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U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

cnbc.com

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Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#191

Post by dividedbyzero »

colechristensen wrote: post #100
chitowneats wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was easy to down one balloon during peace-time. You're right. Please see my comment further below for why that might not work in aggregate during a real military conflict. Edit: I'll paste it here in case it gets buried: I really do wonder if this is them testing that they can reliably and cheaply get high-altitude balloons to the U.S. mainland. In the event of a military conflict, I can imagine them swarming us w…

Meh, countermeasures for even lots of balloons are not difficult to imagine.

For lots of balloons way out of reach of fighter aircraft? What is there apart from expensive missiles that can operate at such altitudes?

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#192

Post by gnicholas »

scotty79 wrote: post #159
Dalewyn wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that using China as our 21st century boogieman is very tiresome, the fact of the matter is China is not a friend of the west.

So? The west is not a friend of China as well. And US has downright militant rethoric agains China.

Do you think China would have hesitated to shoot down an American "weather" balloon, the size of three school buses, if it entered China's airspace? I doubt it would have been allowed to float for thousands of miles before being downed.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#193

Post by Andrex »

scotty79 wrote: post #138

Why didn't they just down it safely harpooning it from a helicopter or something? Didn't they want to investigate the payload in detail rather than mangled remains? Was it really just a scientific baloon but US found it more useful to accuse Chinese of sending grotesquely large and not stealthy at all spy balloon? Otherwise why destroy it? EDIT: I stand corrected that USA just didn't have the technological capacity t…

"Why didn't they just"

If you ever start a sentence this way, please, just do 30 seconds of Googling instead of posting the comment.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#195

Post by gonzo41 »

The Us military only shot it down because of pr. Usually you ignore spy planes. The are easy to track, and the military and airforce know how to sit around and wait things out.

America should retaliate with its own balloons with no Intel packages, instead the should be very visible, and at the ceiling of most fighters so China has to waste be anti satellite missiles on cheap balloons.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#197

Post by hfbff »

sandworm101 wrote: post #190
pxc wrote: post #102

I am so tired of China being used to stoke American jingoism, of politicians making a contest of who is really 'tough on China' and, most horrifyingly, of seeing other USians online practically salivate as they fantasize about a war with China. It's some cold war boogieman horseshit. And it's depressing to watch here on Hacker News, too, any comments that question the beating of those war drums go dead. Yesterday I h…

It is only boogieman talk, until that boogieman is real. Sending balloons i to the airspace of other countries makes china's intention undeniable: they do not care for any rules-based international system. They believe simply that might makes right. They are a bully. The US just made its counterpoint very clear in the only manner that a bully understands. That balloon will no doubt be cut up and put on display, airin…

Are you saying that the US does believe in a rules-based international system? Let's count the number of countries the USA has invaded vs China...and the government topples with the help of the USA vs China

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#198

Post by LarryMullins »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #165
maximinus_thrax wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/32... > 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.

So it probably cost >$1M to shoot it down? How much did that balloon cost to make?

> So it probably cost >$1M to shoot it down?

Basically free, when you consider they were going to fly planes and shoot missiles anyway for practice.

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#199

Post by LarryMullins »

unity1001 wrote: post #156
stcroixx wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> their continued atrocities Before it comes to China's alleged atrocities that every single Muslim country's parliamentarians and diplomants say they dont exist: Have you yet persecuted and jailed those who murdered 1 million in Iraq?

America voted for a president who said he would, but then reneged on that promise.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/obama-... Fuck you Obama!

Re: U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

#200

Post by blamazon »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #177
blamazon wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US state apparatus did not make a big deal of this. The media and the public did, and the US state apparatus answered to the media and the public, as is their duty.

I'm not saying it happened here, but the US media has a very, very long history of being happy to take a ball from the white house, military, or cabinet - and run with it.

Fair dinkum! We probably won't know for sure what maybe happened until someone involved maybe writes a book in 5-50 years.
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