Have the presence or lack of fins and a prop been verified?
That’s not entirely true. If you look at the AIM-9 series they are both fragmentary and continuous rod.
Biden on the three UFOs:
Well, isn’t that nice. WHICH private companies? Wouldn’t they take responsibility then? Say sorry?
Because the public is in such an understanding mood?
Did he just say that the UFOs are just weather balloons? Is he sure they’re not swamp gas? The reflected light from Venus?
So the balloon at CP’s Quality Used Cars gets loose, and the USAF spends money shooting it down.
Isn’t that sort of like I double park my car and the police decide it may be something nefarious and blow up my car? They want me to pay the cost of the SWAT team instead of a ticket?
Just ignorant spitballing here, but is an air-to-air missile even the right tool to use against a balloon? Might an air-to-ground missile fare better? I mean, yeah, the balloon is physically in the air, but on the other hand, it’s moving at speeds much more typical of ground targets.
If it’s floating around airspace that planes fly in it would need some form of approval and track-ability.
Here’s the process for launching a weather balloon. The Chinese KNOW this so their claim this was a civilian blah blah blah is pure 100% bullshit…
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About an hour before the scheduled release time, the observer will inflate the balloon within our Upper Air building. A latex balloon is filled with helium and will reach around 5 feet in diameter when filled with enough gas to lift 1,100-1,600 grams. Below the balloon, the observer will attach a bright orange parachute and over 75 feet of string that the radiosonde will be tied to. Before the radiosonde is attached to the weather balloon, it will undergo a “baseline” process to ensure that the sensors are operating properly. This process takes about 10-15 minutes and observers check to ensure data is being received by the radiosonde and the battery is in good health.
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After the weather balloon assembly is complete and the radiosonde baseline process is successful, the observer will consult the local FAA air traffic control for clearance to release the balloon. Once released, the radiosonde will send meteorological data in one-second intervals. This data will be received by a computer system in our office, and monitored and quality controlled by the observer.
I’m wagging that there is a possibility that the US found out what the Chinese balloons were really about.
They decided to elevate this issue to allies around the world through shear publicity. -Keep it in the news for a few days… Many countries have now reported balloon sightings since this issue entered the world stage. The 1st balloon was definitely a surveillance craft and now this space is being scrutinized more closely by allies.
Win. Win.
Don’t have a link, but I saw a cartoon where two women aliens (they have eyelashes) are consoling a crying child alien, and one of them says, “The earthlings shot down his science fair project, and want him to get his own Netflix subscription.”
Soviets/Russians have/had some straight fragmenting warheads. An example is the R-77/AA-12 is one still in use. As you said, fragments go everywhere while the target is only in one quadrant. Great post.
The Chinese balloon was NOT a radiosonde weather balloon. Those are much smaller than what they shot down. And their payload is only, as your quote says, 1,100-1,600 grams. I really doubt the DoD is going to confuse one of those with a potential spy balloon.
BTW, the Chinese did not claim it was a radiosonde weather balloon. Those are just used for routine weather data. What they said it was is a research balloon. If it really was one, they should open up about the details of what that research is. But they’re too paranoid to do that.
I mentioned earlier in this thread (or was the other balloon thread?) that these other balloons sounded like someone’s science project…
There’s still the issue of these flying at altitudes used by commercial/private aircraft - how much of a safety issue that really is given the tiny size of these things is a matter of debate - they have been floating around the world at these altitudes all this time after all. Either way, i doubt the optimum solution is to shoot them down with sidewinders. There’s better ways for fighter pilots to get their training in and shoot off some “soon to be expired anyways” missiles.
The conclusion was that the only planes that could come close to the original balloon were F-22s, and they can’t carry air-to-ground munitions.
The F-22 has a significant capability to attack surface targets. In the air-to-ground configuration the aircraft can carry two 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions internally and will use on-board avionics for navigation and weapons delivery support. In the future air-to-ground capability will be enhanced with the addition of an upgraded radar and up to eight small diameter bombs. The Raptor will also carry two AIM-120s and two AIM-9s while in the air-to-ground configuration.
But no air-to-ground rockets?
No they won’t. Because weather balloons are tracked.
I’m sure the Chinese were tracking their balloon. Or at least they were as long as they had radio communication with it. All they needed was for the balloon to report its lat/long and altitude.
But what I meant was the size difference. A radiosonde weather balloon is way smaller than the Chinese balloon they shot down. The text you posted even said they are only about 5 feet across when launched. They expand more at lower pressure, but still nothing like the size of that balloon.
I’m not so sure weather balloons are effectively tracked.
At least for US-launched weather balloons, yes, NWS informs local ATC when they release one. And the balloon transmits weather data back to the NWS as it ascends, eventually drops it payload for potential re-use if found, then bursts in the high upper atmosphere then the envelope flutters back to Earth somewhere.
AFAIK, none of the data NWS collects is sent to FAA in real time. Once the balloon leaves the weather station grounds, ATC has no idea where it is. Not altitude, not position, not nothing. And they are not radar-reflective much at all.