Splash one balloon!

[Utah Bob #35998]

I hope the pilot gets to paint a balloon on his plane.

[Texas Lizard]

Well now they have go fishing for the electronics...I sure hope they are planning on this....Love to know what is/was on it...

 

Texas Lizard

[Matthew Duncan]

26 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I hope the pilot gets to paint a balloon on his plane.

Strange how the balloon was not a threat until it flew closer to the east coast.

[Barry Sloe]

Flies across half the country and it is not a threat. Don't you just love these people who are for love and happiness?!  Shoot it down after it has transmitted all the information. 

 

I can't really express what I really want to say. 

 

BS

[Utah Bob #35998]

24 minutes ago, Matthew Duncan said:

Strange how the balloon was not a threat until it flew closer to the east coast.

Doddering Joe gave the open fire order on Wednesday. The Military didn’t want Kung Pau Chicken, nuts, bolts, etc, raining down on citizens.

[Utah Bob #35998]

I believe I’ll have a mini celebration…VC en though it’s not 5 o’clock yet. Bourbon of course.

 

[Chili Ron]

Howdy,

I bet their sattilites tell em way more than that balloonn.

I bet they just wanted to see our reactions.

Best

CR

 

[Chantry]

No fan of the current administration, but people are being absurd.  If the Drooler in Chief shot it down over the US and someone was killed, he would have been criticized for the loss of life and yet the same people are criticizing him for waiting until it was over the Atlantic Ocean to shoot it down.

 

 

[Chantry]

1 minute ago, Chili Ron said:

Howdy,

I bet their sattilites tell em way more than that balloonn.

I bet they just wanted to see our reactions.

Best

CR

 

 

I agree

 

The location of our military bases and nuclear missile launch sites is hardly a secret, so unless the US has come up with something new, that we haven't heard of yet, what exactly are the Chinese up to?  And why is there another one being reported over Latin America?

 

An unmanned balloon reliant on the wind for propulsion isn't exactly the most predictable of vehicles so using one to take take pictures that a satellite could do just as well makes no sense and I'm not sure what signal intelligence they would have been able to gather since the government/military would have communicated over land lines and not cell phones.

[Old Man Graybeard]

The bigger question is…what do they need a diversion for THIS time…

[Utah Bob #35998]

9 minutes ago, Chantry said:

No fan of the current administration, but people are being absurd.  If the Drooler in Chief shot it down over the US and someone was killed, he would have been criticized for the loss of life and yet the same people are criticizing him waiting until it was over the Atlantic Ocean to shoot it down.

 

 

Well, he just told the military to light it up asap. They made decoided to wait until it was over territorial waters for safety. But kudos to making the decision.

[Subdeacon Joe]

17 minutes ago, Chantry said:

No fan of the current administration, but people are being absurd.  If the Drooler in Chief shot it down over the US and someone was killed, he would have been criticized for the loss of life and yet the same people are criticizing him waiting until it was over the Atlantic Ocean to shoot it down.

 

 

 

I can't buy the, "Oh! We don't DARE try to bring it down over the least densely populated areas of the country!" line.  If we can snag satellites by their parachutes when they return, we can snag a deflated balloon the same way.

 

I haven't looked at the news, but I bet we don't recover the instrument package.

[Utah Bob #35998]

11 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

I can't buy the, "Oh! We don't DARE try to bring it down over the least densely populated areas of the country!" line.  If we can snag satellites by their parachutes when they return, we can snag a deflated balloon the same way.

 

I haven't looked at the news, but I bet we don't recover the instrument package.

I don’t think we still have that old capability or the equipment or crews to do the snagging thing.

They had USCG and the Navy on standby in the area for recovery. Maybe they’ll get something. Maybe not.

But I’m glad we had a commie shoot down for the first time since Vietnam.

and lest densely populated doesn’t mean Unpopulated. Doc Disaster has a nice new house in Montana.

 

[Cypress Sun]

 

Good, glad we shot it down. One down, one to go.

[Michigan Slim]

Could have been shot down over water around the Aleutians.... 

[Utah Bob #35998]

Just now, Michigan Slim said:

Could have been shot down over water around the Aleutians.... 

True, but at that point it was just a meandering ballon. International politics is tricky 

[Michigan Slim]

Just now, Utah Bob #35998 said:

True, but at that point it was just a meandering ballon. International politics is tricky 

Next one?

[Utah Bob #35998]

10 minutes ago, Michigan Slim said:

Next one?

I doubt they’re dumb enough to do it again.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Too bad Johnny Horton isn’t around for this momentous event…..

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

AIM 9X targeted and struck the solar panels and data collection structure. Will not have much to recover that will hold data.

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Rip Snorter]

8 minutes ago, Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022 said:

AIM 9X targeted and struck the solar panels and data collection structure. Will not have much to recover that will hold data.

There's a surprise!

[SHOOTIN FOX]

So we use a multi thousand dollar missile to shoot down a ballon when a couple hundred dollars of20 mm ammunition would do the same thing and let the ballon sink slower for possible recovery. It is only a conspiracy theory if it is not true.

 

[Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022]

1 hour ago, SHOOTIN FOX said:

So we use a multi thousand dollar missile to shoot down a ballon when a couple hundred dollars of20 mm ammunition would do the same thing and let the ballon sink slower for possible recovery. It is only a conspiracy theory if it is not true.

 

Given the current government which would be the most plausible> multi million missile or hundred dollar bullet?

[Trailrider #896]

5 hours ago, Michigan Slim said:

Could have been shot down over water around the Aleutians.... 

Much harder to recover whatever is left in the cold water there. Impact on land would also have been more difficult. In 77 ft. of the Atlantic, it won't take the Glomar Explorer to recover it. (And don't think that apparatus only recovered a small chunk of

[Trailrider #896]

1 minute ago, Trailrider #896 said:

Much harder to recover whatever is left in the cold water there. Impact on land would also have been more difficult. In 77 ft. of the Atlantic, it won't take the Glomar Explorer to recover it. (And don't think that apparatus only recovered a small chunk of it.  I'd bet they got most of it. And it won't be told until 100 years later, if ever!) And, I doubt we'll know what is recovered from the balloon payload, either; or what we know about what it collected.

 

[Buckshot Bear]

China is having a cry -

 

https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/world-braces-as-china-reacts-to-us-shooting-down-alleged-spy-balloon/news-story/da79209405d1bfb2f5577529d3329fba

[Jackson Haller]

Maybe it's wasn't about what info it could pick up, but rather what it could bring here...

[Subdeacon Joe]

[Subdeacon Joe]

15 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I don’t think we still have that old capability or the equipment or crews to do the snagging thing.

 

Contract it out to civilians.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/05/02/satellite-launch-company-uses-helicopter-to-pluck-spent-rocket-from-midair/?sh=66dbf4587b64

[Utah Bob #35998]

19 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Contract it out to civilians.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/05/02/satellite-launch-company-uses-helicopter-to-pluck-spent-rocket-from-midair/?sh=66dbf4587b64

It appeared that the instrument array separated from the balloon. I doubt it would have been catchable.

[Subdeacon Joe]

3 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

It appeared that the instrument array separated from the balloon. I doubt it would have been catchable.

 

Maybe my foil hat is too tight, but given some of the (alleged) connections the current administration has, I think that was the intent - to make sure nothing could be recovered.  

 

[Ozark Huckleberry]

15 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

True, but at that point it was just a meandering ballon. International politics is tricky 

Not when it’s a foreign vehicle intruding into U.S airspace without permission. Nothing tricky at all. 
 

If it had been ‘just a meandering balloon’, why didn’t China give the U.S. and Canada a heads-up?
 

Basically, the U.S.  just got pantsed. 
 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

17 hours ago, Matthew Duncan said:

Strange how the balloon was not a threat until it flew closer to the east coast.

Understandable.  We all know there's nothing worth anything west of the Allegheny Mountains except the Peoples Socialist Republics that are on the Pacific Coast or in the Pacific Ocean. (This does NOT include Alaska.)  

 

We just GOTTA get a sarcastic imogie thingy.

[Michigan Slim]