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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

#91

Post by dfadsadsf »

riku_iki wrote: post #70
moose_man wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's nothing compared to the internal speeches that China gives its troops. Heck it's nothing compared to the speeches Xi gives internally to troops. Chinese troops are currently training on their missile corp on models of US aircraft carriers. Edit: Chinese propaganda video of attack on Guam - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBOho1AOKYY https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36598/chinese-air-forc... https://…

my speculation is that the main goal of Chinese covid lockdown was to train and simulate mass policing of population in case of upcoming war.

Why would you need to police population in case of war for returning Taiwan? It will be very popular war and you definitely won't need to lock people down.

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

#92

Post by JoeAltmaier »

BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 wrote: post #80

Pot calling kettle black. The US has been sending armed drones into several countries without coordination with local ATC or consent of the local government. Soleimani and a number of Iraqi military officers were taken out by a US drone.

And it works because almost no one else on earth can gang radar to missile systems. So they can't shoot ours down. And we can shoot theirs down.

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

#94

Post by themodelplumber »

jollyllama wrote: post #56
snerbles wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike previous Sidewinder iterations with a single-sensor thermal seeker, the AIM-9X has a thermal imaging seeker - it was used to shoot down the much larger balloon last week. https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/AIM-9X-Sidewinder

So it doesn't really narrow it down that much, then. Could be a plane, could be a balloon.

Could also be a flying promotional bearskin bladder from a local hunting lodge.

Which I have to say is where we may start to see a tragic lack of creativity unfolding on China's part.

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

#95

Post by r3trohack3r »

There was a fun theory on UFOs I saw recently.

The general premise is this:

U.S. adversaries realized they couldn't compete with the U.S. on spending. So they got creative and loaded the equivalent of Pringles cans up with a bunch of sensors, hooked them up to either a balloons or relatively cheap unmanned aircraft, and sent them through U.S. airspace to collect intelligence. They'd occasionally get caught (perhaps on purpose) and cause a base to scramble to intercept. The proposed theory on why they'd get caught on purpose was to gather up intelligence on what a response would be flying through the airspace.

It's possible they've been doing this for more than a decade and the military has gotten caught with egg on it's face having ignored the reports for so long.

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

#96

Post by markdown »

elmomle wrote: post #79
api wrote: post #59

So what’s the deal with these balloons? Provocation? Do they think nobody will notice?

It's boundary-pushing. They're unmanned and ambient, yet are clearly a provocation and give China an information advantage over where it would be without the balloons, and in a geopolitical sense it asserts Chinese ascendency. At the same time, it's hard for the US or other powers to figure out an appropriate response. Very similar to Russian/NK/Chinese/Israeli/American state-sponsored hacking groups--it continually…

Surely the appropriate response is to release some "weather" balloons from Taiwan.

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

#98

Post by dTal »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #87
consumer451 wrote: post #47

> Officials said the object was far smaller than the previous balloon, did not appear to be maneuverable and was traveling at a much lower altitude. "Not maneuverable" and "previous balloon" so is it fair to assume that it's a balloon as well?

That's an interesting catch. Still, it's known that the previous object was a balloon, so I'd say it makes more sense to expect those words are shorthand for "previous object (which was a balloon)". This new object may still be a balloon, but those words aren't admission of that.

Not many other types of non-maneuverable flying craft.

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

#99

Post by jabroni_salad »

1970-01-01 wrote: post #58
jabroni_salad wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be an eve online player.

The laser is real. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34373672

I've read about those but I'm more referring to the cost comment. In eve it is common to hedge a loss as "ISK Positive" if the value of the ammo that blew you up costed more than your ship, as tallied up on the killmail.

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

#100

Post by exabrial »

jollyllama wrote: post #56
snerbles wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike previous Sidewinder iterations with a single-sensor thermal seeker, the AIM-9X has a thermal imaging seeker - it was used to shoot down the much larger balloon last week. https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/AIM-9X-Sidewinder

So it doesn't really narrow it down that much, then. Could be a plane, could be a balloon.

Dang, you're correct. It still had a thermal signature, but it wasn't as definitive as what I thought.
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