High Altitude Objects Over North America

  • Thread starter Joey D
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Today I learned there are people who are hobby ballooners? Balloonists? Balloonites?
 
TexRex
Virgins.
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It really is just Top Gun. I hope the U2 pilot administered some "foreign relations" for the Chinese cameras.

dragonladytoday.com

THE U-2 AND BALLOONS – SOME HISTORY, AND SOME THOUGHTS

A U-2 pilot looks down on the Chinese balloon. The shadow of his aircraft can be seen on the balloon’s fabric. Intercepting stratospheric balloons is a new mission for the U-2, that proves ag…
dragonladytoday.com dragonladytoday.com
 
Exorcet
Jets can fly pretty slow:


But more seriously the jet imaged in the article has a Sniper targeting pod (the one landing anyway, the big image on top shows a plane carring a Litening pod). TGP's are typically used for air to ground missions but also have air to air modes. They can visually ID targets from miles away, much further than you can with your eyes and can also see beyond the visible spectrum of light.

A second issue is training. Fighter pilots train to do intercepts. Helicopter and drone pilots don't. While a balloon intercept probably isn't a typical training exercise, engaging slow flying targets wouldn't be completely out of scope. The F-16 in particular is also a fly by wire plane that will automatically attempt to avoid flying beyond its envelope. These intercepts have been a learning experience for the Air Force/NORAD and they likely want to stick to what works. So far the AIM-9X has been the go to weapon for downing these objects, so they're likely going to keep using them. That they are not using AIM-9M's suggests to me that targeting and tracking can be an issue, so that's likely going to curtail intercepts using A-10's or AH-64's that can't carry 9X's.

Lastly, jets are fast and well armed. If you don't know what you're chasing is capable of then you'll probably want to reach it quickly and also be able to defend yourself if needed. That's going to be a lot more difficult for a helicopter or drone.

All and all, we're making do with what we have. Perhaps a dedicated weapon for use against these objects will be developed, but that's going to take a while. In the meantime jets seem to be working.
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Firstly, that clip will forever live in my head as the plane version of the "You vs. The Guy" meme. :lol:

Secondly, while all of what you said makes sense, I'm wondering A) why we used the F-22 over others for the first 2 intercepts, and B) why we didn't use it for this one. This might be a splitting-hairs kind of question, but I'd love to know what changed about the nature of these intercepts (since the targets were all, AFAIK, totally unknown at each time) that caused a change in the chosen aircraft. I figured it'd make more sense just to send out the F-22 each time given the initial unknown nature of each incident.
TexRex
Virgins.
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ryan destiny miss carlotta GIF by STAR
 
NotThePrez
Firstly, that clip will forever live in my head as the plane version of the "You vs. The Guy" meme. :lol:
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I've found it amusing in a lot of ways, glad someone else did.
NotThePrez
Secondly, while all of what you said makes sense, I'm wondering A) why we used the F-22 over others for the first 2 intercepts, and B) why we didn't use it for this one. This might be a splitting-hairs kind of question, but I'd love to know what changed about the nature of these intercepts (since the targets were all, AFAIK, totally unknown at each time) that caused a change in the chosen aircraft. I figured it'd make more sense just to send out the F-22 each time given the initial unknown nature of each
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The short answer is altitude. The original balloons were around or above 60,000 ft, which is the around the limit for most fighters. The F-16 in particular flies even lower due to the nature of its design and the how it has evolved over time. The weight of the plane has exceeded what the original wings were designed for, and while this has been offset by increased engine thrust, it leaves the plane less capable of high altitude flight. The F-22 on the other hand is designed to fly at extreme altitudes more regularly than most other fighters, not only does this mean that the plane is better suited for it, but so are the pilots as they train for high altitude more often.

The more recent shootdown involving F-16's was at 20,000 ft, which wouldn't come close to qualifying for high altitude in the fighter jet world. The military was probably a bit more comfortable with these intercepts since they had a couple under their belt by this point. There also aren't any F-22's based in Great Lakes region.
 
@Exorcet do you work in the aircraft industry or is it a passion of yours?

Either way I always enjoy reading your insightful posts on the subject 👍.
 
Good. I have it on good authority that the balloon was vaccinated and shedding spike proteins.
 

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