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US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

bbc.com

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Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#131

Post by mastax »

throwaway4good wrote: post #85
rgbrenner wrote: post #38

I think China erred by sending such a large balloon that was visible to the naked eye, causing the American public to demand it be shot down. There's no hard rule about where national airspace ends and space begins.. a lot of times they fly too high for planes to reach, and under certain circumstances balloons are allowed through national airspace.. so if the balloon isn't causing a problem (like being a hazard to ai…

[flagged]

From what I understand:

- the balloon was required to file a flight plan or have an ADS-B transponder

- the balloon did not file a flight plan or have an ADS-B transponder

So either the balloon's operator didn't know about the requirements, which seems unlikely given its apparent sophistication, or the operator was deliberately hiding the presence of the balloon, in which case I think it's reasonable to call it a spy balloon.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#132

Post by krapp »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #83
randerson wrote: post #69

The US Government shooting down an Unidentified Flying Object sounds like the start of a science fiction film. If there were ever a bad time and place for actual aliens to come visit...

The first tic-tac they shoot at is going to kick their ass. No offense America but my money is on our alien overlords to win.

>No offense America but my money is on our alien overlords to win.

Motherfucker when we all get shipped off to the cobalt mines on Rigel you're getting a blaster bolt up the ass.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#133

Post by rgbrenner »

BobbyJo wrote: post #118
rgbrenner wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's speculation on your part. The DoD has not released any information on what the payload of any of these balloons contains. And going by the size isn't conclusive. The ICESat-2 weather satellite is over 3000lbs, for example. So instruments larger than found on a typical weather balloon clearly do have their place in weather/climate science.

> That's speculation on your part. The DoD has not released any information on what the payload of any of these balloons contains. Not true: https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-balloon-carried-antenna...

Thank you. I missed this somehow.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#134

Post by dehrmann »

marstall wrote: post #57
userbinator wrote: post #29

...with Canada's permission; I think that should be said explicitly.

article states that it was on Canada's orders. I didn't know that was a thing, Canadian PM having the power to command US jets. Can anyone who knows more about NORAD weigh in with an ELI5?

Maybe they played the NATO card.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#135

Post by throwaway4good »

BobbyJo wrote: post #120
throwaway4good wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you honestly think shooting down a balloon in your own airspace is an aggressive act?

Three public shoot downs certainly signals something new.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#136

Post by stevenhuang »

krapp wrote: post #113
dogma1138 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because at least the 2nd object wasn’t, it was described as a cylinder about the size of a car which is where all the UFO tic-tac victory mark memes came from.

> Because at least the 2nd object wasn’t, it was described as a cylinder about the size of a car Source?

> One official told ABC News that the object was “cylindrical and silver-ish gray” and gave the “balloon-like” appearance of floating without “any sort of propulsion”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/11/alaska-myste...

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#137

Post by jjtheblunt »

dirtyid wrote: post #101
jjtheblunt wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could just pop them with a laser instead of bothering to scramble jets and missiles, I’d think.

You could but confirming US has that capability is significant. The purpose is to gather intelligence after all. E: Lunar ranging = ground stations. Not feasible to cover CONUS with network of ground based laser for forseeable future. If anything, balloons will try to bait responses from SHiELD/air based laser ABL interception (YAL1) that can be extrapolated to IndoPac theatre.

Considering the lunar ranging experiment of fifty years ago, it seems like it shouldn’t be some big surprise?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experime...

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#138

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway4good wrote: post #109
rgbrenner wrote: post #38

I think China erred by sending such a large balloon that was visible to the naked eye, causing the American public to demand it be shot down. There's no hard rule about where national airspace ends and space begins.. a lot of times they fly too high for planes to reach, and under certain circumstances balloons are allowed through national airspace.. so if the balloon isn't causing a problem (like being a hazard to ai…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#139

Post by 00deadbeef »

krapp wrote: post #113
dogma1138 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because at least the 2nd object wasn’t, it was described as a cylinder about the size of a car which is where all the UFO tic-tac victory mark memes came from.

> Because at least the 2nd object wasn’t, it was described as a cylinder about the size of a car Source?

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-shoots-high-altitude-obje...

> It was described as "cylindrical and silver-ish gray" and seemed to be floating, a U.S. official said.

https://news.sky.com/story/us-shoots-down-unknown-object-fly...

> The object, shot down on the order of President Joe Biden, was flying at a high altitude of about 40,000ft and was the size of a small car, the White House said.

Re: US aircraft shoots down new airborne object over Canada

#140

Post by anigbrowl »

cma wrote: post #117
anigbrowl wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the wrong question. Large militaries spend a fortune anyway on firing ordnance anyway for training purposes. Doing so in actually uncertain conditions is in many ways more valuable than pre-planned exercises. There's also a political attention focusing effect that allows rapid realignment of priorities away from status0quo maintenance towards novel readiness postures. So in strategic terms, it can be a net be…

It might not be the best thing to do our training with complex adversarial information gathering devices rather than more inert target dummies under our control.

Wait until you get to paragraph 2, it's a real banger
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