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US jet shoots down unknown object flying off Alaska coast

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

#811

Post by dsfyu404ed »

d1sxeyes wrote: post #803
nikcub wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm this and that it happen in both Bosnia and the Serbia campaigns. I had family members who were involved [0]. The deception methods that were applied were truly remarkable, they used decoy tanks and sent people out to imprint fake tank tracks into fields. They also understood IR and would shield real troops while leaving coal to burn in empty pillboxes and bunkers There was also the shoot down of the F-117…

Winning wars with air power alone is a very dangerous thing to do. It puts success entirely in the hands of the best funded. You can simply simulate the war and arrive at the outcome. So as a member of the “losing” side, how do you respond? You only have one choice to win: escalate. Escalate to terrorism, NBC weapons, etc. Both sides have to bleed in a fair-ish fight to keep wars roughly conventional.

I don't get what you're getting at.

If you wanna bomb someone you don't get to complain when they turn around and engage with whatever means they have.

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

#812

Post by ch4s3 »

wincy wrote: post #678
ch4s3 wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s interesting because there’s no real evidence that the US was intentionally using that strategy.

It only works if you have more money than the other side, anyway.

Higher industrial capacity and a stronger economy but… same-ish thing.

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

#814

Post by ant6n »

tomcam wrote: post #708
LastTrain wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The national weather service already launches > 180 weather balloons PER DAY.

That sounded way too high to me. Turned out… That number is way too low. https://www.weather.gov/bmx/kidscorner_weatherballoons#:~:te... .

Apparently the real number is 184?

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

#815

Post by mancerayder »

tempestn wrote: post #701
mancerayder wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? It's all over the press. I didn't happen to notice the balloon floating in the sky. We don't all have one collective eye. The press and politicians platformed the story.

In the US the government doesn't control what the press reports.

The government makes statements to the press, leaks to the press and when politicians throw barbs at each other over an issue, the press reports their statements about the issue and the issue.

No one said the press was being controlled.

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

#816

Post by bailoon »

philliphaydon wrote: post #747
bailoon wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd rather be spied on by a western democracy than China. Why? What has china done that's worse? Did they nuke a country? Wipe out entire races of people? Did those nasty chinese invade dozens of countries? There is nothing inherent in a western democracy that makes it good. > Our intelligence agencies are out of control but there's still better mechanisms for reigning them in than China. There are no mechanisms fo…

> China isn't going to arrest you and put you in jail. Unless you’re Chinese. Now that we know China has secret police stations all round the world.

[flagged]

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

#817

Post by kobalsky »

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #441

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.

It's possible that a gopro isn't even detected.

The chinese balloon, and I quote the article: "was like two or three buses". That thing was big.

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

#818

Post by jasmer »

supercheetah wrote: post #497
jasmer wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moral relativism between US and China is unfathomable. They are not remotely comparable on the whole. China has a Dictator, a total absence of a Justice System, total surveillance and censorship, and large swaths of the population of some regions in concentration camps, a large number of individual dedicated to holding in place that apparatus. Meanwhile you're free to walk down the street and tell the US President he…

No such comparison was being made. The issue is whether or not the US or Chinese government affect our lives more, and since there's no danger of China trying to invade the US anytime soon, it's obviously the former. The Chinese don't care about watching the average person.

The CCP monitors everyone (including you and I), and we live in an interconnected world, this idea of 'they're not about to invade' is not really the point.

If China had it's way, they would not 'invade' Taiwan either, we would wake up one day and realize the process happened over 20 years and that Taiwan is under CCP control.

And that Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, Korea are also subject to arbitrary power of the CCP a little bit like Lukashenko in Belarus is a stooge of Putin.

That's what the surveillance is for.

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

#819

Post by jlkuester7 »

ascotan wrote: post #591
snake_doc wrote: post #345

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?

In WWI, shooting down an observation balloon was considerably more difficult (and prestigious) than another plane.

In this case, though, I imagine the difficulty (and associated prestige) is considerable less... :)

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

#820

Post by PM_me_your_math »

mtnGoat wrote: post #422
PM_me_your_math wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a cat and mouse game that we've been playing for decades. USA has surveillance aircraft in the air at all times, especially near ADIZ. It also has at least one of two national command and control aircraft in the air at all times. The USA has been probed more times than can be counted, and we've probed other countries just as much. What's new is ignoring a threat while over territorial waters or sparsely popul…

I don’t think that’s new based on the most recent incident. I recall the pentagon saying this has been going on for a few years. But if, by saying new you mean the last decade, that’s fair.

I was referring to the general surveillance of opposing forces by governments. Even still, balloons have been used for surveillance and attack for over one hundred years.

During the siege of Yorktown in 1862, Union General Fitz Porter decided to do some surveillance using only one rope on an observation balloon. The rope snapped and he drifted over enemy lines. Confederates tried to shoot him down but missed. Eventually the wind sent him back over Union lines.

Balloons were used in WW1 as observation posts (ushering in wide-spread use of parachutes) and in WW2 for both observation and area over-flight denial.

By May 1945, Japan sent almost 10,000 armed balloons across the pacific. They were largely ineffective, however, they did kill a pregnant mother and five children who discovered a downed balloon in Bly, Oregon. 285 Japanese balloons were recovered, one as far east as Texas.

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