TPD
the poor dad
Give Elon Musk a billion dollars and a month and he could probably figure something out. You could probably do it with a half a billion and 2 weeks.
Biden Balloon Gate
- Thread starter GURPS
- Start date
AnthonyJames
R.I.P. My Brother Rick
I guess 'Sky Hook' from The Dark Knight is out then. Rats!
22AcaciaAve
Well-Known Member
I had thought the same thing, that we could try to tether it and bring it down, but I think that only sounds good in TV and movies. I doubt we have anything that could bring down a balloon that size from up that high, mainly because we just never thought we would need it!
Remember balloon boy about a decade ago? The hoax where a balloon was "accidentally" launched and supposedly had a small kid in the basket? We had the capability to track it, but they had to wait for it to land on it's own. The kid was later found hiding somewhere in his house. He was never in the balloon. If we didn't have something to safely bring down a balloon with a child in it from much lower altitude, we wouldn't likely be able to do it in this situation.
I think they did the right thing. I doubt Biden had anything to do with it, but our military experts probably recommended letting the balloon continue to see exactly what it did. I think they assessed that the balloon probably couldn't deliver anything that Chinese satellites hadn't already given them. So what was the purpose of the balloon in the first place? They let it run it's course over the US, and shot it down where the payload could be retrieved easier and more intact.
Remember balloon boy about a decade ago? The hoax where a balloon was "accidentally" launched and supposedly had a small kid in the basket? We had the capability to track it, but they had to wait for it to land on it's own. The kid was later found hiding somewhere in his house. He was never in the balloon. If we didn't have something to safely bring down a balloon with a child in it from much lower altitude, we wouldn't likely be able to do it in this situation.
I think they did the right thing. I doubt Biden had anything to do with it, but our military experts probably recommended letting the balloon continue to see exactly what it did. I think they assessed that the balloon probably couldn't deliver anything that Chinese satellites hadn't already given them. So what was the purpose of the balloon in the first place? They let it run it's course over the US, and shot it down where the payload could be retrieved easier and more intact.
Not me. This article has a map showing the track of the balloon from China to Montana. It should (and I would say was) picked up by the Alaskan early warning radars. It could have been intercepted, positive ID made and brought down over the Alaskan tundra.
22AcaciaAve
Well-Known Member
I agree that it should have never been allowed to cross into US airspace. I mean once it was here, I think letting it go until it hit the Atlantic was the right thing to do.
But there is an interesting question that goes with this. If people in Montana hadn't noticed it and started questioning it, would we ever have known about this? Allegedly, this is not the first or second time this has happened, just the deepest penetration into US airspace. So why did we not here about any of this until now? And if this spans multiple administrations of both parties, what is going on that is so important that even the two parties are cooperating with each other?
WingsOfGold
Well-Known Member
Because it never happened perhaps.
jrt_ms1995
Well-Known Member
itsbob
I bowl overhand
Didn't he pilot the F-22 that shot it down??
itsbob
I bowl overhand
Somebody had to greenlight the Chinese sending the balloon, and had to give orders NOT to shoot it down while it was over the Pacific... probably the same guy that greenlighted Russia attacking Ukraine.
glhs837
Power with Control
Well to be fair, that was less about reaching than locking on. A "Hawk Among the Sparrows" problem.
itsbob
I bowl overhand
Balloons are invisible to most of our tracking and targeting tech.. just like sailboats are near invisible to RADAR.. I think the only thing we could lock onto was the payload slung underneath it, which means you're going to destroy the payload. Speaking of which, not sure what the payload was, but it seemed rather large for a weather balloon.. were those solar panels, or were they some type of control surfaces to steer it??
glhs837
Power with Control
Indeed. No idea what the payload was. I suspect those squares were solar in top, sensor on the bottom. Front and rear propellors maybe?
I still think there was a heater between and that's what the missile hit. If you look closely, you see a grey cloud appear right in "front" of the balloon about the same time the damage occurs. That tells me the prix fuze went off. The grey cloud would be the warhead detonating and sending the frags forward in between the balloon and payload.
itsbob
I bowl overhand
I remember when one of our Blimps got away from us, and had a hell of time bringing it down.. and they have self destruct systems in case they get away.. Lot of failures there.
I read in one article that the payload did indeed have propellors so that it was not a totally unguided and drifting balloon. I also read about the AIM-9X variant of the Sidewinder and the article said that its seeker does not need "heat" to lock on. It's some type of wider-spectrum seeker now.
Back when I was workng on rockets and missiles, the AIM-9L was the hot lick...LOL.
