# The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese spy balloon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 3, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228 "2023-02-03T01:32:54Z")\
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**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2023, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/78 "2023-02-03T21:05:19Z")

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> [@Sooner](#):
>
> Air to Air radars and missiles have all sorts of filters to insure they do lock on to anything but a fast-moving objects, that behave like an aircraft. This is to insure they are not fooled by countermeasures an enemy aircraft might deploy. But I suspect this also eliminates the possibility of their use against a balloon.

If the balloon is big and slow, don’t fire air-to-air missiles - fire air-to-ground missiles. If they can hit a tank, they can hit a balloon.

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