Raf
Life is an eternal tug-of-war where each side needs each other. Shoot it down!
Life is an eternal tug-of-war where each side needs each other. Shoot it down!
“…taking it out with a Sidewinder missile…”
Why spend a few bucks on cannon shells when you can use a US$400k missile?
Turns the air pressure at altitude would take days to deflate the balloon. This article says in 1998 the Canadian Air Force shot up a balloon and it remained inflated.
https://theweek.com/us-military/1021008/why-the-us-used-missiles-not-cheap-bullets-to-shoot-down-chinese-balloon-3
Just keep shooting them down, especially over ope waters, China wont know what happened and eventually they will stop.
Because the F-22 looks awesome; ask Hollywood directors! Besides, the USAF needs some way to justify continued F-22 operations to Congress.
They flew a U-2 over this thing? Can the USAF hang a really, really long bungee cord from it and use a C-130 to tow it to Edwards?
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Someone get grandpa and his shotgun. The aliens are back.
The U-2 can slow down to around 120 at lower altitudes, like 3000ft. But at altitude it is moving at a pretty good clip.
C130 would never make it up to 60,000 ft. That is the normal cruise altitude of the U-2. NASA802 has been training out of Dobins AFB, located just north of Atlanta. It can fly a great distance without refueling and hang out for a while. You can follow its ‘training’ tracks on FlightAware.
It is my understanding that an F-15 can operate up to 64K, and zoom climb to maybe 98K. Could be wrong.
Still does. Look at the picture of the U2 over the balloon. The pilot is wearing a pressure suit helmet.
…and sh*t.
Needs more holes
Balloon wars… cool idea. Send up our own to latch onto the unidentified ones.
It would have been nice to have links to the photos.
Seen over Hawaii huh?
Well I beginning to think this is a big Hullaballon about nuthin.
Now the f-22 pilot can paint a balloon beneath his canopy. lol
What is that thing on the left of the picture. Wing mirror?
Getting the U-2 directly between the balloon and the sun – epic indeed!
Here’s a higher-res version of the photo (link below). This should at least end up in canvas on the squadron’s break room wall.
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/rockcms/2023-02/230223-f16-balloon-mb-0857-242c94.jpg
Seems either me could have “buzzed” any of the balloons and let wake turbulence do its thing. A 777, even clean, should still do the job, paint the balloon on it’s door. Over land, give the civil air patrol something to search for.
If wake turbulence doesn’t work, clip the envelope with a wingtip. It’s just thin fabric…
Seems to me could have “buzzed” any of the balloons and let wake turbulence do its thing. A 777, even clean, should still do the job, paint the balloon on it’s door. Over land, give the civil air patrol something to search for.
If wake turbulence doesn’t work, clip the envelope with a wingtip. It’s just thin fabric…
So many “why don’t they just …” suggestions.
Like this is Huffpost of something.
