A Chinese Spy Balloon?

[Thumpalumpacus]

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. military fighter aircraft shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floated off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, drawing to a close a dramatic saga that drew a spotlight on worsening Sino-U.S. relations.

"We successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it," President Joe Biden said.

The shootdown came shortly after the U.S. government ordered a halt to flights around the South Carolina coast due to what it said at the time was an undisclosed "national security effort."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first announced the shootdown, saying the balloon was being used by China "in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States."

Biden on Saturday said he told the Pentagon on Wednesday to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon as soon as possible.

A Reuters photographer who witnessed the shootdown said a stream came from a jet and hit the balloon, but there was no explosion. It then began to fall, the photographer said.

U.S. shoots down suspected Chinese spy balloon

U.S. military fighter aircraft shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it floated off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, drawing to a close a dramatic saga that drew a spotlight on worsening Sino-U.S. relations.

www.reuters.com

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Wonder if the array will be recovered for examination?

According to AP:

The balloon was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas as it approached the Atlantic coast. At about 2:40 p.m. EST, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it while it was about 6 nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Pentagon officials said.

Officials said the debris landed in 47 feet of water, shallowed than they had expected. It was not immediately clear how long the recovery would take. The Navy is taking the lead, supported by the Coast Guard.

US downs Chinese balloon, a flashpoint in US-China tensions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Saturday downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast on orders from President Joe Biden after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America, becoming the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.

apnews.com

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

And an F-22 got the kill.

 

[SaparotRob]

And an F-22 got the kill.

Take that, F-15!

 

[Airframes]

It'll be a bummer if it turns out the balloon was carrying an amplified antenna so that Chu Lee could get better reception on satellite TV .............

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Kill confirmed. Two away from an ace.

 

[pbehn]

Kill confirmed. Two away from an ace.

View attachment 705543

1:72 and 1:48 scale transfers will be available on Monday.

 

[Snautzer01]

Take that, F-15!

You do not send a F-15 to clean table 9 from rubbish. It has lesser gods to do that.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Kill confirmed. Two away from an ace.

View attachment 705543

It makes me wonder when the last kill scored against a balloon was in military annals.

 

[wlewisiii]

View: https://twitter.com/MarcusReports/status/1621957333310906368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

 

[Wildcat]

Damn USAF, we just scrambled our balloon!

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

View: https://twitter.com/MarcusReports/status/1621957333310906368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The Arizona Cowboy!

 

[DBII]

Aparently, the balloon was just shot down this morning as it passed over the east coast.

Wonder if the array will be recovered for examination?

Give that man a cigar!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

You do not send a F-15 to clean table 9 from rubbish. It has lesser gods to do that.

You shut your mouth.

 

[GrauGeist]

It makes me wonder when the last kill scored against a balloon was in military annals.

The RCAF shot down a rogue weather balloon over New Foundland a few years back.

 

[pbehn]

Aparently, the balloon was just shot down this morning as it passed over the east coast.

Wonder if the array will be recovered for examination?

Putting my conspiracy theorists head on I think the delay in shooting it down was to ensure that it could be recovered and that it landed in a place where the official story that it was smashed cannot be proved to be wrong.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The RCAF shot down a rogue weather balloon over New Foundland a few years back.

Nope. They put a thousand rounds through it, and it made it close to Norway before if came down. Unless you are talking about a different one I don't know about.

When a weather balloon went rogue almost 25 years ago, fighter jets fired 1,000 rounds at it and couldn't bring it down

"With something like this, which is stationary in the air when the CF-18s are flying very, very fast, it is difficult to shoot it," a lieutenant said.

news.yahoo.com

To be fair, though, the US and British tried shooting it down too and also failed.

 

[GrauGeist]

Putting my conspiracy theorists head on I think the delay in shooting it down was to ensure that it could be recovered and that it landed in a place where the official story that it was smashed cannot be proved to be wrong.

The problem the Air Force faced, was several, actually.

First, shooting down the balloon meant that the array, which was the equivellent of three school busses, would be tumbling out of control for about 11 miles to earth with no predictable point of impact.

Next, trying to shoot a missile at the balloon, which has next to no RCS, would be complicated, most likely the missile(s) would pass through and continue on until falling to earth - again, with no idea of where the missile(s) would end up.

Last, trying to make a gun run with 20mm cannon would be difficult, too, since the balloon would offer no resistance to the shells and now you have a rain of 20mm cannon shells falling to earth while the balloon (which is of substantial size) slowly deflates. It could take days for enough helium to vent enough to bring it to earth.

I don't know if they considered hitting it with flares, which would be tricky enough, but would certainly damage the balloon's material enough to bring it down much faster than cannon rounds.

So they waited until it had passed out to sea before taking it down. Missiles would make the biggest holes and they'll fall into the ocean without putting people at risk.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Seems likely that the plunging Arctic air mass bringing frigid temperatures far south into the US unexpectedly carried the balloon along.

The balloon wasn't inadvertently riding the winds. It was able to maneuver, for example hovering over the ICBM sites in Montana.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3x2Mk7DzrnE

 

[GrauGeist]

Nope. They put a thousand rounds through it, and it made it close to Norway before if came down. Unless you are talking about a different one I don't know about.

When a weather balloon went rogue almost 25 years ago, fighter jets fired 1,000 rounds at it and couldn't bring it down

"With something like this, which is stationary in the air when the CF-18s are flying very, very fast, it is difficult to shoot it," a lieutenant said.

news.yahoo.com

To be fair, though, the US and British tried shooting it down too and also failed.

I was going by memory, having read about the issue at the time.

I didn't realize it survived the RCAF's attempt.