Originally Posted by
IBMJunkman
Rule number 4 of gun use:
- Always Be Sure of Your Target and What's Beyond It.
The projectile from just about any gun will go through the balloon and come down somewhere. That somewhere needs to be known beforehand.
Well being as they needed 2 missiles, as the first one missed, to shoot down the object over lake Huron I would prefer the odd 20 mm bullet impacting the planet at free fall velocity than an missile complete with warhead. What is the range of 20 MM compared to an AIM?
I can see the need to use a missile on the large balloon at FL 600 but not necessarily at targets drifting FL 400 or below.
The need to shoot down the lower altitude targets seems justified as they do pose a threat to air traffic…I find the political folks using the “Big Sky Concept” to say “not necessary” as opportunists commenting, from a position of safety after the fact. If an aircraft did hit one their screams of indignation and accusations of incompetence would have been deafening.