China has said it's theirs, only they're saying it's a civil weather balloon.

Still?
 

Why cancel the "Blinking" visit?

of course US has the technology to bring it down, but using expensive rockets(SM-3 costs north of $10M) that go to the edge of space would be an overkill for a balloon

In my opinion, the capabilities of this balloon are probably minimal and not the point. This is a strong statement from China - they can put their hardware directly over the US unopposed, and visible for all to see.

Powerful.

High altitude balloons are launched with a bubble of gas that is pretty small in volume compared to the volume at height, as the gas expands with reduced pressure at altitude. What counts is the displaced mass of the air the lifting gas replaces. Air masses (at sea level) 1.225 kg/m^3, helium 0.178 kg/m^3, so provides about 1 kg/m^3 of lift.

In that case, I hate to think what Florida looks like….. ;)

I’ll be the cynic…. Put internal cargo that would produce an EMP blast

Hopefully the US will bring it down in the gulf or Atlantic coast

Must be some clever coves in the PRC that can launch a balloon and get it to arrive in the right place in the US.

John Dutton will sort it out 🤠

The Chinese will auto destruct the balloon over the sea -- the balloon might even have the capability to auto destruct if attacked.

I wonder when the next balloon is due?

If it's like London busses, there won't be any for a while, then four will come along at the same time

When is the next election?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....425db864d.jpeg

NORAD and the Canadian DoD has confirmed that a 2nd Balloon is currently being tracked somewhere over Canada.

Why not shoot it down? Collateral damage would be almost zero chance. You don’t destroy it. A couple of rounds from an aircraft. Wait to see if it starts descending. No well then a couple more rounds. Eventually it is going to start a slow descent to the ground.

This does sound all very strange.

The Chinese have claimed ownership. Said it was a wether balloon gone astray. I had heard altitude was 60000.

Siunds like good shooting, from hit rates quoted ........ missing barn doors etc.
How do we know gas is helium? H2 a darn sight cheaper and easier.

EMP Weapon Positioning
 

PRC possibly just practicing how to position a balloon over the central US using the global jetstream, should they ever elect to employ the EMP bomb to shut down much of the US

sorry but those that want to know already know. So you not think every time there is a missile test there aren’t numerous Chinese and Russian agents watching and recording? Of course there are. Are there Americans doing the same for Russian and Chinese tests. Yes of course. On the US at least there are areas where the public can park up and watch these tests. Video them all they like. Their range and altitude won’t be a secret. Maybe their precision and the tech behind that will be but the rest is easy to find out.

Whats the point of an EMP blast? Might as well just launch a nuke. Which would give you the EMP. You would have the same reaction. If the Chinese were to detonate a large EMP over the US I’m pretty sure the silos would be emptied. There would be no other reason to detonate an EMP except to cover a first strike.