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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

#201

Post by anonymousiam »

sabujp wrote: post #146

Spy balloon cost : $3k - $50k , you can even buy them on alibaba and some other sites: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/China-hot-sale-surveillance-balloon-with_60454941082.html https://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/jennerjiang/product-list/catalog-1.html?view=0 Cost to shoot down balloon with F22 $400k for the AIM-9X, ~$85k for 1 hour of flight time, so ~$400 - $500k to shoot down one balloon that cost < $50k

You've left out the cost of the payload, which is probably substantial.

If I weren't retired, I'd be interested in reverse-engineering it. I'm sure NASIC will be all over it, but we (the general public) will never get the details of what the payload was really doing.

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

#202

Post by bradleyjg »

qqtt wrote: post #184
yohanshi wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a taiwanese who lurks on hacker news for many years but when I saw this post I had to make an account. You are dead wrong, China is an enemy of the free world, pure and simple. South Koreans and Ukrainians would agree with me here. Especially since China has declared no limit friendship with russia

The world should also be very concerned about the current leader in China, who is currently re-writing the democratic traditions of China to remain in power indefinitely, which echoes the moves certain other leaders have made. This is, time and time again, a precursor to using military adventurism to justify and consolidate their grip on power. If anything, people aren't worried enough. Being overly sensitive about a…

Uh, what democratic traditions of China?

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

#203

Post by Salgat »

hfbff wrote: post #180
yohanshi wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a taiwanese who lurks on hacker news for many years but when I saw this post I had to make an account. You are dead wrong, China is an enemy of the free world, pure and simple. South Koreans and Ukrainians would agree with me here. Especially since China has declared no limit friendship with russia

From your point of view, I can see how China is bad and the USA is good. But ask someone whose country got invaded by the USA or whose bloody dictator got supported by the USA. Over here in Latinamerica we still remember the horrible things that the USA did. It seems to me (but I could have a false perception) that China is a horrible bully in their corner of the world (nine dash line and, of course their will to inv…

Every major country has their faults, but the US definitely has a larger surface area for these faults as the only superpower left. On the other hand, as the only superpower left, we're fortunate the US exists as a stabilizing factor for world peace, rather than colonizing the rest of the world like every superpower before it.

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

#204

Post by kcb »

sabujp wrote: post #146

Spy balloon cost : $3k - $50k , you can even buy them on alibaba and some other sites: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/China-hot-sale-surveillance-balloon-with_60454941082.html https://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/jennerjiang/product-list/catalog-1.html?view=0 Cost to shoot down balloon with F22 $400k for the AIM-9X, ~$85k for 1 hour of flight time, so ~$400 - $500k to shoot down one balloon that cost < $50k

Meh. Complaining about the cost of shooting this down is pretty silly. F22s are already flown on a daily basis. And munitions are spent regularly in training excersises. It would cost far more millions to set up a training excersise even half as valuable. But that is just the cost of maintaining a capable fighter fleet.

There's probably been sports event flyovers that have technically cost many times this.

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

#206

Post by scotty79 »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #182
scotty79 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The US and Europe brought China into the WTO, gave it most favored nations trading status, transferred trillions in technology, and financed the modernization of the country. Pretty good friends, IMO. But it is not been reciprocated, and is now going bad. The crushing of the democracy movement in Hong Kong was a wake up call as to the intentions of China going forward.

> But it is not been reciprocated,

How was it not reciprocated? Whole western world benefited from the cheap Chinese labor for more than a decade.

I'd say we helped them economically and they helped us economically. When it comes to politics we don't see eye to eye. As for Hong-Kong they are introducing their politics there. Nothing we can do about it. And we are doing exactly nothing about it.

US openly calls China an enemy in their politics. US sees China like North Korea sees US. China just wants to have their own politics without western interference. It's nasty and bad politics but it's theirs.

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

#208

Post by FpUser »

scotty79 wrote: post #179
FpUser wrote: post #112

>"... size of three school busses..." Size of school bus in the US range anywhere from 20 to 45 feet. I surprised they did not measure it in anacondas.

Converting school buses to feet doesn't do much good for nearly everybody on this planet. Use metric.

I prefer furlongs.

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

#209

Post by HybridCurve »

gnicholas wrote: post #192
scotty79 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's because China does not value human life as much as the US. The reasons for not engaging it sooner were stated publicly.
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