Chinese spy balloon over US

[petit plateau]

Originally Posted by ORAC

The package suspended below the balloon is reported to be the size, and presumably the weight, of 3 buses.

That’s a very big balloon, as it would have to be to be visible from the ground at 60K feet.

More likely total mass 100kg or so, mostly the fabric envelope. The payload is probably just some solar panels on a carbon fibre spar, with a polystyrene crate in the middle housing the electronics and a few valves and a wee pump. Launching these things without mishandling them and damaging them at launch is not so simple.They are very fragile.

This thing is probably not dissimilar to the Loon ones, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loon_LLC . I had discussions with Loon at the very beginning of their project as they were looking for a energy solution.

If you read that link you'll begin to understand the control strategies so as to get these things to go (or stay) where you want them. Very approximately !

[Ninthace]

Originally Posted by Low average

The timing is too much of a co-incidence to me. The US has finally started to call China out over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Called it a bigger threat than Russia, and has just struck a deal for bases in the Phillipines. Resistance to the slow coiling Chinese Dragon is growing.

This balloon, with its considerable payload hovering over the continental US, capable or not...is a message.

And the strategic significance of the balloon over Costa Rica. What are they up to?

[mikeoneflying]

n Costa Rica exports account for around 40 percent of GDP. Costa Rica´s main exports are electronic components (18 percent of total exports), medical equipment (7.3 percent), pineapples (7 percent) and bananas (6 percent). Costa Rica´s main export partner is the United States (37 percent of total exports). Others include: Netherlands, Panama, Hong Kong and Nicaragua.

However, always rumours about secret US bases in S.America.

[Baldeep Inminj]

[RAFEngO74to09]

Biden Admin's indecisive incompetence over this all over US TV now - including comments from all the usual top commentators eg previous SecDef + various retired 3/4-stars.

Looks like they will finally be attempting a shootdown over Atlnatic.

FAA issued ground stop in area - F-22As + F-15Cs + supporting tankers scrambled

R A W S A L E R T S on Twitter: "🚨#BREAKING: The FAA have blocked of airspace off the coast of South Carolina. https://t.co/UVemaCaehM" / Twitter

Aircraft Spots on Twitter: "Chinese high-altitude surveillance #balloon. USAF KC-135R #AE04B3 57-1473 GASMN02 scrambled from Birmingham, AL. USAF KC-135R #AE0363 60-0341 ABATE98 scrambled from Meridian, MS. USAF F-15s EAGLE01 & 02 scrambled from Barnes ANGB, MA joined up with GASMN02 & ABATE98. https://t.co/kYV1noi0yo" / Twitter

[RAFEngO74to09]

Live excellent quality feed on Fox News now. Probably going to be multiple 20mm gun passes by F-22A and F-15C.
Ground stop is until 1445 EST.

[Ninthace]

Originally Posted by mikeoneflying

n Costa Rica exports account for around 40 percent of GDP. Costa Rica´s main exports are electronic components (18 percent of total exports), medical equipment (7.3 percent), pineapples (7 percent) and bananas (6 percent). Costa Rica´s main export partner is the United States (37 percent of total exports). Others include: Netherlands, Panama, Hong Kong and Nicaragua.

However, always rumours about secret US bases in S.America.

So nothing really

[Wokkafans]

Originally Posted by RAFEngO74to09

Live excellent quality feed on Fox News now. Probably going to be multiple 20mm gun passes by F-22A and F-15C.
Ground stop is until 1445 EST.

You Tube

[Fonsini]

F-22s spraying 20mm all over Myrtle Beach. Meh, all you need is a helicopter and a box cutter

[pasta]

BBC News reporting that Biden "is facing intense pressure domestically to shoot the object down." What is it with the Americans, thinking that the solution to every problem is to shoot it? It's not as though the US haven't flown plenty of their own weather balloons over China...

[RAFEngO74to09]

Balloon splashed 1438 ET!

[pilotmike]

Originally Posted by petit plateau

More likely …. The payload is probably just …. and a wee pump. !

That would be wasted payload. Gravity could take care of matters if the Chinese just wanted to p1$$ all over the USA!

[Wokkafans]

Looked like the payload broke away when the balloon burst - that'll hit the ground hard.

[Ninthace]

Originally Posted by Wokkafans

Looked like the payload broke away when the balloon burst - that'll hit the ground hard.

I got the same impression.

[Wokkafans]

Missile strike

Twitter

[MENELAUS]

Originally Posted by Brewster Buffalo

With a proper breeding techniques and a ratio of, say, ten females to each male, I would guess that we could be back to the present gross national product within, say, 20 years.

Thank you Dr Strangelove. It won’t be difficult mein fuhrer.

[langleybaston]

Originally Posted by MENELAUS

Thank you Dr Strangelove. It won’t be difficult mein fuhrer.

Do you save wicked women? Save ne a few, pease.

[NutLoose]

Probably trying to emulate Branson and be the first Chinese to circumnavigate the world in a balloon, but forgot to tell anyone.

[sir]

handled well IMHO, cool and collected until it was offshore then splash with a conventional regular every day weapon.

[RAFEngO74to09]

F-22A used an AIM-9 to shoot down the balloon.