Originally Posted by
Mostly Harmless
Serious question but, would a missle even explode if it hit a balloon? Or did it just tear through it like tissue paper?
Seems like an expensive method to kill a balloon. Cost of an AIM-9 compared to a weather balloon... maybe I'm wrong there.
Reporting is that an AIM-9X was employed. Most air-to-air missiles fuse on proximity rather than contact. From the video, it was very effective in nearly instantaneously destroying the envelope. A gun run would have made a lot of holes in the envelope, but maybe not drop the payload where assets were deployed to recover it, plus the hazard of the interceptor colliding with the target. Seems to me that they made the right weapon choice.