r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Detective51 • Feb 04 '23
The moment the Chinese Spy Balloon was shot down Image
181
Feb 04 '23
[deleted]
113
199
u/Able_Age_1269 Feb 04 '23
Supposedly, an F-22 shot it down with an Aim-9X Air to Air missile. That, or it was Carl from UP.
106
u/NiteShdw Feb 05 '23
They used a $400k missile to shoot down a balloon? We really don’t go cheap in the US military.
145
u/WhitePantherXP Feb 05 '23
Yeah but that pilot now gets to put a balloon sticker on his F-22 cockpit signifying the kill, first air-to-air kill for the air force in years he'll take anything he can get.
182
u/vulcansheart Feb 05 '23
No, first the military must go to bid for a manufacturer to create this one-off balloon sticker. Several contractors will bid, and they will select the cheapest one. After a few years of contract delays, the production sticker will be shipped for final acceptance testing. Finally, it will be applied to the nose of the pilot's F22, which will take a few days while the plane is grounded. Then, in about 6 months, the sticker will start to peel, and we will decommission the entire plane and replace it, but not after going to bid for a new Next-Gen fighter that includes a modular sticker system integrated into the nosecone.
73
→ More replies6
u/Helenium_autumnale Feb 05 '23
This is especially humorous because I was just looking at sticker companies to make a sticker for my small business, which I would design myself and receive in the mail in a couple of weeks for less then $100. 🤷♀️
5
→ More replies2
26
u/EliphantToast Feb 05 '23
400k is cheap for the US military.
→ More replies13
u/DaegurthMiddnight Feb 05 '23
(tecnically for them is free as they don't produce money, they just get it from tadx payers and budgeting, right?)
→ More replies9
u/Alger6860 Feb 05 '23
With their budget shame it doesn’t seem they have to. Why send a bullet or two when a missile can do it for so much more.
3
→ More replies3
u/ThisPut6572 Feb 05 '23
Could they have hit it with some type of machine gun or something?
2
u/Mookeye1968 Feb 05 '23
Yeah but to be sure it was destroyed a one and done was prob the right call
2
u/ThisPut6572 Feb 05 '23
I was thinking to preserve evidence or ability to decipher(right word?) It's contents
→ More replies46
u/RandyTunt415 Feb 04 '23
The element of stealth was essential
77
u/Able_Age_1269 Feb 04 '23
It is the first confirmed Air to Air kill of the F-22 and something about that makes me giddy.
→ More replies4
6
u/Zombielove69 Feb 05 '23
What's crazy Is that radars We're having problems and could not detect the balloon itself. It could see the equipment slightly on the radar but the balloon wasn't showing up on radar.
→ More replies7
u/UnkleRinkus Feb 05 '23
It's similar to why they sell radar reflectors for sailboats, so that they show up on other boats' radar. The fabric of a sail, or a balloon, doesn't reflect radar.
→ More replies2
u/MrManGuy42 Feb 05 '23
how small of a heat signature can a 9x lock on to?
6
2
u/IranianF-14 Feb 05 '23
The 9X can utilize…
“Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), and a totally new two-axis thrust-vectoring control (TVC) system providing increased turn capability over traditional control surfaces (60Gs). Utilizing the JHMCS, a pilot can point the AIM-9X missile's seeker and "lock on" by simply looking at a target, thereby increasing air combat effectiveness.”
→ More replies76
u/purchankruly Feb 04 '23
The Air Force has the CGZ-4C made by Lockheed Martin, it’s a highly specialized nuclear pin for popping balloons, only 4.5$bln.
50
u/Cookietsha Feb 04 '23
Thank God we have that balloon popper instead of something that would only be useful in weirdly specific situations, like healthcare or something dumb.
→ More replies28
u/purchankruly Feb 04 '23
It’s remarkable. The CGZ-4C is a remarkable piece of technology. It’s smaller than a nail, took a 17 month fact finding mission to the Maldives, 4500 man hours to develop, a staff of 35,000, and a 17 billion dollar budget to produce a pin that can eliminate any balloon threat, from a balloon wiener dog to the Hindenburg!
12
Feb 04 '23
[deleted]
9
u/purchankruly Feb 04 '23
35,000 administrators and managers. There’s so much administration to undertake, checking catalogues, inventory warehouses, assess project time lines, define terms and documentation, allocation of funds, transferring funds, spending funds, test new equipment, conferences, discussions, lots and lots of fruitful work.
It’s the best of all governments: lots of activity but little achievement.
→ More replies→ More replies2
→ More replies9
u/ColdJackle Feb 04 '23
r/mademelook. The last time it was a fucking razor missile...
6
u/purchankruly Feb 04 '23
The god damned razor missiles aren’t bad but worse than those bloody pointed stick missiles.
→ More replies7
u/BrandoThePando Feb 04 '23
Super monkey
4
u/Jakebsorensen Feb 05 '23
The super monkey doesn’t have a 60,000 ft range. This seems like a job for the sniper monkey
576
u/boringsimp Feb 04 '23
And then a korok apoeared and gave them a seed.
137
u/Z3rgBird Feb 04 '23
Ya ha ha!
76
u/Kit_the_reaper Feb 04 '23
You found me!
→ More replies9
Feb 04 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
11
u/Detective51 Feb 04 '23
A rocket, but really surprised they didn’t use a laser.
→ More replies13
u/Illustrious-Ad-7335 Feb 04 '23
They say that the balloon was not able to collect imagery while it was over the US because they were able to jam it. How do you blind imagery acquisition? Probably with lasers.
→ More replies13
5
u/caraffa Feb 04 '23
A savage lynel bow
→ More replies8
→ More replies5
u/dab745 Feb 04 '23
Sidewinder
2
u/dirtyoldman20 Feb 05 '23
Actually they used the cannon on a f22 to peirce the balloon so they dont damage the pod bellow so it can be recovered and studied.
8
→ More replies5
127
416
u/dacreativeguy Feb 04 '23
Blue smoke = a boy
Pink smoke = a girl
Gray smoke = Chinese spy?
125
u/SmegmaSauce_69 Feb 04 '23
new pope
22
u/Ok-Resource-3232 Feb 04 '23
That would be white smoke tho
21
u/Bachooga Feb 05 '23
Black smoke = no pope
white smoke = yes pope
Gray smoke = maybe pope
→ More replies→ More replies18
→ More replies10
175
u/Soulborg87 Feb 04 '23
Do we know what (if anything) it was carrying?
147
137
52
u/a_filing_cabinet Feb 05 '23
If it's a spy bloon, then it's cameras and sensors that don't penetrate the atmosphere well. It won't be anything special. The Chinese know that we would know about it. There won't be anything hightech or super secret on it.
Honestly a large part of this is likely the Chinese watching how the US reacts.
26
u/UnkleRinkus Feb 05 '23
Honestly a large part of this is likely the Chinese watching how the US reacts.
My thoughts have been that this is a Chinese version of the Russian trolling efforts. The balloon itself may be pretty benign, but it's presence has been disruptive and distracting to our internal politics. It cost them probably very little, at low risk, to achieve this effect. What are they trying to distract us from, is the question.
→ More replies9
u/DanteTheSimpante Feb 05 '23
Exactly. I feel like the Chinese wanted to troll the US and stir up a reaction.
Why send a spy balloon that's easily visible with zero security and knowing very well it won't make it back to the country without being shot down by the US?
3
11
u/smswigart Feb 05 '23
I doubt it was ever meant to be over the US. They probably use them in places with no radar or air defenses that they want to keep an eye on.
3
u/SlaynHollow Feb 05 '23
Ever meant to be to in the USA? No the Chinese definitely meant to have it just blow by over here. They knew what was going on with the weather, they knew it would've blown over. Did they hesitate? Hell no. Who knows how many military spaces it barely stayed outside of their no fly zones, or how many did it actually without anyone saying anything
→ More replies2
u/Embarrassed-Rub2887 Feb 06 '23
Aaaand.... we sent an F22 Raptor to intercept it. Wonder what intel they got from that? Just checking the 5th generation fighter and radars, target acquisition and missile electronics? Couldn't we have sent an A-10 or F-14 to do the job? Hell, even a chopper? Old School Guns instead of targeting radars and missiles? How much intel did they get from that, versus the "message" we sent in killing it?
→ More replies18
101
u/No_Recognition7426 Expert Feb 04 '23
So does the pilot get to count this as a kill? Cause that would be sick to have a balloon kill mark on my jet.
77
u/NevadaScorpio Feb 04 '23
First official air to air kill for an F-22.
→ More replies26
u/No_Recognition7426 Expert Feb 04 '23
Oh that’s true. Well at least that we know of.
21
u/carc Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 05 '23
The threat alone of the F-22 even existing has been incredible, to where any potential air-to-air entanglement with the US just wouldn't be worth the risk. Pure air superiority.
Wasn't even worth building a ton of them as it'd be overkill, and we could probably produce a similar brawler in a pinch if the need ever arises.
Beautiful planes. And I 100% would not be surprised to hear that we leveraged them in the past, just nobody knew what hit them.
Edit: I hate the fact there's only like 150 of them. We could have at least built a bunch to sell to allies, or reused the airframe or something. The whole F-22 program confuses me because, sure it has its host of issues, but so does the F-35 program. Part of me wonders if their limited run was misinformation, and we actually ended up building a lot more -- all to avoid an air superiority arms race.
→ More replies→ More replies4
41
67
59
205
Feb 04 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
21
34
36
u/Detective51 Feb 04 '23
Makes you realize how easy it would be to release something terrible into the atmosphere. We don’t know, this could have been a test for that. All it cost Xi was some helium and some electronics. Could do far more damage than nuclear weapons.
→ More replies2
u/jp2117515 Feb 05 '23
Yes and it was released right over the east coast where most of the population is. Curious why they didn’t let it go out to sea further.
7
u/backyardmechanic1993 Feb 04 '23
It probably did that’s why they shot it down, then go “it wasn’t from the ballon that was safe to shoot down over a city full of people”
→ More replies2
43
u/purchankruly Feb 04 '23
I had a zit that looked like this.
→ More replies13
u/ExitNo9158 Feb 04 '23
The ones that leave the "juice" on the mirror! They feel awesome when they pop!
10
u/Detective51 Feb 04 '23
Hate to watch other people’s, but if it’s my own, oh man, chef kiss! Almost feels as nice as that random lower back pop that goes “BOOM!” that you get unexpectedly on occasion that rattles your entire body. It’s the simple things in life I enjoy the most.
6
→ More replies3
u/A_Doormat Feb 05 '23
I get these rarely and an even rarer subtype of them are the ones with multiple "pops" in them.
God almighty though, when I get one of those bad boys it's like heaven. I revel in my disgusting accomplishment.
3
u/ExitNo9158 Feb 05 '23
The ones with multiple pops ready; or the one that pops and reheads over a day or two, then is ready for round two?
Both are great tbh. I've given myself some gnarly spots of my face by making sure "there wasnt any left"
5
u/A_Doormat Feb 05 '23
I meant multiple pops in one sitting kind of thing.
The ones that rehead are like forgetting you still have a slice of cake leftover from the day before. It's great.
Oh yeah I have some scars and big ol' pores on my face as a testament to my brutal teen years.
→ More replies
12
12
u/EliphantToast Feb 05 '23
Doubt this was actually used to spy on us. If they wanted an aerial view of US installations I feel they would have a less primitive and more covert way of going about it.
11
u/Remarkable-Hat-503 Feb 05 '23
I sense an incoming South Park episode
→ More replies2
u/Past_Win6798 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 06 '23
"OoooOoohhh nooo, its a spooky white baaaarroon. Focus on that, guys! They are trying to steal our American homegrown secrets. As the chairsperson of Tegrity we cannot stand by this!"
"Shoot 'r doooown!"
"Readying missiles."
"Wait! We can't shoot it over South Park! People will die!"
"Ma'am step back. We have this under control. We must not let China infiltrate our Tegrity secrets! Kill a few to save the international cannabis trade as we know it."
"So we're allowing people to actually die over your weed farm Mr. Marsh?"
"It's not for me ma'am. It's for Tegrity. Tegrity Farms."
explodes balloon over South Park
"Got em!"
Back at China...
"Why the fuck did America just shoot down our weather baaarroon? No kung pao chicken in their Holiday basket this year."
20
19
u/Prestigious-Log3332 Feb 04 '23
Why didn't they just make the balloon sky blue?
20
u/Difficult_Bit_1339 Feb 05 '23
You want them to not absorb heat, which would lead to the gas expanding giving them a larger surface area, which would absorb more heat, etcetc.
It isn't something that you can hide, no matter what color the balloon is. The metal structure hanging under it would have been very visible to radar.
33
u/rhoadsscholar Feb 04 '23
🇨🇳 “whoops, our weather balloon got lost”
🇺🇸 “ oops, our pilot accidently launched a missle”
→ More replies
16
u/silverk34 Feb 04 '23
People saying “take down the balloon” instead of learning what it was transmitting are actual bots and I’m glad the pentagon is making the decisions not y’all
6
7
u/Totally_lost80 Feb 04 '23
I wonder what has been going on why the media has had us spun up over a balloon for the last few days.
65
u/Nico_La_440 Feb 04 '23
My theory : the US was well aware of that ballon arriving towards mainland and could have destroyed it sooner but left it coming to give the impression that US air space is not that difficult to enter and reactions are slow. So if/when a real threat comes by, they can counteract way sooner and surprise their enemy.
29
u/Able_Age_1269 Feb 04 '23
Yeah, I would love to find out we’ve been trolling it, giving it false data.
→ More replies20
u/resistdrip Feb 04 '23
"Your theory" norad has tracked it since it launched.
5
u/AncientBlonde Feb 04 '23
And intercepted it the day they noticed it. They just didn't announce anything for almost a week after that....
→ More replies30
u/NahFdat Feb 04 '23
My guess is they were able to hijack its comms and just see what it was looking at. When they'd seen enough they got rid of it. Inviting enemies in to your airspace hardly seems like credible deterrence.
3
u/stopeverythingpls Feb 05 '23
It made it from Alaska to SC. They just didn’t want to shoot it down over land and risk property damage is my guess. That, and wanted it to be seen
7
u/Nico_La_440 Feb 04 '23
Not deterrence, just faking vulnerability to have a strategic advantage if they ever pursue their spying.
11
u/Octizzle Feb 04 '23
America’s deterrent is not feigning vulnerability, it’s literally the complete polar opposite, “big stick” and what not
→ More replies
6
65
u/Townle Feb 04 '23
If it actually was just a weather balloon for research we getting clowned on rn.
50
u/Able_Age_1269 Feb 04 '23
Fearing it’s natural predator, the East Asian balloon tries to silently flee into the sea. Little does it know, the F-22s have awoken from hibernation, and smells its fear. A full grown male F-22 can eat 3 times it’s body weight.
12
5
→ More replies66
u/Crypto-Arab Feb 04 '23
A weather balloon that happened to drift over dozens of military sites...
54
u/BrandoThePando Feb 04 '23
Without judgment on the nature or purpose of this balloon: This is America. It would be more surprising if any random path didn't pass over dozens of military sites...
10
u/KlutzyQuantity4150 Feb 04 '23
America I think has more bases abroad than they do domestically oddly enough
7
→ More replies3
7
u/RedShooz10 Feb 04 '23
You joke but the US isn’t as militarized as you’d think. It also changed course several times.
13
u/vandergale Feb 05 '23
Lol, the US is littered with military sites. It would be a bigger achievement not to drift over one.
→ More replies6
u/VietVetNeverTrump Feb 04 '23
Of course you know there are hundreds of satellites circling the earth for that purpose, right?
5
38
u/Alixthetrapgod Feb 04 '23
I don’t understand why Reddit is so obsessed with this balloon lol
47
→ More replies8
u/weirdoldhobo1978 Feb 04 '23
Because the media was obsessed with it and used it to fill slow gaps in the news cycle.
10
u/Detective51 Feb 04 '23
By slow gaps, I think you mean more concerning news.
→ More replies4
Feb 04 '23
You claim this story is to cover up more concerning news yet you are posting about this instead of the more concerning news...curious 🤔
→ More replies
15
16
u/Aretosteles Feb 04 '23
what I don‘t get is like what did the Chinese think would happen? Like they thought they can just spy with a giant balloon and nobody would notice??
8
u/PopePAF Feb 05 '23 edited Feb 05 '23
Thats why it is Most likely Not a spy balloon in the First place ;) how they Said. And you Just Rocket killed some Hobby Scientists toy ;)
14
→ More replies6
u/fishintheboat Feb 05 '23
Or they wanted us to shoot it down…..
3
u/stedgyson Feb 05 '23
To judge military capabilities of shooting down a target at 60,000ft
→ More replies
16
4
u/KushKings840 Feb 04 '23
who cares? mofos make this out to be similarities of seeing an eclipse like stfu its just a damn balloon
3
10
u/No-Difficulty2393 Feb 04 '23
So, why would they try to get so much attention to that ? What's the endgame? What is "China is spying on us " a distraction or a goal from? Because they could have shot that back in Alaska. They wanted everyone to know about it.
10
u/Ghostlabbrador77 Feb 04 '23
My guess is that with Russia shitting the bed and showing itself decades away in posing a serious threat to the US military, they maybe need some help in justifying the huge defense budget against a now missing enemy
4
u/piddler71 Feb 05 '23
It was just announced that the US has got the land around China for a lot more new army bases. The US is surrounding the arc of China with bases. That story broke then surprise, distracted by the balloon and no one questions the US’ aggressive moves
12
u/PolyZex Feb 05 '23
A spy balloon... packed with atmospheric pressure sensors... released in broad daylight... bright white balloon... to do spying that could be done invisibly from a satellite in space.
How incompetent do you think the Chinese are?
→ More replies
7
u/jaydubbs82 Feb 04 '23
Alan Jackson needs to do a new "Where were you" song about the history made today
8
u/THLH Feb 04 '23
"Where were you, when they built the ladder to heaven?"
Honestly the only reason I know of him and that song is because of South Park lol
4
5
4
u/Raggaeshark808 Feb 05 '23
I just gotta ask, why do people care so much about this “Chinese” balloon? If it really even is Chinese you think they’re getting information that they don’t already know? People crack me up 😜
4
u/shrumerino Feb 04 '23
There's nothing interesting about this. Shit fucking balloon being reposted on every single sub in existence for some upvotes. Least obnoxious american post.
→ More replies
9
u/capitalismic Feb 04 '23
Why wait till its gone across the entire continent before bringing it down???
15
u/ImaginaryBee6135 Feb 04 '23
I don't know about you, but I certainly would not have been cool with having that debris rain down onto my house. It's also not like China doesn't always have low orbit satellites watching us at all time so there isn't really anything this balloon could see that the satellites can't.
→ More replies3
u/rpsRexx Feb 04 '23
There is a clip of Biden saying he wanted to bring it down Wednesday. There was a valid reason in the eyes of the military.
3
u/we-overcome-us Feb 05 '23
Because it's the size of two football fields and the hardware on it is the size of two school busses and the government wanted to shoot it down without killing people.
10
→ More replies3
u/samamechi Feb 04 '23
You can't control the fall. Imagine the fallout if they shoot it down, then it slams into a children's cancer hospital.
3
u/Historical_Site6323 Feb 04 '23
Don't you dare tell the truth around here. Collateral damage in the name of immediate response is the American way.
2
u/SuperCrappyFuntime Feb 04 '23
Now wait for people complaining that Biden hadn't had it shot down to start complaining that he had it shot down.
2
2
2
2
2
u/AduroTri Feb 05 '23
More than likely, this was a weather balloon. There's not a huge difference between what a satellite vs a spy balloon could gather for information.
2
2
2
u/awnfire Feb 05 '23
I wonder if they tested whatever was inside the balloon before shooting…. Best of luck USA
1
u/sunashtronaut Feb 05 '23
Spy ballon.. but it’s there for a while with communication devices.. am I missing something? It must have accomplished what it supposed to spy on.
Why anyone let this SPY balloon stay that long ? I know people’s safety and all. It’s not like it will rain down fire .. we can just say people take cover .. stay home.. look up and move away etc.. but letting a SPY balloon stay that long is bad decision
2
u/ExpectedEvent Feb 05 '23
Non of these iphone users had an S22 Ultra so they can capture that with the zoom
2
2
u/ballbustveteran17 Feb 05 '23
Quick! Lets find a way to endlessly complain about this and blame opposing political parties !
2
2
u/Eastern_Bobcat8336 Feb 05 '23
yea i get it. spy balloon go boom. its a balloon, not interesting enough to repost all week my friends from the states.
2
u/MikeyMGM Feb 05 '23
Up Up in a way in my beautiful balloon…
2
u/Sunflower_After_Dark Feb 05 '23
You’re telling our age!
2
3
u/BirthdayWooden Feb 05 '23
This spy balloon being shot down is alot like the Republican outrage over it to begin with. Overhyped and now deflated
3
2
u/According-Match203 Feb 05 '23
Is it really a spy balloon? Seems like WMD's all over again. If you were trying to spy would you send a slow moving balloon that anyone can easily see from the ground? China has like 500 satellites in space.....wouldn't they just be using those for aerial spying? I'd imagine they get far more info from computer hacking.
1.3k
u/thalassicus Feb 04 '23
Wait till it lands and we find it’s just a Chinese knock off of a Mark Rober glitter bomb.