Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are UAPs?
Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon
I've also seen Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena but Aerial makes more sense.
US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
251–260 of 864 posts
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
A government that spends more money on their military than the rest of the world combined isn't at risk of bankruptcy from firing a couple missiles. We're at risk of bankruptcy because our debt is 31 trillion dollars and in June we won't even be able to issue securities to continue bullshitting ourselves out of cutting spending. Welcome to America, we're broke because we spent all our money on guns rather than infras…
> Welcome to America, we're broke because we spent all our money on guns rather than infrastructure, healthcare and education. This sentiment is completely untrue. Defense is approximately 12% of US government spending, healthcare approximately 24%, education approximately 15%, and social security roughly 20%. Infrastructure is harder to categorize, but the truth is that the US government spends at least 4x more on h…
> the US government spends at least 4x more on healthcare, education and welfare
And we’re terrible at all three vs nations that spend fractions less…
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#253Cheap balloon vs expensive missile, seems a good way to bankrupt us by sending continuous balloons.
> Cheap balloon I'm surprised this seems to be such a common point. Why is it believed that it was cheap?
Yeah, these balloons that can hold small car to school bus sized payloads are not like a commercially available thing. It seems like they'd require truckloads of helium, which is a hard gas to store and not always available in massive quantities (seems like it should be prioritized for keeping MRI scanners cool instead of balloons). The balloons are probably really hard to produce, not made in great numbers, and require specialized equipment and processes to launch without puncturing. Not quite an airplane's cost but this isn't the send-a-gopro-to-100,000ft type of trick that relied entirely on products available to consumers.
It's also possible whomever is running this operation doesn't care about their staff at all and they just use hydrogen.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it's a fair comparison because a rocket hit could be much more expensive in direct and collateral damage than 50k
Yeah, a $50k missile to save even a single unoccupied house is a missile that paid for itself. And if it saves a few human lives then it was positively cheap. If bankrupting Israel by forcing them to expend Iron Dome interceptors is Hezbollah's plan, it obviously isn't working.
I wonder how much is going into location technology much like ShotSpotter but for rockets and mortar and all that sort of thing. They may already know the origins of fire but maybe can't fire back at that precise location or something?
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#255We need a cheaper way to down these spy balloons. The sidewinder missile + F-22 flight time costs are an order of magnitude greater than the total cost of launching one balloon. Send over the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler (HELIOS) to protect the west coast.
What keeps a cannon from working? That would already reduce the costs by a lot, and from the visual identification it seems that 40,000 feet is well within the flight ceiling of fighter jets
Cannons are very short range. The fighter would have to approach the balloon at a high closure rate, creating some risk of a mid-air collision.
With a missile, the pilot can shoot from several miles out and never has to fly directly at the target. So, it's much safer.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#256We need a cheaper way to down these spy balloons. The sidewinder missile + F-22 flight time costs are an order of magnitude greater than the total cost of launching one balloon. Send over the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler (HELIOS) to protect the west coast.
The big balloon from earlier this month was more like a satellite hanging from a balloon. Not sure it was that cheap. The problem is what can you fly that has a cannon and can reach those altitudes. Apparently only the F22 and F15 could, and that was their very limit.
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Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those UFOs were lens flares. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsEjV8DdSbs Turns out we like to spend gobs of money even when we're just chasing our shadow.
That video helps explain one property one of the UFO videos (the rotation) but doesn't explain the rest. Doesn't explain the Tic Tac videos. It does not explain why these were observed on radar as well. While some of the videos have explanation, I would kindly encourage you to look at this with more curiosity.
> It does not explain why these were observed on radar as well.
The lens flare was caused by the camera looking at the ass end of another jet. The radar saw the other jet.
For even one of these videos to have a mundane explanation that should have been obvious to the Navy upon investigation, I think that discredits the lot. Either the Navy couldn't figure it out themselves (which seems highly improbable), or for some reason the Navy is deliberately misleading the public, or at the very least allowing some of their personnel to mislead the public and playing coy about it. I think this is what's happening.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it's a fair comparison because a rocket hit could be much more expensive in direct and collateral damage than 50k
True. But they're unguided, almost none of them will cause real damage, but you have no choice but to take all of them out to prevent the losses from a lucky shot - at great expense. It's a great way to drain your enemies funds, great asymmetric warfare. Casualties are just icing on the cake.
It's also a great way to test and hone one's missile shield with live unscheduled "drills" that may not be drills.
Makes it a lot easier to get funding when requested too.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#259We need a cheaper way to down these spy balloons. The sidewinder missile + F-22 flight time costs are an order of magnitude greater than the total cost of launching one balloon. Send over the High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler (HELIOS) to protect the west coast.
The big balloon from earlier this month was more like a satellite hanging from a balloon. Not sure it was that cheap. The problem is what can you fly that has a cannon and can reach those altitudes. Apparently only the F22 and F15 could, and that was their very limit.
That’s definitely not their limit since they can shoot down satellites at the altitude of the International Space Station. And that’s the stuff we’re allowed to know about.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd rather my own government spy on me than China. I'd rather Hannibal fucking Lecter be able to see me through my webcam than China.
Your own government has a much higher ability to affect your life than China does, so what you're saying is completely irrational. Not that it's OK for the Chinese to spy on us, mind you, or to claim that they don't have nefarious purposes.
You can bring your own government to account for what it does. You can do nothing about what what China does.