Chinese Balloon shot down - F22 Pilot identity revealed

[Mysticpuma]

[Trooper117]

Luckily that extremely dangerous balloon didn't shoot back...

[Cynic_Al]

3 hours ago, Trooper117 said:

Luckily that extremely dangerous balloon didn't shoot back...

The next one might deploy weapons; essential equipment for a weather balloon.

[Wardog5711]

EMP generator.....?

 

[DBFlyguy]

 

And the intercept audio:

 

[PeaceO]

no conspiracy theory guys. It definitely wasn't what you believe satellite's are so don't suggest it! EVER!

[Trooper117]

2 hours ago, PeaceO said:

no conspiracy theory guys. It definitely wasn't what you believe satellite's are so don't suggest it! EVER!

 

So, China says that one of their balloons ends up by mistake (yeah, right) over America... America shoots it down and China (suddenly a victim) gets upset stating it was only collecting weather data, (c'mon)... the real reason I suspect is that it has lost all that juicy military data that it had been collecting and was now lost...

[DBFlyguy]

I'm give him the benefit of the doubt and assume PeaceO just forgot the /s or ? at the end of his statement....

 

 

[JG27*PapaFly]

9 hours ago, Mysticpuma said:

LOL Felix Baumgartner!

WOOT? A high flying balloon? Challenge accepted!

Edited February 7, 2023 by JG27_PapaFly

[ZachariasX]

@Oded121351

 

 

F-15 first kill: MiG-21

F-14 first kill: SU-22

F-16 first kill: MiG-21

F-18 first kill: MiG-21

F-35 first kill: cargo UAVs

F-22 first kill: a balloon

 

The future sucks

[Rjel]

Knocking down balloons earned this man the MoH. The F-22 may or may not have already been victorious and it hasn't been advertised for whatever reason.

 

I was surprised they used a missile instead of much cheaper cannon rounds all the same.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Rjel

[ZachariasX]

7 hours ago, Rjel said:

I was surprised they used a missile instead of much cheaper cannon rounds all the same.

That is because using guns to down a balloon can earn you a MoH fair and square. Although impressive, it is not an approach to efficiently do your daily work. LUKE1 was rather sensible in using an alternative way. The idea was to make it go down, not go down at some point.

[JG27*PapaFly]

I bet poor air force pilots will face tons of jokes at the officer clubs around the world over this. This is a blessing for the navy jocks looking for ways to make air force jocks look bad.

 

A new callsign for the victorious pilot is guaranteed ?

Edited February 8, 2023 by JG27_PapaFly

[DBS]

America being mad at this trespass is insanely hypocritical.

[Mysticpuma]

Does it count as an aerial victory?

[343KKT_Kintaro]

6 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

Does it count as an aerial victory?

 

 

Definitely yes. Plus, it was a self-propelled vehicle.

 

 

[DBS]

9 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

Does it count as an aerial victory?

 

I think technically yes?

 

Did they actually use a missile? What a waste of money, F-22 has a cannon right?

[Heliopause]

Good practise day for the F-22 pilots me think.

 

As a side note; the balloon story made me think of a piece of history:

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/japanese-balloon-bombs-fu-go/

 

[Wardog5711]

Quote

Quote

America being mad at this trespass is insanely hypocritical.

 

I would 100% agree with you if it had just drifted over with the prevailing winds. But it did not.
It entered US airspace and passes over some defense facilities in Alaska. It then changes course to fly over Canada and head straight for the missile launch facilities in Montana. Where it loitered for over a day. 
It then proceeds to fly South East to pass over Whiteman AFB in Missouri where the stealth bombers are based before changing course to pass near the Savanah river nuclear facility as it heads out to sea over the Atlantic. Just a poor weather balloon, lost and adrift on the wind.

All of those have no doubt been photographed from space before, so using a balloon at low altitude was a message and probably a test. It was meant to be seen.

Recovering the wreckage might help find out what that test was. 

As for the shootdown, the video that DBFlyguy posted gives a pretty good analysis of why a missile was used vs. the cannon.

 

 

 

[DBS]

1 minute ago, Wardog5711 said:

I would 100% agree with you if it had just drifted over with the prevailing winds. But it did not.
It entered US airspace and passes over some defense facilities in Alaska. It then changes course to fly over Canada and head straight for the missile launch facilities in Montana. Where it loitered for over a day. 
It then proceeds to fly South East to pass over Whiteman AFB in Missouri where the stealth bombers are based before changing course to pass near the Savanah river nuclear facility as it heads out to sea over the Atlantic. Just a poor weather balloon, lost and adrift on the wind.

All of those have no doubt been photographed from space before, so using a balloon at low altitude was a message and probably a test. It was meant to be seen.

Recovering the wreckage might help find out what that test was. 

As for the shootdown, the video that DBFlyguy posted gives a pretty good analysis of why a missile was used vs. the cannon.

 

 

 

 

That's fair enough.

 

I would guess they're gauging US readiness, perhaps for their move on Taiwan?

 

We live in troubling times.

 

 

 

 

[Wardog5711]

It's all good guys.

I am no fan of many of my own governments policies. Far from it. BUT, lets not go down the rabbit hole and start arguing with each other.

The idea of using a multi-million dollar aircraft to shoot a $400,000 missile at a bag of gas would normally be really comical. 

 

[Lusekofte]

17 minutes ago, Wardog5711 said:

It's all good guys.

I am no fan of many of my own governments policies. Far from it. BUT, lets not go down the rabbit hole and start arguing with each other.

The idea of using a multi-million dollar aircraft to shoot a $400,000 missile at a bag of gas would normally be really comical. 

 

I think a test and training perspective was a part of it. Testing cannons is easy. A2a missile require a expencive drone. That part was donated by Chinese gouvernment. 
That aside, getting a more polarised communication against a pretty strong economically and military state with nuclear weapons who back another state already in war brings a lot of consents with it. 
it is time to speak to each other, this is not a ideal situation. No matter how righteous the shoot down was. They need to talk to eachother

Edited February 8, 2023 by Lusekofte

[bzc3lk]

2 hours ago, DBS said:

America being mad at this trespass is insanely hypocritical.

 

https://www.rbth.com/history/335863-us-spy-balloons-ussr  ?

[DBFlyguy]

?

 

 

 

Is Smith on vacation this week?......

[ST_Catchov]

Leave this to me Flyguy.

 

 

Ok fellas shake hands and say you're sorry or there'll be trouble. I don't wanna have to raise my voice ....

 

 

[Wardog5711]

Sigh...

And this is why we cannot have nice things. Or talk politics.   

I have removed some of the more heated comments. No further action will be taken at this time.

Lets keep it light and friendly or I'll delete the whole thread.

And....Apparently, balloons make folks crazy.

 

 

[AngleOff66]

I thought Mover made some good points.  Yes, I feel that Tik Tok and other software programs gather too much data.  Going back to my refusal to get a Meta HMD.  Not to happy with Pico either.  Ah well we are in the age of heated steering wheels being a subscription item.

 

People are currently acting like this hasn't happened before cause well, points to be made.

Edit: LAst time I looked, there are 2 F-22 skins with a kill marking on the other flight sim site.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by AngleOff66

[Jaws2002]

This would have been something to brag about had they shot it down few days before, when it first got into US airspace. Letting it scan the whole length of the United States, for a week, and shooting it, after it got to the Atlantic is bloody laughable.

 

[DD_Arthur]

8 hours ago, ST_Catchov said:

Leave this to me Flyguy.

 

Such is the rural gene pool  where I live,  my first thought;

 

”this guy is wearing his uncle…”

 

?

[ST_Catchov]

9 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Such is the rural gene pool  where I live

 

Aye, head nor' east lad. I remember excitement of Market Day in Denley Moor back in day ....

 

 

[DBFlyguy]

Evidently, there has been another shoot down today over Alaska, pentagon briefing starting soon....

 

 

Edit: Pentagon press briefer confirmed another F-22 using an AIM-9x for the shoot down today ....

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by DBFlyguy

[jollyjack]

I made y'all a mod .... a JSGME file here:  https://www.mediafire.com/file/euw9nz8tw7fvn50/-_China_Balloon_mod_jj.zip/file

 

... Now some one in for modding a proper uniform?

 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by jollyjack

[cardboard_killer]

Our conspiracy-industrial complex continues to produce at a high level.

 

[Zooropa_Fly]

How do you know she's not right ?

[JG27*PapaFly]

1 hour ago, cardboard_killer said:

Our conspiracy-industrial complex continues to produce at a high level.

 

I don't know about you guys, but martial law is the first thing in my mind whenever I see a balloon in the sky ?

[JG7_X-Man]

@Wardog5711 To me, this is a very good question: It comes down to probability of loss and risk aversion! I am bean counter by trade!

 

The rate of closure for a F-22 to a balloon is just so great that you need a stand off weapon to keep the F-22 pilot out of harms way by colliding with it.

 

Firing a $400K USD AIM-9x is much cheaper than firing a few round 20 mm round that cost 25–30 dollars (plus tax) with a high probability of loosing a $11M USD pilot (cost to train) and $220M USD F-22.

 

This why I was not a fan of the Top Gun: Maverick mission. It would have never been approved in real life. Also, the fact that is was a US Navy's plea for funding.

Edited February 13, 2023 by JG7_X-Man

[Trooper117]

Cynthia Holt looks like a bloody alien... don't trust a weird looking woman 

[BMA_FlyingShark]

Somebody should make a list with all balloons that have been shot down the last few weeks.

Where is Jackfraser when we need him?

 

Have a nice day.

 

[unlikely_spider]

2 hours ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

How do you know she's not right ?

How do you know the balloons weren't filled with Trix cereal, and that I'm not the Trix rabbit? I was trying to keep my cereal away from those pesky kids via the use of high altitude balloon until the US government stepped in and ruined everything by shooting them down.

 

(This is just as plausible as a "fake alien invasion false flag" so that the government can invoke Martial law)

[busdriver]

On 2/8/2023 at 12:22 PM, Jaws2002 said:

This would have been something to brag about had they shot it down few days before, when it first got into US airspace. Letting it scan the whole length of the United States, for a week, and shooting it, after it got to the Atlantic is bloody laughable.

 

I have to say my first instinct was that we should have shot it down immediately. Then I started thinking logically about what a great intelligence collection and counter intelligence opportunity this was. Plus I acknowledged the "greater than zero" chance that the debris might kill somebody once it entered the lower 48 states. 

 

If we shot it down off the coast of Alaska in really deep water salvage efforts (for intelligence purposes) would be problematic. Shoot it down over mountains in the middle of winter, you'd face similar issues with challenging albeit different debris fields. Shooting it down into the relatively warm and shallow (50 feet or so) waters off South Carolina where salvage ops will be much easier sounds pretty smart to me. 

 

Having days for USAF ELINT assets to loiter around the balloon sniffing for stuff like burst transmissions and frequency agility, and acquire high resolution imagery of the target as it "wanders about" is a pretty smart tactic IMO. 

 

With plenty of advanced warning, we had ample time to elevate EMCON procedures as it wandered over strategic assets. Seems like a no-brainer counter tactic. I don't know how you determine if our EMCON was effective.

 

Bottom line, we had plenty of time to mitigate Chinese intelligence collection over probable targets. We had lots of time to conduct counter intelligence against a functioning asset without fear of Chinese interference. And we brought down the asset in a fairly benign location without fear of collateral damage where the recovery of the asset will be much easier.