We’ve had it for years, John Wayne used it to extract a VC general when he was in the Green Berets.
Chinese Blimp over US
- Thread starter Sneakers
- Start date
POP
WingsOfGold
Well-Known Member
Sanders ought to have a dandy rebuttal to Dementia Joe's SOTU!
Is it me or is she getting very pleasing to the eye?
Is it me or is she getting very pleasing to the eye?
Balloons Aren't Just for Kids' Parties—They Can Launch Bombs, Drone Swarms and Even EMP Attacks
Balloons aren’t just for children’s birthday parties—in addition to being highly-efficient surveillance devices, they are also potentially extremely dangerous weapons of war. The only casualties on American soil during the entire Second World War were the six unfortunate souls killed by a Japanese balloon bomb which took over 70 hours to travel undetected over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Oregon.
The first and most obvious danger is that a balloon could be carrying munitions—which it could drop any time its operators so chose. Note that if a Chinese bomber had flown over the U.S. mainland, it surely would have been shot down by now, but this CCP balloon has been floating around unmolested for days.
The twitter thread below was posted well before our current situation, but is still relevant and informative:
Yes, but what you don't see in that meme is the f#&king clown holding the end of the string.
kwillia
n/a
It is over the Carolinas now. It will hit the open water soon. If we do not shoot it down once it is open water, we cannot shoot it down due to the elevation travel path (higher altitude than our aircraft can fly). If that is the case, we are F'd. We are PWN'd. We wasted all of our military money, might and minds worrying about touchy, feelgood, ideals when other countries were investing in how they can F us.
Sneakers
Just sneakin' around....
Never would have happened under a stronger presidency.
kwillia
n/a
I blame my fellow citizens who cannot grasp that you cannot legislate decency, morals, or common sense thus vote based on emotion.
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Sneakers
Just sneakin' around....
Ok, the engineer in me keeps asking... If the picture of a round white balloon with the array underneath is the actual representation or photo, how do the solar cells (assuming that's what's on the array arms) get any sun? They are in the shadow of the balloon most of the time, and when the sun angle is low enough to clear the balloon, the angle of the sun on the panel yields little gain.
It appears to be working tho, so..... ?
It appears to be working tho, so..... ?
Well they look like solar panels but you can make an antenna array look like a lot of things. I would think that at least some are actually solar panels. I would like to know if a gas like hydrogen was used to inflate that thing.
Grumpy
Well-Known Member
Questions/observations I have -
- They say its capable of navigating but appears to me that its riding the polar vortex.
- Read that it was at altitude of 80k feet, thus out of range for ground to air targeting so it would have to be shot down with an air to air missile.
- Military said they were concerned about lives on the ground if they shot it down, which sounds like BS to me, they are just saying that under orders from the cabal in the WH.