colin Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Well all the hype about America shooting that Balloon down and investigating what it was carrying. Looking at the latest video it seems to show the missile hitting what was hanging underneath the balloon, so I doubt their going to find much if any of that 😆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiampieroSilvestri Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) I do not understand this story.The US military saw the balloon entering their airspace over the pacific and let it fly until the Atlantic to shoot it down? In the forties or fifties a spy ballon would have made sense but today the Chinese are not technologically backwards and they certainly have satellites to observe what they want to see and that wherever they want. Saluti Giampiero Edited February 7, 2023 by GiampieroSilvestri 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Ranger Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 It was determined that to shoot it down over land would be too great a risk to people and to property damage. But I agree that something is not quite right about the claim that this was a “spy” balloon, given that China has reconnaissance satellites. Perhaps it really was a weather balloon that got away from them. Regardless, examination of the wreckage will reveal its purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3DStewart Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) Delaying shooting it down makes tactical sense. Monitoring and capturing its comms and sensors would be a beneficial thing to do, so the more it transmits the more you might find out. Edited February 7, 2023 by 3DStewart 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogtail2 Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 23 minutes ago, 3DStewart said: Delaying shooting it down makes tactical sense. Monitoring and logging its comms and sensors would be beneficial thing to do, so the more it transmits the more you might find out. It makes absolutely no tactical sense, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSG0 Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Both videos are fairly short I think C.W. makes a very good point about Tik Tok 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 I'm going to put this here to let everyone know that if this goes political or even slightly racist, it'll be shut down quicker than a very quick thing, and the perps will be taking a holiday, returning in March. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SprueMan Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 wow, that is some warning Hope this does not break anything, but I just want to add a few notes. The balloon incident is not the first one, apparently it has happened twice under the Trump presidency, that we know of. So this incident was probably made public intentionally. You can think of the various reasons as to why in political terms. Balloons have been used for espionage for a long time (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Genetrix ) so, as it is nothing new, one could expect that both sides knew not only that balloon espionage is a possibility AND how to spot and eliminate them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troffa Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) I (also) recommend this that short Youtube video from C.W. Lemoine, (that NoSG0 posted above 😃) Mover is a Veteran USAF Reserve and USN Reserve Pilot (F-16/ F-18/ F-5) and on this particular subject, and his channel in general. He talks a lot of sense Troffa out! 🙂 Edited February 7, 2023 by Troffa Not clicking the link in NoSG0's post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigster Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 I've read today, that balloon size was around 60m in diameter. Slightly smaller than Sydney Opera House at 65!!! So, stop thinking of it in terms of your children party prop 😉 zig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigsty Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 Can anyone tell me why using a balloon for spying is outrageous and sets back diplomatic relations, while using a satellite to do it is perfectly fine and everyone just carries happily on? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted February 10, 2023 Author Share Posted February 10, 2023 Countries airspace is violated, you don't have to worry about that in space. That's about it really 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 13 minutes ago, pigsty said: Can anyone tell me why using a balloon for spying is outrageous and sets back diplomatic relations, while using a satellite to do it is perfectly fine and everyone just carries happily on? Although there is no real definition of the vertical extent of the concept of national airspace, there are international treaties that define that "space" is open to every country, as such no country can extend their airspace to include space... where of course the definition of space is not always clear but it's commonly understood that objects in orbit are in space. A balloon on the other hand will have to intrude national airspace since the altitude these objects can achieve is much lower than that required to consider them as travelling in space. This makes them no different from an aircraft that is entering a national airspace without authorisation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duncan B Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 I have read that the USAF did at least one fly by of the balloon using a U2 which was able to take high res photos of the equipment package so they will have been well aware of the type of sensors being carried, or at least of the aerial configuration. They also stated that the Chinese stopped communicating with the balloon once the US went public with the news of it's presence which is one reason why they were confident that it did not pose any additional security threat. I doubt we will ever know the complete story or the how's and why but the Chinese must have known it would be spotted so were making some sort of "statement" by carrying out the operation. Were they responding to overflights of their own territories? Duncan B 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Harmsworth Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 I believe the concern with balloons like this is that they can loiter over an area for a few hours and consequently grab a lot more info than a satellite. They are also able to stay aloft for a long time (until something dramatic happens) so in that sense are more useful than a drone. I've read somewhere that several of these were launched but my brain hasn't recorded where I saw that [edit: it was in the Times] Mark 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 Seems to be a regular occurrence actually. Using a HA balloon is of course highly dependent on meteorological circumstances, and from one of the tracks out there on the interwebs it appears this one got 'stuck' (even floating around in circles for a while). If it had moved along then it would never have been such a big public event. btw: Ward Carroll tends to bring more and more sensationalist titles, bit of a turn-off for me. 'The inside story' released within 3 hours of the event? You tellin' me you have a higher security clearance and jumping the queue of who gets the natsec briefings? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas.R Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 They should have shot the balloon down with a rifle from another plane, which caused a small leak and the balloon would have slowly lost altitude. It would have looked like a technical defect and would probably have crashed with minor damage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLC1966 Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 5 minutes ago, Andreas.R said: They should have shot the balloon down with a rifle from another plane, which caused a small leak and the balloon would have slowly lost altitude. It would have looked like a technical defect and would probably have crashed with minor damage! Sounds like a Dick Dastardly/Wacky Races kind of scheme....(if you are not old enough to remember Wacky Races ignores this comment) 1 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 19 minutes ago, PLC1966 said: Sounds like a Dick Dastardly/Wacky Races kind of scheme. 2 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GiampieroSilvestri Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 (edited) On 07/02/2023 at 16:31, NoSG0 said: Both videos are fairly short I think C.W. makes a very good point about Tik Tok When he shoots down another four will he get the Brothers Montgolfier medal?🙂 (This is only thought to put a little bit of humour into it without any further thoughts) Ciao Giampiero Edited February 10, 2023 by GiampieroSilvestri 2 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 This is quickly ballooning out of proportions.... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Harmsworth Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 30 minutes ago, Andreas.R said: They should have shot the balloon down with a rifle from another plane, which caused a small leak and the balloon would have slowly lost altitude. I believe that wouldn't have worked. It seems that there is (or maybe they thought there was) spare gas carried on board to deal with such small leaks. And this thing was huge - 20 stories tall(?) so a bullet sized hole wouldn't really have much effect would it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 New Trumpeter model announced............ https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/new-surprise-release-from-trumpeter-t535996-s20.html#p2893073 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psdavidson Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 I heard Airfix were planning a Dogfight Double 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted February 10, 2023 Share Posted February 10, 2023 Looks like a second one has been downed over Alaska https://theaviationist.com/2023/02/10/u-s-f-22-shoots-down-second-high-altitude-object-over-alaska/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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