F-22 entered service 2005 Air to air kills since entered service: 2005-2022: 0 2023: 2
Do you become an ace after 5 ballons or do the ballons need to shoot back?
US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
591–600 of 864 posts
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#592I dread to think of all the state-funded technology companies with backdoor-ed firmware/software coming out of China
I imagine this comment is relevant somehow.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#593I feel sorry for the pool soul who decided to send up their DIY weather balloon with gopro to get that space shot. Who knows he might even have a video of a F-22 sending a missile over.
How much does a weather baloon cost? ...compared to a F22 flight, a missle + all the logistics? If it's cheap enough, there will probably be youtubers and tiktokers buying them en-masse just "for the lulz".
Depends on your payload weight. Some random searching found a 300g payload baloon for USD$30[1]. That excludes filling costs and other bits.
Anyone stupid enough to do it without following FAA rules (assuming launched in the US) is going to find themselves in some serious trouble.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#594Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can bring your own government to account for what it does. You can do nothing about what what China does.
> You can bring your own government to account for what it does Our government is so powerful, you can't even make a dent.
We will see. Interesting things happening in congress this week. I'm too jaded to let myself get very hopeful about outcomes. But it does look like a dent was made with McCarthy's concessions to get confirmed as speaker.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#595Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jeez imagine if a country decided to launch the first nuclear strikes using their national carriers passenger air planes masquerading as civilian aircraft. Multiple cities all at once.
Except they fly 2-3 hundred miles an hour and leak radiation we can detect from space…
If they are detectable yes the speed is an issue.
I haven’t seen info regarding detecting tracking unused nuclear weapons using sensors. Do you have a source?
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#596Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#597Earlier quoted context omitted.
Americans will measure with anything except the metric system.
1/40,000,000 of the Earth’s circumference does not make sense to me, but the foot does. (As does the school bus.)
Agreed. There’s this weird idea we should have the same UX for everything. In practicality we need different scales. I don’t describe the distance between myself and my neighbor in light years.
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#598Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Shooting down satellites is a very different thing.
China hasn’t indicated it cares a great deal about international law. (One could make the same argument for the U.S., but that’s not the open question at the moment.)
International law’s got nothing to do with it.
Basically Every spacefaring has made it their policy that an attack on one of their satellites would be treated as an act of war and everything would be on the table in terms of retaliation
Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#599Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast
#600Is there a reason F-22s are being used to take these balloons down? Is it to take advantage of a training opportunity? I would think less advanced aircraft may be more cost effective to operate.
The f-22 is also the US fighter with the highest combat ceiling. I believe the actual number is still classified. The f22 took the shot on the balloon last week at 58 thousand feet, which is higher than many fighters can fly.
This one was considerably lower. But IIRC Alaska is a common station location for f-22s so may have just been coincidence.