#balloon shot down

[ivovynckier]

Did you people shoot the Chinese spy balloon down? You didn't. Nor did the NRA. The government did. With professionals who know how to do these things...

[zvaigzdelasas]

Hey anyone else remember how like. 3 months ago US media absolutely misplaced their marbles over a fucking balloon [31 May 23]

[excitementshewrote]

[averlym]

"careful, or i'll quote that"

[noellevanious]

So could those Chinese "surveillance" balloons have been that warranted shooting them down? They were just weather balloons right? Did we ever actually figure that out? Or is it one of those "you'll be excommunicated if you tell the truth about The Great United States Government actually being insane warmongering xenophobes" things and well never know the truth

[nehswritesstuffs]

trick or treat!!

How about a bit of a Bellazón-related wip that I got just kind of sitting there on the ever-turning rotisserie in my brain? 147 words; takes place obviously in an AU where this can happen; slightly edited so it WILL be different in the final version but I'm not telling you HOW.

“Where…” Rosinante sat up and wiped the tears and snot and ruined cosmetics from his face onto his shirtsleeve. “…where is Nami?” “Arlong has her,” the girl squeaked. “He saw one of the maps she can draw and kidnapped her.” “She can draw maps?” “Yeah; better than adults, even though she’s younger than me.” She looked at this strange man slumped into the couch and shivered. “How… how do you know Bell-mère…?” “We used to… work together.” “You used to be a Marine?” He paused and licked his lips. “Yeah. I was, but… I don’t know if I can ever call myself that again.” “Good,” the girl said, resolute. “Marines are useless. Can you get my sister back from Arlong?” Rosinante let go of Bell-mère’s hand and gently held the girl’s face as he looked her directly in the eyes. “Tell me where I need to go.

Want a little fic snippet, WIP, behind-the-scenes info, or otherwise, hit up my ask (multiple callers accepted and encouraged)!

[diabelskoga]

❝ Note to self. Pin a stupid balloon onto that stupid swordsman, so that I know where he is or where he gets lost. ❞

[hungerystarving]

Flounder farm from China

[richardgrimes]

who else saw that big ass white balloon in the sky

[7itch0zero]

[ufosightingsfootage]

2 Amazing UFOs Filmed Yesterday 13th February 2023 Santiago Chile

2 UFOs filmed just yesterday over Santiago in Chile. These look like Cylindrical shaped UFOs and they're definitely moving towards the mountain.

[ivovynckier]

As long as it's not a weather balloon...!

[tomorrowusa]

That Chinese balloon is now sleeping with the fishes off the coast of South Carolina. Actually, retrieving as much of it as possible would be a useful intelligence move.

U.S. officials first detected the balloon and its payload on January 28 when it entered U.S. airspace near the Aleutian Islands. The balloon traversed Alaska, Canada and re-entered U.S. airspace over Idaho. "President Biden asked the military to present options and on Wednesday President Biden gave his authorization to take down the Chinese surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to us civilians under the balloon's path," said a senior defense official speaking on background. "Military commanders determined that there was undue risk of debris causing harm to civilians while the balloon was overland."

An F-22 Raptor fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon.  

The balloon fell approximately six miles off the coast in about 47 feet of water. No one was hurt.

47 feet/14.32 meters of water isn’t terribly deep. That’s less than the height of a five-story building. Locating the debris is probably a greater challenge than recovering it. Being shot down over US territorial waters makes that easier.

Examining what’s left of the data collection hardware should explain what its purpose was. But for the most part, China could get the same information from its satellites.

Long before the shoot down, U.S. officials took steps to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information, mitigating its intelligence value to the Chinese. The senior defense official said the recovery of the balloon will enable U.S. analysts to examine sensitive Chinese equipment. "I would also note that while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of U.S. territory was of intelligence value to us," the official said. "I can't go into more detail, but we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable."

Contrary to GOP politicians and hyperventilating far right media, the balloon was not a military threat to the USA.

The balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. Still its intrusion into American airspace over several days was an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty. The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration.

Maybe Trump was hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago to cover up his failures regarding those three instances when Chinese balloons floated over US airspace during his administration.

Former Director of National Intelligence (2010-2017) James Clapper spoke with Jim Acosta at CNN. Mr. Clapper described the Chinese use of the balloon as “ham-handed” and questioned what good it did for Xi Jinping. 

There are good reasons the US military didn’t attempt to shoot down the balloon until it was over the ocean. The safety of people on the ground was just one of the reasons.

This article was published before the balloon was brought down...

Shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon could be a lot harder than it sounds, former Navy pilot says

Why doesn't the US just shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon floating around parts of the country like a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers, as well as former President Donald Trump, are demanding?

Because it's not that simple, a former Navy pilot told Insider.

Attempting to take out the high-altitude balloon with the air defense systems the US has is "very difficult," it's hard to engage it with fighter aircraft, and shooting it down also risks injuries and fatalities on the ground, explained Brynn Tannehill, a former naval aviator and senior technical analyst at the RAND Corporation think tank.

Balloons like the one that was spotted this week over the continental US can operate at more than 100,000 feet, and according to Tannehill, most US anti-air weapons systems were not "designed" to eliminate targets that high up.

Most systems "weren't designed to shoot down things operating at the kinds of high altitude balloons can operate at," Tannehill said, explaining that an aircraft would likely struggle to get close enough to it to get within gun range, either. 

[ ... ]

[M]issile systems, both surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles, "aren't designed to attack balloons because balloons don't look like the kind of valid targets that they were designed to attack," like enemy aircraft or missiles.

"They don't move like a cruise missile," Tannehill said of these kinds of balloons. "They look more like a cloud or chaff, and modern missiles are designed to ignore chaff," a kind of radar countermeasure.

"It's very difficult with what we have, because what we have was not meant to shoot down balloons," she said.

For perspective, that balloon was about twice as high as commercial airliners fly.

[8008135sblog]

[theramenrater]

hot'n'sour

[rightnewshindi]

भारत के आसमान में दिखा चीनी जासूसी गुब्बारा, राफेल ने 55 हजार फीट की ऊंचाई पर मार गिराया

#News भारत के आसमान में दिखा चीनी जासूसी गुब्बारा, राफेल ने 55 हजार फीट की ऊंचाई पर मार गिराया

China Baloon: वायुसेना ने हाल ही में पूर्वी मोर्चे पर 55 हजार फीट से अधिक की ऊंचाई पर चीनी जासूसी गुब्बारे को मार गिराया। रक्षा सूत्रों ने एएनआई को बताया कि भारतीय वायुसेना ने कुछ महीने पहले चीनी जासूसी गुब्बारे को मार गिराने के लिए राफेल लड़ाकू विमान का इस्तेमाल किया था। बल ने इसके लिए आकार में छोटे गुब्बारे का इस्तेमाल किया। गुब्बारे को कुछ पेलोड के साथ हवा में छोड़ा गया और फिर 55 हजार फीट से…