Live data from Hacker News

US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

apnews.com

761–770 of 864 posts

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#761
post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait so you're not against Chinese spying, rather just really pro-US spying? That's ... certainly a position!

Something funny about the people who are less worried about US spying because there is “oversight” and they are ultimately “democratically controlled”: they seem to be the same people who have very high faith in them working correctly and not against them. So they are certainly not going to be the ones who keep them in check.

The 'problematic people' are those who do not have the capacity to realize the difference between authoritarian regimes and their internal apparatus, vs the need state security with oversight.

These people are usually naively driven by some kind of decontextualized political mindset, where the equate the arbitrary actions of some state far away, in same context as local governance, and a big dose of ultra liberal (classical) utopianism.

'The NSA is like Xi because they can spy on me'.

It's like saying 'Biden is as bad as Xi because ultimately the Police in the USA could arrest me and put me in prison for 70 years'.

It's barely theoretically true and it makes little sense to compare systems that have oversight and independent judiciary with those controlled by a Dictator.

It's good that the US has the ability to know which Russian stooges are giving money to would-be US presidents, or heading his presidential campaign. And good that the US can trace large sums of money floating out of FTX's Bahamian bank account into the hands of whoever, especially politicians.

If a student protester dissappears in the night because they made an online post critical of the governor - well, all of us will hear about it a few hours later.

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#762

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microwaves transmit on a frequency nowhere near missile systems and are not modulated in any way resembling a missile fire control system, but cool story. ECM gear in US warplanes can classify a system based off its emissions and people think they're fooled by a microwave oven?

Not to be too provocative, but hugely expensive precision equipment being fooled by a microwave oven with the door cut off is exactly what I’d expect from the US military.

[flagged]

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#763
post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Each one of those sidewinder rockets is half a million dollars. Think about how much healthcare, food, housing, we are burning up with this nonsense.

These rockets have to be tested regularly, and this is a great opportunity.

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#764
post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shootdowns did not involve using airplane guns/cannons. Those are less accurate, especially at the engagement range (the aircraft were at 40,000 ft., IIRC, and shooting at 60,000 ft. balloons), and would have likely damaged the payload. The shoot-downs used AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles (per TFA). We also don’t know the ceiling altitude of the F-22 since it’s classified. However, the F-22 can carry the AIM-120 Advanc…

I'm going to ask what might seem like a naive question - but how do you get a sidewinder to lock onto the balloon part of the balloon and not hit the payload?

yes

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#765
post #692

F-22 entered service 2005 Air to air kills since entered service: 2005-2022: 0 2023: 2

It's like when a lawyer tells the client not to do a 2 billion dollar deal after a 5 minute conversation and charges $1 million for his time. It's not the effort, it's what was avoided. They call it the Department of Defense for a reason.

It used to be the Department of War, but Defense sounds nicer. Lots of countries did the shift in name.

Reminds me of George Carlin's joke: shellshock becomes battle fatigue becomes PTSD. Don't make it better, change the name!

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#766
post #735

Earlier quoted context omitted.

look at the stupidest congressman of your choice (party doens't matter) that who you have to convince to convert the US over to the metric system. that is why we still use imperial

I think it just comes down to preference since the government never mandated it. Science and engineering all use metric in the US. Automative all moved to metric voluntarily. I know construction is still imperial. Its mostly consumer facing things that still imperial. And if you go to Canada its pretty common to see $/lb printed along side $/kg. People often talk about height in feet and inches, weight in pounds. Its…

Science and engineering all use metric in the US

Machinists still do a lot of work in inches.

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#768

I 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".

If not equipped with anything cheap ones cost less then 100$

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#769

I dread to think of all the state-funded technology companies with backdoor-ed firmware/software coming out of China

While RSA isn't a state-funded technology company, they did accept a $10M payment from the NSA to make their BSafe security product default to use the DUAL_EC_DRBG cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator. Which the NSA had designed and backdoored... https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/20/5231006/nsa-paid-10-mill...

[flagged]

Re: US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

#770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nautical miles have nothing to do with imperial units. It's now defined in reference to SI meter, but it originates as 1/60th of a degree of latitude.

> it originates as 1/60th of a degree of latitude. So ... not even a fixed length but one that varies by latitude (given the Earth is an oblate spheroid | rotated ellipsoid | flattened sphere) that's something on the order of 20 metres of sloppiness by my reckoning.

Yep, 18m between the poles and the equator.

…which is why the French Navy (who originally defined the unit) switched it to be SI derived in 1906 and the international standard was updated in 1929.

Post reply on HN