coming to save them. Taiwan and China is not any more our business than the stupid Ukrainian vs Russia nonsense.

[Madusa]

No I don?t believe General Milley is a soap opera general.

[BushMasterBoy]

I still think they are just weather balloons. This event makes good press and keeps the people from concentrating on the real issues. The real issues are COVID, inflation, higher interest rates, climate change, etc.
There is one really big issue, but some members get bent all out of shape if I mention it. Feel free to PM me if you want the video briefing.

PS It's a war!

[eddiememphis]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/us-shoots-flying-object-alaska-airspace-white-house-says-rcna70166

Another one?

U.S. shoots down 'high-altitude object' over Alaskan airspace, White House says...

[Mtneer]

92952

[hollohas]

I bet the Pentagon launched their own "not an aircraft per say" and shot it down today. Trying to show the country they aren't complete morons.

[flogger]

92952

BIG Larson fan, I'd never seen that one. Perfect!

[Madusa]

Not cool enough to be invited to a Samurai bar.

[buffalobo]

No info about what object was or where it came from.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/norad-confirms-high-altitude-airborne-object-flying-over-northern-canada

If you're unarmed, you are a victim.

[BPTactical]

Airspace closed in Montana due to DOD reasons

[buffalobo]

Just watched a report about "radar anomoly" over Montana, scrambled F15's from Oregon, they reported nothing found, air space reopened.

If you're unarmed, you are a victim.

[hollohas]

US fighters shot down a 3rd object today. This time over Canada. This is getting kinda interesting.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-11/high-altitude-airborne-object-identified-over-northern-canada?srnd=premium&leadSource=uverify%20wall

[hollohas]

Who guessed alien invasion for 2023?

[StagLefty]

Who guessed alien invasion for 2023?

Another vaccine in the works ? [ROFL2]

[Scanker19]

Another vaccine in the works ? [ROFL2]

Hey they’re free, safe and effective.

[eddiememphis]

Who guessed alien invasion for 2023?

You mean space aliens, right?

There is an ongoing alien invasion down south.

[BushMasterBoy]

There was a show in the 1980's where an alien invasion was stopped by balloons. It was called "V". The best part of this clip is the last minute. Maybe China is believing this craziness...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CHgP7SjgvY

[hollohas]

Now China has one too.

https://news.yahoo.com/china-spots-unidentified-object-flying-113000791.html

[eddiememphis]

Sounds like perfect timing.

The world on on the brink of thermonuclear Armageddon.

Our robot overlords are coming online and gaining intelligence.

Maybe the Kanamits have arrived just in time to serve man!

92959

[hollohas]

Shot down another "object" over Michigan.

[hollohas]

The Pentagon said they aren't calling the recent objects balloons for a reason and that they don't have any obvious means of propulsion....so....yeah. It seems to me that they are trying to create wild speculation by being so vague.

[Scanker19]

Maybe the black knight reproduced and is spreading spores!

[BushMasterBoy]

I bet $100 it is WX balloons. The US is 4% of the world population and we consume over 90% of the world fossil fuels.
The good new is we have a large supply of lithium. It is the white powder that clogs my swamp cooler. There is a big out crop of it in Fremont county. Even more in New Mexico. Mine the brine...

[Clint45]

The Pentagon said they aren't calling the recent objects balloons for a reason and that they don't have any obvious means of propulsion....so....yeah. It seems to me that they are trying to create wild speculation by being so vague.

I saw pics of two of them... appear to be two different types of experimental drone.

Was willing to give them the benefit of a doubt that a balloon went way off course in a storm, but drones would've been launched from a ship. Seems like they are deliberately provoking us in hope of some sort of response they can exploit diplomatically.... and now they are petulantly demanding we retrieve their balloon from the depths of the ocean and "return their property."

[BushMasterBoy]

They should really deploy me. All I do is babysit. Sad tits.

https://thehill.com/homenews/3856419-lawmakers-demand-biden-address-nation-on-ufo-incursions/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiwgOWo7mDc

[JohnnyDrama]

I had the melody of this song going through my head as I headed to work this morning. It's a surprisingly upbeat and cheery tune for being about the start of WW III. I guess if you lived in West Germany in the mid 80s, you might as well embrace it.

[hollohas]

OMG. Now we're spending $800k to shoot down some kid's birthday balloon that got free...

How many people are going to start letting free big mylar balloons with "payloads" attached just for fun?

All of the sudden we're shooting down everything we can't identify? There are unauthorized things flying in commercial airspace all the time. Oh, they dangerous? Then why didn't we shoot things down before? Hell, today the Pentagon said it could have been a commercial craft of some sort. Shoot first, ask questions later.

Weird none of the unidentified ones have been recovered yet.

Why start shooting now? If they thought it'd make the USA look tough after their china balloon failure, it doesn't. It's making us look like a freaking joke.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230214/88e6f3d0c0a63b4d2604b55f258e371d.jpg

[BushMasterBoy]

I figure we are just being pranked. Xi is rolling in laughter.

[RblDiver]

There was a show in the 1980's where an alien invasion was stopped by balloons. It was called "V". The best part of this clip is the last minute. Maybe China is believing this craziness...

There was a (partial) remake of V about, oh, 10 years ago or so. I didn't realize that it WAS a remake. Had Morena Baccarin as the head alien.

[hollohas]

We've possibly been shooting down tiny, inexpensive hobby balloons that cost <$100.

$400k missile, meet $15 balloon.

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/hobby-clubs-missing-balloon-feared-shot-down-usaf


A small, globe-trotting balloon declared “missing in action” by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10.

The club—the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB)—is not pointing fingers yet.

But the circumstantial evidence is at least intriguing. The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area.

There are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts’ community, which combines ham radio and high-altitude ballooning into a single, relatively affordable hobby.


Launching high-altitude, circumnavigational pico balloons has emerged only within the past decade. Meadows and his son Lee discovered it was possible to calculate the amount of helium gas necessary to make a common latex balloon neutrally buoyant at altitudes above 43,000 ft. The balloons carry an 11-gram tracker on a tether, along with HF and VHF/UHF antennas to update their positions to ham radio receivers around the world. At any given moment, several dozen such balloons are aloft, with some circling the globe several times before they malfunction or fail for other reasons. The launch teams seldom recover their balloons.

[Hummer]

So, a question for those who have real knowledge of mil aircraft capabilities. Instead of shooting stuff down, why not capture them? Pluck them out of the sky with a crane like arm and clamshell grabber on a high altitude aircraft. Maybe a 747 or jet propelled C130 like transport?

Wouldn't it have been better to capture the balloon or UFO craft without damaging it's contents?

[ray1970]

So, a question for those who have real knowledge of mil aircraft capabilities. Instead of shooting stuff down, why not capture them? Pluck them out of the sky with a crane like arm and clamshell grabber on a high altitude aircraft. Maybe a 747 or jet propelled C130 like transport?

Wouldn't it have been better to capture the balloon or UFO craft without damaging it's contents?

Well, where?s the fun in that?

[SideShow Bob]

So, a question for those who have real knowledge of mil aircraft capabilities. Instead of shooting stuff down, why not capture them? Pluck them out of the sky with a crane like arm and clamshell grabber on a high altitude aircraft. Maybe a 747 or jet propelled C130 like transport?

Wouldn't it have been better to capture the balloon or UFO craft without damaging it's contents?



Something similar to a modified Fulton SkyHook ?


https://youtu.be/Hvamu9SarMU

[BushMasterBoy]

So, a question for those who have real knowledge of mil aircraft capabilities. Instead of shooting stuff down, why not capture them? Pluck them out of the sky with a crane like arm and clamshell grabber on a high altitude aircraft. Maybe a 747 or jet propelled C130 like transport?

Wouldn't it have been better to capture the balloon or UFO craft without damaging it's contents?

I could zap it with high power RF energy using a ECM pod. Probably would fry the electronics. the problem then is that forensics could not analyze the circuitry after recovery. I work "Penetration Aids" & ECM on the Air Force side. Link below shows the system:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_countermeasure

[battlemidget]

I like this version from the John Wayne classic.


https://youtu.be/17z9A6Np2nA

[rondog]

Maybe the black knight reproduced and is spreading spores!


So, a question for those who have real knowledge of mil aircraft capabilities. Instead of shooting stuff down, why not capture them? Pluck them out of the sky with a crane like arm and clamshell grabber on a high altitude aircraft. Maybe a 747 or jet propelled C130 like transport?

Wouldn't it have been better to capture the balloon or UFO craft without damaging it's contents?

Um, that first one was at like, 60,000 feet. Damn few planes can fly that high. And it supposedly had a payload the size of three school buses.

[Aloha_Shooter]

We've possibly been shooting down tiny, inexpensive hobby balloons that cost <$100.

$400k missile, meet $15 balloon.

https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/hobby-clubs-missing-balloon-feared-shot-down-usaf

The first one in the news was anything but a tiny, inexpensive hobby balloons. However, the administration got so much (deserved) crap for letting that balloon transit the whole damned continent that they seem to be trigger happy now in an effort to prove they have cojones. This action has ironically proved the point made before: they wouldn't take any action at all against a known Chinese surveillance threat and violation of our national airspace until pressed but are happy to shoot down anyone else.

[Doc45]

https://i.postimg.cc/LsHQk4Pv/CC0D6DA7-9104-48FE-A79D-02E0EF55A3EF.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[hollohas]

Cool pic. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230223/744a54e252321db747d7206dac3664ad.jpg

[Madusa]

Does the U2 have a gun? I don’t think so but maybe modify the plane for a gun and shooting down balloons will cost much less. Sr71?

[Doc45]

No weapons on the U2. As kid my dad would take me out to Davis-Monthan to watch them do "touch and goes", cool planes for sure.