Boots & Sabers

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Owen

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1919, 11 Feb 23

Jets Clear Skies of Foreign Objects

Somehow we went from “nothing to see here… it’s just a balloon…” to blasting anything that looks sketchy out of the sky.

A high-altitude object tracked over northern Canada has been shot down over the Yukon, officials said.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he ordered the takedown of “an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace.”

 

“Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object,” he tweeted.

 

[…]

 

The development comes a day after the White House said an unknown “high-altitude object” was shot down over the waters off Alaska.

 

That object was about the size of a small car and flying at around 40,000 feet, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Friday. U.S. Northern Command said Saturday it had no further details on the object’s “capabilities, purpose or origin.”

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1919, 11 February 2023

13 Comments

  1. dad29

    That object was about the size of a small car and flying at around 40,000 feet,

    They shot down the JETSONS??

  2. MjM

    #4 over Lake Huron. No explanation how it got that far inland.

    And the ChiComms now hilariously claim they shot one down, too.

  3. Merlin

    Jane’s looking for an outlet mall.

  4. MHMaley

    We’re getting pretty good at this .

  5. Merlin

    You’d certainly hope that $139,000,000 aircraft firing $399,000 missiles would be pretty effective at destroying balloons. Can’t find a much easier target than an unarmed object void of propulsion and unable to evade pursuit.

  6. Mark Hoefert

    Smooth Brain MHMaley on February 12, 2023 at 10:13 pm

    We’re getting pretty good at this.

    Very impressive small-D energy there. Shooting down civilian research balloons. Not knowing what they were shooting down, and in one case, the first sidewinder missile missed the target, and required a 2nd one. At $500,000 a shot.

    Well, at least Obama was right about one thing re: Biden.

  7. Mar

    One wonders why they fired a missle when machine gun fire could have done the trick.
    Heck, a thumbtack might have brought them down.

  8. Merlin

    The aircraft and armaments used are mission specific. If the mission is the rapid obliteration of a target with minimal risk to your aircrew then a missile capable of shredding the balloon with shrapnel is your preferred choice. Operating altitude is also a consideration. Some fighters/armament have higher service ceilings than others.

    The Canadians tried gunning a large helium balloon years ago. Two CF-18s spent 1000 20mm rounds and it still took six more days to deflate completely. Helium is not flammable, so they had a long wait on a slow leak.

  9. dad29

    Now comes the news that Bai-Den ordered a shoot-down of a hobbyist weather balloon which cost $12.00 at Wal-Mart.

    We’re damn near out of howitzer shells b/c Ukraine, and pretty soon we’ll be out of Sidewinders.

    But Bai-Den has his 12-ga!!

  10. Merlin

    Um, I guess there’s more than one takeaway on that one. Spending close to a million downing a hobby balloon might leave you questioning the political judgement involved, but the ability to track and destroy something that small is impressive.

    The American version of FAFO is effective, but very expensive.

  11. dad29

    Even MORE news: the balloon now on the bottom of Lake Huron was actually a ham radio device owned by a club in Chicago.

  12. Jason

    What bureau does on call to get reparations for that?

  13. Merlin

    Biden will offer peanuts as soon as he gets back from Ukraine. Hunter, Frank, and Jim have full calendars, so Joe flew over to tune up Zelensky himself. Can’t allow that cashflow to get too loose.

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