US shoots down Chinese spy balloon off East Coast

[transam]

8 minutes ago, CharlieKo said:

Talk about manufactured hysteria! It was a weather balloon. 

Well it won't have "Chinese spy rig" painted on the side, will it............????

[Kwasaki]

1 minute ago, transam said:

Well it won't have "Chinese spy rig" painted on the side, will it............????

No !!  It probably said "Made in China"  ????

[BangkokReady]

8 hours ago, rabas said:

It was shot down by a single A9X sidewinder air to air missile.

What happened to the missile after it popped the balloon?

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, Kwasaki said:

It might already released a new covid strain over America. ????

Your hysteria is getting the better if you.

[billd766]

8 hours ago, vandeventer said:

Shooting it down from the first time it entered American airspace was much too easy. Lets hope they act a little faster if a nuke was entering US airspace. Joe should have put his foot down sooner!

There is a vast difference in a spy balloon travelling at the speed of the wind and that of a nuclear missile being tracked on radar

 

 

A vastly different response time also.

 

No matter. Just keep blaming President Biden for everything.

 

You are sure to get something correct one day.

[billd766]

8 hours ago, Tug said:

Now you might take that up with the Canadians it was over there country first they might have gotten a bit miffed if we just flew into there country and started shooting down stuff as far as over the pacific that could pose issues if we do that stuff in international airspace 

Could you please stop posting common sense replies as it simply confuses him

[ozimoron]

The military blocked it. It posed no threat. This is a nothing burger.

[ThailandRyan]

1 hour ago, CharlieKo said:

Talk about manufactured hysteria! It was a weather balloon. 

Glad your the CIA SAS retiree with all the contacts and verified it as such....

[John Drake]

32 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

The military blocked it. It posed no threat. This is a nothing burger.

Then why did Biden have it shot down?

[John Drake]

2 hours ago, CharlieKo said:

Talk about manufactured hysteria! It was a weather balloon. 

Says who?

[Phoenix Rising]

47 minutes ago, billd766 said:

There is a vast difference in a spy balloon travelling at the speed of the wind and that of a nuclear missile being tracked on radar

 

 

A vastly different response time also.

 

No matter. Just keep blaming President Biden for everything.

 

You are sure to get something correct one day.

Well, I think that is open for debate....????

[Hummin]

33 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

I will tell you what, If you stop blaming Trump for everything that's wrong with America, I will try my hardest to find one thing that Biden did right. Ok?

That would had been a compliment, everyone alike him, + all those who never make the news, but still extortion the society for all common wealth it could have and vote for the politicians who do not make a difference for the average joe, but only in it for themselves.

[pomchop]

Yeah boy how i wish we had a president that knows more than all the generals, all the pentagon experts, the CIA, the NSA ....a president that dodged the draft with bone spurs and tried to overthrow the election.  A president who wants to nuke hurricanes, suck up to dictators,  drink bleach for covid....instead we have a highly experienced president who understands that really smart people listen to the experts and not spend all their time telling everyone how they know everything about everything.

 

Biden did exactly what any sane president would do and that is order it shot down as soon as the experts said it would be safe to do so. ...Biden is the president and does not claim to be an expert on spy balloons, aircrafts, falling debris, possible intelligence salvage....that is why presidents surround themselves with the best and the brightest and don't denigrate/fire every single one of them the minute they give him advice he does not want to hear.

 

<<<<Off topic trolling comments removed>>>>

 

Good job Mr. Biden.

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Your hysteria is getting the better if you.

And theirs me thinking you had a sense of humour.

The only hysteria is USA.

????

[Beachcomber]

Using a missile to shoot down a balloon seems like a bit of overkill.

Surely a short burst of bullets would have done the job and the balloon would have come down slowly without damaging the instruments.

 

As a point of curiosity I thought missiles needed something to guide and detonate them. Hot exhaust or proximity to metal, presumably neither of which the balloon had. 

????

[metisdead]

Off topic deflection posts and replies have been removed. This topic is not about Trump's bone spurs and this topic is not about Biden's alleged allergy to avoid the draft. 

[stevenl]

5 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

Using a missile to shoot down a balloon seems like a bit of overkill.

Surely a short burst of bullets would have done the job and the balloon would have come down slowly without damaging the instruments.

 

As a point of curiosity I thought missiles needed something to guide and detonate them. Hot exhaust or proximity to metal, presumably neither of which the balloon had. 

????

So you think you know better than the military about the best way to shoot this down.

[SpaceKadet]

5 hours ago, CharlieKo said:

Talk about manufactured hysteria! It was a weather balloon. 

If it really was a civilian weather balloon, one would have expected a common courtesy of China to inform US and Canada that it has indeed gone off course and will be passing over their territories. However, nothing was said, in fact as far as I remember it was denied in the beginning by CCP that the balloon was theirs.

[Social Media]

13 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

Using a missile to shoot down a balloon seems like a bit of overkill.

Surely a short burst of bullets would have done the job and the balloon would have come down slowly without damaging the instruments.

 

As a point of curiosity I thought missiles needed something to guide and detonate them. Hot exhaust or proximity to metal, presumably neither of which the balloon 

????

I thought exactly the same, a 200million aircraft firing a 400k missile to drop a bag of air just seems wrong and a waste of resources. Ax you say a short burst of bullets would probably have sufficed as you said.

[transam]

6 minutes ago, Black Ops said:

I thought exactly the same, a 200million aircraft firing a 400k missile to drop a bag of air just seems wrong and a waste of resources. Ax you say a short burst of bullets would probably have sufficed as you said.

Perhaps treated as another training exercise, I mean, the USA spends zillions every day on the exercise thingy.........

[ozimoron]

3 hours ago, John Drake said:

Then why did Biden have it shot down?

It was out of Chinese control and it shouldn't have been there. It simply wasn't any kind of threat. There was nothing the balloon could do that a satellite couldn't do better.

[ozimoron]

11 minutes ago, Black Ops said:

I thought exactly the same, a 200million aircraft firing a 400k missile to drop a bag of air just seems wrong and a waste of resources. Ax you say a short burst of bullets would probably have sufficed as you said.

Jets don't carry machine guns anymore and smaller aircraft can't get to 50,000 feet.

[Beachcomber]

29 minutes ago, stevenl said:

So you think you know better than the military about the best way to shoot this down.

So you think the military should never be questioned? A bit like Russia perhaps!

 

I'm sure they had good reason for using very expensive missile instead of a few rounds of bullets.

It would be interesting to hear from someone who actually knows about these things the reasons.

[ozimoron]

4 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

So you think the military should never be questioned? A bit like Russia perhaps!

 

I'm sure they had good reason for using very expensive missile instead of a few rounds of bullets.

It would be interesting to hear from someone who actually knows about these things the reasons.

You didn't read my post above which explains precisely why they didn't use bullets? Are you imagining that this balloon was some kind of high tech spy thing that satellites couldn't handle? Are you imagining that the military wouldn't have shot it down if it was truly a threat? Are you imagining that the military couldn't block every signal coming out of it? Maybe a reality check might be in order? Some good old common sense instead of endless conspiracy bunkum?

[stevenl]

4 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

So you think the military should never be questioned? A bit like Russia perhaps!

 

I'm sure they had good reason for using very expensive missile instead of a few rounds of bullets.

It would be interesting to hear from someone who actually knows about these things the reasons.

Agree with your last sentence. A plausible explanation has been provided already.

[billd766]

3 hours ago, vandeventer said:

I will tell you what, If you stop blaming Trump for everything that's wrong with America, I will try my hardest to find one thing that Biden did right. Ok?

And that will be easier for you than for me to find one thing that Biden did right. OK

 

34 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

Using a missile to shoot down a balloon seems like a bit of overkill.

Surely a short burst of bullets would have done the job and the balloon would have come down slowly without damaging the instruments.

 

As a point of curiosity I thought missiles needed something to guide and detonate them. Hot exhaust or proximity to metal, presumably neither of which the balloon had. 

????

I don't think any aircraft manufactured in the last few years have been equipped with machine guns using bullets. Mostly they are fitted with cannons of 20 to 30 mm bore and fire shells'

 

https://www.gd-ots.com/armaments/aircraft-guns-gun-systems/

 

They are usually equipped with guided or unguided missiles such as

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=aim9x+sidewinder&sxsrf=AJOqlzVjUBuP6vg60nXzAWKr5Uqv4gQ8aw%3A1675599409000&source=hp&ei=MJ7fY6HXOYGA3LUPm4iLkAE&iflsig=AK50M_UAAAAAY9-sQXc2Em3h832i9uPwN5AQk607LKFk&oq=aim9x&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYAjILCAAQgAQQsQMQgwEyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BAgjECc6CAguENQCEJECOhAILhCxAxCDARDHARDRAxBDOgsILhCABBCxAxCDAToOCC4QgAQQsQMQxwEQ0QM6BAgAEEM6CggAELEDEIMBEEM6BwguELEDEEM6BAguEEM6CAguEIAEELEDOgcIIxDqAhAnOggIABCxAxCDAVAAWO5iYLN8aANwAHgAgAGaAYgBhAWSAQMyLjSYAQCgAQGwAQo&sclient=gws-wiz

 

the big difference is that if you are firing upwards, shells once fired tend to slow down.

 

OTOH the missile is generally rocket powered and fitted with a proximity fuse, which means that it doesn't need to hit the target. just get close enough.

 

Sorry about the long winded reply but I had to do a search and then hang the differences together.

[pomchop]

41 minutes ago, Black Ops said:

I thought exactly the same, a 200million aircraft firing a 400k missile to drop a bag of air just seems wrong and a waste of resources. Ax you say a short burst of bullets would probably have sufficed as you said.

so  you know better than the experts who had all the data, all the info, all the knowledge of Chinese balloons, best area to avoid debris damage on ground, how best to salvage at sea.....impressive

[Beachcomber]

Alright so I've learned something. 

Fighter jets that can reach 60,000ft don't have machine guns only missiles.

 

Still leaves the question how the missile triggered in the proximity of the balloon?

 

[sqwakvfr]

6 hours ago, CharlieKo said:

Talk about manufactured hysteria! It was a weather balloon. 

Why does China need to monitor the weather in Alaska, Canada and the continental US?  Weather balloons are launched by many countries everyday.  I have not heard of a foreign “wealthier” balloon flying over Chinese Airspace. 

[ozimoron]

Just now, sqwakvfr said:

Why does China need to monitor the weather in Alaska, Canada and the continental US?  Weather balloons are launched by many countries everyday.  I have heard of a foreign “wealthier” balloon flying over Chinese Airspace. 

It's a new high tech secret spy device.