That’s probably what I would think if I was 3500 miles away from some of these balloons…LOL

If that’s not photoshopped, that’s fantastic!! Lol

Well they managed to get everyone all riled up again. Low tec version of baiting American public. Probably looking at TMan right now reading this post saying
"We Wheelie Grot Dem Woked Up Now!" Then they Raft and Raft till their bellies hurt.


Mac

Just heard on the news they are now tracking 170 unidentified flying objects of unknown origin.
They said they think some could be flocks of birds.

From another forum, someone asked this question about the first "object" downing, the big Chicom balloon. Supposedly, the F-22 pilot shot a "Sidewinder" air-to-air missile at the balloon and "popped" it. Sidewinders usually target a IR (heat) source. So, what on that balloon had a large enough or intense enough heat source for the Sidewinder to "lock" on...? Or did the pilot just "lead" the balloon at 7,000+ feet away and fire one off?

By the look of the video, there was not an explosion of the Sidewinder on impact, just the rapid release of what was holding the balloon afloat, mostly likely from just the kinetic puncture (through and through) of the balloon skin at high speed.

I am glad that we spend a trillion a year on a military that shoots down 'objects' and they do not know what they are. smfh.

Shoot first-ask questions later.

An F-22 will be an expensive way to hunt geese.

What was beyond the target? Where did the missile end up after popping the balloon?

Update:

According to an Air Force Officer they fired TWO missiles. The first one missed and landed in Lake Huron. The second one hit and ended up in the lake as well. NEITHER Missile was armed with a Warhead. They just used them as large Darts to pop it with.

NOW they're saying they tracked the SC barroon from the moment it was launched!




U.S. officials knew about the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina from the moment it took off, sources said on Tuesday - leading to further questions about why it was not shot down sooner.

The balloon took off from Hainan Island off southern China at the end of January, and entered U.S. airspace on January 28 above Alaska. It briefly entered Canada and crossed back into U.S. territory over northern Idaho on January 30, the day the White House said Biden was first briefed on it.
But on Tuesday, The New York Times reported the balloon was being monitored right from the moment it took off.
'In a sign of how closely the United States had been monitoring the balloon surveillance program directed by the Chinese military recently, U.S. officials said in interviews that they began tracking the spy balloon as it lifted off from Hainan Island in southern China in late January,' the paper reported.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...spy-balloon-shot-SC-seen-taking-off.html

They were being sent out as a new add campaign for your car warranty .

It was on the news this morning that one of the rockets they fired missed the balloon. Target must have been too stationary. I imagine those rockets cost a couple bucks.

Good one!

Exactly, when I took the hunter safety course years ago, they taught us to identify your target before shooting.