Ideas please for the Chinese Spy Balloon

Arde

Arde

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Background, the Chinese spy balloon is about 20k up, above Montana, moving east, and the size of three buses [SIC].
Given that our leaders decided not to blow it up of the sky, we need a plan B for what to do with it. Here are my ideas:

1) Find the plug and unplug it, watch it zigzag like a party balloon.
2) Start hanging bottles filled with sand from it until it slowly starts coming down.
3) Keep increasing interest rates and see if it comes down just like everything else does.

Other?
 
Arde said:
we need a plan B for what to do with it...
Click to expand...
il_340x270.664112220_s3wj[1].jpg
 
Meanwhile actual Chinese spy satellites are probably over us as we speak. Or if you have the TikTok app on your phone the Chinese may know where you live. :rolleyes:

 
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Satellites are in space, national sovereignty does not extend to space.
The Kármán line is at about 100km and has nothing to do with E9 Karmann.

Anyway, now that China admitted it is theirs, the simple solution would be too ask firmly please lower that thing and land it, or lower so we can blow it up safely.

The next poll is what do you thing we will find inside once it lands...
 
A F22 pilot engaged in this unfair dogfight against a barely moving object the size of three buses with no pilot and no ability to fire back. The mission was deemed so dangerous that the chain of command pondered the risks for 4 days. The debris field danger paralyzed them, until a first grader opined that most of a balloon's volume is air, else it would not float...

The chain of command seems to have adopted John Yossarian's motto:
"live forever or die in the attempt."

Oh, well...
 
I can understand not wanting to shoot it down over land. This is maybe a bit more extreme, but when Space Shuttle Columbia happened, my grandparents' property in Texas was covered in absurd amounts of debris, little smoldering flecks of things.
 
Arde said:
A F22 pilot engaged in this unfair dogfight against a barely moving object the size of three buses with no pilot and no ability to fire back. The mission was deemed so dangerous that the chain of command pondered the risks for 4 days. The debris field danger paralyzed them, until a first grader opined that most of a balloon's volume is air, else it would not float...

The chain of command seems to have adopted John Yossarian's motto:
"live forever or die in the attempt."

Oh, well...
Click to expand...
The PAYLOAD was the size of 3 buses. The BALLOON. was 25-60 meters across. Shooting it down over your house would have been OK with you?
 
The F22 went to 58,000 feet and fired a sidewinder. I for one am very impressed.
Here is the Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) that that shut down the airspace before the incident.
1675616851365.png
 
Arde said:
A F22 pilot engaged in this unfair dogfight against a barely moving object the size of three buses with no pilot and no ability to fire back. The mission was deemed so dangerous that the chain of command pondered the risks for 4 days. The debris field danger paralyzed them, until a first grader opined that most of a balloon's volume is air, else it would not float...

The chain of command seems to have adopted John Yossarian's motto:
"live forever or die in the attempt."

Oh, well...
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, the “chain of command” is made up of outstanding patriots that think more about the safety of the American homeland than you can imagine. Aside from running the risk of collateral damage, shooting the spy ballon down over land could have risked destroying it and losing intel that we could collect from it. Politicians and military leaders make mistakes (as do we all), but I am confident that the decision to shoot it down when they did was the right choice.
 
I was wondering if the people who owned it were hoping that it would be found and shot down and then taken back to a secret base so that it could be inspected.
Then in a kind of modern version of the Trojan horse , as soon as it was taken in , it would start sending out important classified information such as it’s “secret” location etc etc
Just a thought
 
WALTER said:
Believe it or not, the “chain of command” is made up of outstanding patriots that think more about the safety of the American homeland than you can imagine. Aside from running the risk of collateral damage, shooting the spy ballon down over land could have risked destroying it and losing intel that we could collect from it. Politicians and military leaders make mistakes (as do we all), but I am confident that the decision to shoot it down when they did was the right choice.
Click to expand...

Nice to hear from career military amongst a sea of armchair quarterbacks.
 
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