What is being shot down?

[Roadkingtrax]

Lyman, that works!

Hope all is well.

[jdmcgrath]

Like anything else that goes unnoticed until someone goes too far. Chinese balloon was meant for Guam or Pearl but the wind had other ideas. Now anything up there is suspect. Probably should have been paying closer attention all along.

[Art]

Its starting to look like the US Air Force has been using F22 fighters to, at least in one case, shoot down people's toy baloons. You have to show you're doing something, right?

[JimF]

How is it that a missile was required . . . .when a single .50 caliber from a machine gun would pop anybody’s balloon?

[Allen]

These are very high altitude balloons. If they are above reach of a jet and gunfire then a missile is needed.

[Art]

These are very high altitude balloons. If they are above reach of a jet and gunfire then a missile is needed.

True in some cases, but the F22 has a service ceiling of 65,000 feet, plenty high enough to handle a balloon at 60,000 feet.

However, my post above refers to a hobby club balloon that belonged to some enthusiasts whose organization is called, IIRC, "Bottlecap Balloons." They say one of their balloons disappeared over Alaska at about the time of the Alaska shootdown. There is growing speculation that the great lakes shootdown also involved some sort of vehicle being operated, again, by some recreational folks. Notice how the "gubmint" doesn't seem real interested in looking too hard for the remains of these other vehicles. The government isn't going to want to admit they are shooting down peoples toys to look good, after letting the real problem child drift all the way across the US soaking up intel all the way.

The only good thing about this is the Air Force got in some live fire practice though at very passive targets, one of which they seem to have missed with the first Sidewinder.

[Allen]

True in some cases, but the F22 has a service ceiling of 65,000 feet, plenty high enough to handle a balloon at 60,000 feet.

However, my post above refers to a hobby club balloon that belonged to some enthusiasts whose organization is called, IIRC, "Bottlecap Balloons." They say one of their balloons disappeared over Alaska at about the time of the Alaska shootdown. There is growing speculation that the great lakes shootdown also involved some sort of vehicle being operated, again, by some recreational folks. Notice how the "gubmint" doesn't seem real interested in looking too hard for the remains of these other vehicles. The government isn't going to want to admit they are shooting down peoples toys to look good, after letting the real problem child drift all the way across the US soaking up intel all the way.

The only good thing about this is the Air Force got in some live fire practice though at very passive targets, one of which they seem to have missed with the first Sidewinder.

The last balloon shot down took 2 missiles @ $380,000 ea plus the cost of using the plane and all the ground support so about $1M.

The first balloon, the Chinese spy balloon, was large and talk was it could soar 120,000 high.

#2 and #3 " objects shot down were announced (by the pilots) as cylinder shaped and octagonal shaped------no more mention of these. #4 balloon does sound like a toy that cost the tax payer about $1M to shoot down having no mass and no produced heat causing the first missile to miss.

I may be missing something as the news, just like our history, is re-written all the time.

The most important thing is though that all the attention is off of Hunter and biden's corruption along with the confidential files drama quickly fading away.

[Art]

The last balloon shot down took 2 missiles @ $380,000 ea plus the cost of using the plane and all the ground support so about $1M.

The first balloon, the Chinese spy balloon, was large and talk was it could soar 120,000 high.

#2 and #3 " objects shot down were announced (by the pilots) as cylinder shaped and octagonal shaped------no more mention of these. #4 balloon does sound like a toy that cost the tax payer about $1M to shoot down having no mass and no produced heat causing the first missile to miss.

I may be missing something as the news, just like our history, is re-written all the time.

The most important thing is though that all the attention is off of Hunter and biden's corruption along with the confidential files drama quickly fading away.

First, you are right about attention being off the Hunter Biden graft and corruption case, but the Biden strategy for everything is to ignore it which is true of the OP also.

The dope on the ChiCom Balloon was that it was at about 60,000 feet which makes sense as the only reason we know it existed today was an old boy seeing it from the ground and then it being reported in a newspaper. At 120,000 feet, 20 miles plus uo, I doubt it would have been seen from the ground. Except for that we probably wouldn't be talking about this at all.

These incursions seem to have been happening through at least three administrations with nothing being done about it because it seems, nobody in the DoD bothered to tell anybody in the Obama and Trump administrations, including the Secretary of Defense that it was going on . At least that's their story and they're sticking to it. More proof that you can't trust these people...full stop.

[Allen]

"could" soar at 120,000'. What I remember reading was, when spotted it was estimated at 70,000--75,000' but that's neither here nor there now. Per my posted article a different radar system is being used now that tracts small objects and apparently non-metal devices. May be true or may be an excuse for the defense dept for sleeping on the job (for decades).

https://www.yahoo.com/news/heres-why...173547135.html

[JimF]

These are very high altitude balloons. If they are above reach of a jet and gunfire then a missile is needed.

But, don’t these missle-bearing jets have a .50 cal. gun as well?