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The Biden administration waited until it was over the ocean for a safer crash.
The Chinese said it was a "weather" balloon that got away.
The right said Trump never would have let this happen and Biden was weak and should resign.
The pentagon said there were at least three balloons that crossed the US during the Trump administration.
Trump calls that "Fake information".
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Quote:F-22 Safely Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off South Carolina Coast
Feb. 4, 2023 | By Jim Garamone , DOD News | [/url] [url=https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3288543/f-22-safely-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-south-carolina-coast/#]
A U.S. Air Force fighter safely shot down a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon today, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said in a written statement.
President Joe Biden ordered the action on Wednesday, but it was delayed until the balloon was over water off the coast of South Carolina to ensure no Americans on the ground were harmed.
"The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters," Austin said.
The action was taken in coordination and support of the Canadian government. "We thank Canada for its contribution to tracking and analysis of the balloon through [North American Aerospace Defense Command] as it transited North America," Austin said. "Today's deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC's unacceptable violation of our sovereignty," Austin said referring to the Peoples Republic of China.
U.S. officials first detected the balloon and its payload on January 28 when it entered U.S. airspace near the Aleutian Islands. The balloon traversed Alaska, Canada and re-entered U.S. airspace over Idaho. "President Biden asked the military to present options and on Wednesday President Biden gave his authorization to take down the Chinese surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to us civilians under the balloon's path," said a senior defense official speaking on background. "Military commanders determined that there was undue risk of debris causing harm to civilians while the balloon was overland."
An F-22 Raptor fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon.
The balloon fell approximately six miles off the coast in about 47 feet of water. No one was hurt.
Long before the shoot down, U.S. officials took steps to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information, mitigating its intelligence value to the Chinese. The senior defense official said the recovery of the balloon will enable U.S. analysts to examine sensitive Chinese equipment. "I would also note that while we took all necessary steps to protect against the PRC surveillance balloon's collection of sensitive information, the surveillance balloon's overflight of U.S. territory was of intelligence value to us," the official said. "I can't go into more detail, but we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable."
The balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. Still its intrusion into American airspace over several days was an unacceptable violation of U.S. sovereignty. The official said Chinese balloons briefly transited the continental United States at least three times during the prior administration.
While Chinese officials admitted that the balloon was theirs, they said it was a runaway weather balloon. "The PRC has claimed publicly that the high-altitude balloon operating above the United States is a weather balloon that was blown off course. This is false," the official said. "This was a PRC surveillance balloon. This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada, and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites."
The mission now transitions to one of recovery. There are a number of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels establishing a security perimeter around the area where the balloon came to Earth. They are searching for debris, said a senior military official also speaking on background.
There is no estimate for how long the recovery mission will take, the military official said, but the fact that it came down in such a shallow area should make recovery "fairly easy".
The military official gave some detail of the engagement. The F-22 fired the Sidewinder at the balloon from an altitude of 58,000 feet. The balloon at the time was between 60,000 and 65,000 feet.
F-15 Eagles flying from Barnes Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts, supported the F-22, as did tankers from multiple states including Oregon, Montana, South Carolina and North Carolina. Canadian forces also helped track the overflight of the balloon.
The Navy has deployed the destroyer USS Oscar Austin, the cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the USS Carter Hall, an amphibious landing ship in support of the effort.
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It should have been downed over the Pacific. We have F-22s in Alaska.
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(02-05-2023, 01:24 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: It should have been downed over the Pacific. We have F-22s in Alaska.
No no no…it was GOOD they let the thing cross the country first, you see.
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(02-05-2023, 01:24 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: It should have been downed over the Pacific. We have F-22s in Alaska.
If that is when they saw it.
First time I saw it in the news it was over Montana.
Nonetheless they had a plan, which included limiting the amount of information it could collect.
Lets face it, the balloon isn't a great way to get info. They probably get more from the satellites.
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(02-05-2023, 02:13 PM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: No no no…it was GOOD they let the thing cross the country first, you see.
Once it was over land, yes it was a good thing to wait and shot it down over the water.
I mean they COULD have let China get it back like the other three but hey...
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(02-05-2023, 02:25 PM)GMDino Wrote: If that is when they saw it.
First time I saw it in the news it was over Montana.
Nonetheless they had a plan, which included limiting the amount of information it could collect.
Lets face it, the balloon isn't a great way to get info. They probably get more from the satellites.
Just because YOU were first aware of the balloon over Montana doesn’t mean that’s when the rest of us first knew about it!
Tell me how “they” limited the amount of information collected by sensors on board.
You may be right about the balloon vs. satellite collection efficiency but in remote sensing signal falloff in the visible to the radiofrequency region goes by the reciprocal of the distance squared — and 60,000 feet is WAY closer to the target than satellites in low earth orbit. If the sensor is an active radar it falls off by the distance to the fourth power.
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(02-05-2023, 03:12 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Just because YOU were first aware of the balloon over Montana doesn’t mean that’s when the rest of us first knew about it!
Tell me how “they” limited the amount of information collected by sensors on board.
You may be right about the balloon vs. satellite collection efficiency but in remote sensing signal falloff in the visible to the radiofrequency region goes by the reciprocal of the distance squared — and 60,000 feet is WAY closer to the target than satellites in low earth orbit. If the sensor is an active radar it falls off by the distance to the fourth power.
Right? I’ve always said this! 
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(02-05-2023, 03:12 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: Just because YOU were first aware of the balloon over Montana doesn’t mean that’s when the rest of us first knew about it!
Tell me how “they” limited the amount of information collected by sensors on board.
You may be right about the balloon vs. satellite collection efficiency but in remote sensing signal falloff in the visible to the radiofrequency region goes by the reciprocal of the distance squared — and 60,000 feet is WAY closer to the target than satellites in low earth orbit. If the sensor is an active radar it falls off by the distance to the fourth power.
Correct. They first saw it around Anchorage.
As to the "how" you'll have to ask the government since that was their claim...in the story I directly quoted.
Quote:Long before the shoot down, U.S. officials took steps to protect against the balloon's collection of sensitive information, mitigating its intelligence value to the Chinese.
I'm gonna assume you know way more about "balloon vs satellite collection efficiency" and maintain that whatever they were able to collect with a balloon randomly floating over the US was still not as good as they can get get with targeted sattelites.
And, lastly, none of that matters in that the right complained that it should be shot down...and it was. And said Trump would never have allowed this to happen...and he did.
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(02-05-2023, 04:30 PM)GMDino Wrote: And, lastly, none of that matters in that the right complained that it should be shot down...and it was. And said Trump would never have allowed this to happen...and he did.
"Fake news" says it happened under Trump. Trump says impossible. Hard to know who to trust here.
Fox laid out all the aspects of this event the "normal" networks didn't cover:
Not just another example of the weakness and incompetence of the Biden administration--
Biden allowed the balloon to cross the U.S. diagonally looking right into our backyards.
This is a national humiliation planned by the Chinese, who showed the world that
they can do anything to us and we're too afraid to stop them!
So of course Biden and Harris need to resign. NOW!
I didn't want them to shoot it down over MT because I have relatives all over the state.
But why not Wyoming or Nebraska?
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Americans are so soft they can't even handle the mild symptoms of a cold war anymore. Sad.
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(02-05-2023, 01:24 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: It should have been downed over the Pacific. We have F-22s in Alaska.
We also have a maritime border with Russia that could have stirred up even more problems. Plus its the middle of winter, the Bearing Sea is deep and freezing. It would have been impossible to recover the balloon and its electronics in winter conditions. When it is over the Pacific, the balloon was in international waters and shooting it down would be an act of war.
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Well, the Chinese says they are weather balloons. I say if it is proven they lied, then we need to do something about it. We depend too much on Chinese products so I guess the retort will be minimal. Maybe the US government can negotiate a settlement.
Who Dey! 
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Certainly not hyperbole. 
This is the guy who yelled "You lied!" during the State of the Union in 2009.
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(02-05-2023, 11:41 PM)guyofthetiger Wrote: Well, the Chinese says they are weather balloons. I say if it is proven they lied, then we need to do something about it. We depend too much on Chinese products so I guess the retort will be minimal. Maybe the US government can negotiate a settlement.
Meh.
Much better and easier to wait a decade, watch their population dwindle to nothing but senior citizens, then wait for their economy to collapse.
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If we knew nefarious secret Chinese balloons were slowly drifting across our country for years now. I probably would have blamed covid on something other than nature
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(02-06-2023, 10:18 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: If we knew nefarious secret Chinese balloons were slowly drifting across our country for years now. I probably would have blamed covid on something other than nature
We need to get busy figuring out a way to shoot down the Jewish space lasers.
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(02-06-2023, 10:30 PM)samhain Wrote: We need to get busy figuring out a way to shoot down the Jewish space lasers.
Is it possible Chinese death balloons are jewish space laser defense? or na?
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(02-06-2023, 10:30 PM)samhain Wrote: We need to get busy figuring out a way to shoot down the Jewish space lasers.
So far as I know, Dems have not even acknowledged their existence.
How can these guys be trusted with our national security?
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Another object was shot down near Alaska yesterday. This one is not being called a balloon, but an unidentified object. It was drifting with no apparent propulsion and was smaller than the balloon.
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First missile missed. Good thing it was over a big ass lake.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unidentified-object-shot-down-lake-huron-missile-missed-general-mark-milley/
Do we have anything cheaper than $400,000 we can pop a balloon with?
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