Holy SNIP, Chinease aircraft going over Alaskian balloon splash site.

a reply to: dashen

High altitude balloons are notoriously hard to shoot down. In 1998 Canada shot down a weather balloon that went rogue. They fired 1,000 rounds of 20mm ammunition at it over Newfoundland, from several F-18s, and it crashed in Finland a week later.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hey Zaph! Got any idea what the UAP that was shot down over Prudhoe Bay was? I'm thinking a training exercise, lol.

We have garbage patches in the ocean and space junk in orbit. Now we're finding out that there are high altitude balloons littering global airspace.

a reply to: NightFlight

A smaller airship of some kind. Almost certainly a smaller balloon.

a reply to: Violater1

Tail number / type says this is a Chinese cargo plane operated out of Shanghai that departed Anchorage, absent some other details — its probably just air freight and should be identifiable on historical flight data to Anchorage, and likely Portland, Seattle, SF, LA or some combo thereof.

a reply to: JohnTitorSociety

This flight departed Miami at 0824 EST. It arrived in Anchorage at 1223 AST, and departed at 1349 AST. It's due into Hong Kong at 1805 Saturday. This flight number does it again Sunday, only that flight goes Miami, to Houston where it's on the ground just under two hours, then to Anchorage.

It was my understanding that the object shot down was not "an aircraft per se" according to the report.

I missed where they revealed it was a balloon... or is a balloon not considered an "aircraft?"

a reply to: Maxmars

They're generally considered lighter than air aircraft. So not exactly an aircraft, but still considered one.

a reply to: Zaphod58

They also had some ridiculously low ammo count left if I remember right. Something like 1 dry and 1 with 200rnds left. So they literally almost had to make a second sortie lol.

a reply to: Violater1

Cathay Pacific 2071
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
Cathay Pacific 2071
CPA2071 / CX2071
EN ROUTE AND ON TIME
Arriving in 4 hours 43 minutes
ANC
ANCHORAGE, AK
HKG
HONG KONG
took off from
Anchorage Intl - ANC
landing at
Hong Kong Int'l - HKG
FRIDAY 10-FEB-2023

a reply to: dashen

Maybe should go back to using SPADS

Served Frank Luke, The Arizonia Balloon Buster, pretty well

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: dashen
The only two confirmed F-22 air to air kills are both balloons.

And instead of using their guns they fired half a million dollar missiles.

Seriously, it's okay. We need to stop bringing that $ tag up.

The funding for that missile has long since evaporated up. The missile is fully paid for and ready to use at anything needed.

I mean, we're not so poor that we gotta regulate our missiles like a lower income gas tank? 3 bucks here, 4 bucks there...

That is clear hell up north to call it a civilian balloon. It's gotta be Russian or Chinese. They knew the balloon would be carried right down the middle where all the interesting things are.

originally posted by: Arnie123

originally posted by: dashen
The only two confirmed F-22 air to air kills are both balloons.

And instead of using their guns they fired half a million dollar missiles.

Seriously, it's okay. We need to stop bringing that $ tag up.

The funding for that missile has long since evaporated up. The missile is fully paid for and ready to use at anything needed.

I mean, we're not so poor that we gotta regulate our missiles like a lower income gas tank? 3 bucks here, 4 bucks there...

Especially, since the U.S. government has sent over $105 BILLION to Ukraine since 11/2022!!!!!
www.csis.org...

Not sure just how accurate ADS is they certainly wouldn't be showing all Military aircraft .. I've tested it by looking at my city and when it showed an aircraft directly above my location look up at the sky and nothing there it must be time delayed .

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Military aircraft aren’t required to broadcast when on operational missions, over MOAs, or certain other conditions. Tactical aircraft aren’t required to broadcast although some do. A lot of military aircraft haven’t been fully equipped with ADS-B as well. They’re being equipped as they go through PDM, which on average is every seven years.

Why Is some foreigner pretending to be a Canadian talking about this and she keeps mentioning norad?
How much knowledge does this lady have?
Canadian Defense??? She looks very out of place.

a reply to: Bloodworth

Because NORAD was in control of the interception. The RCAF was assisting, but an F-22 under NORAD control took the shot.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It came from Joint Elmendorf Richardson AFB (just to the north of Anchorage as you travel west)

The F35s will be at Eilson AFB near Fairbanks.

And the Lockheed blimp will be south in Kenai.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Oh, and that aerostat they shot full of holes!!!

LOL!!

So a couple of AIMs took care of business.

Weird that they are not speaking about what they shot down… I posted the other day a general rule of thumb, “triangles are ours, other shapes, theirs”.

I hope we didn’t shoot down a bus full of EBEs going to work at a super hush-hush base!!