Fifth Avenue Forum

Good. **** that thing

That **** went right over me. I was fixing to shoot it down myself

it’s crazy that it got all the way to the Carolinas. I had no idea until my brother sent a photo of it from Murrells Inlet SC

Probably didn't drop into fighter jet service range until then.

Wonder why it's such a big deal to the GOP *this* time

is there any evidence it’s actually a spy balloon?


I feel like a balloon is an awful spy vehicle because it’s pathetically easy to spot and track

@DigitalGypsy66: Did you look up? It was shot down over Dirty Myrtle.

How likely are you able to pull some tail at a random bar in SC by telling some rando southern belle that you were the guy that shot down the balloon.

with a fighter jet

lol I went out to get the mail a couple of hours ago, and a bunch of my neighbors were standing around pointing up in the sky. No idea the balloon was near us. I did see it before it got shot down!

lol I went out to get the mail a couple of hours ago, and a bunch of my neighbors were standing around pointing up in the sky. No idea the balloon was near us. I did see it before it got shot down!

Did you wave to the chinese?

lol I went out to get the mail a couple of hours ago, and a bunch of my neighbors were standing around pointing up in the sky. No idea the balloon was near us. I did see it before it got shot down!

It saw you first...

lol I went out to get the mail a couple of hours ago, and a bunch of my neighbors were standing around pointing up in the sky. No idea the balloon was near us. I did see it before it got shot down!

I'm lowkey jealous

lol I went out to get the mail a couple of hours ago, and a bunch of my neighbors were standing around pointing up in the sky. No idea the balloon was near us. I did see it before it got shot down!

I'm lowkey jealous

Is the coast guard retrieving it? They could be the ones to start WW3!

The coast guard isn’t even real

China is whining that the balloon was shot down.

welp

Sure seems like they are trying to pick a fight.

Presumably the thing transmits data back to the mothership (or bounces it off satellite relays, or whatever). It's not like it has to make it all the way back to China for the intelligence it has collected to be downloaded, right? And prevailing winds will keep pushing it further and further east (out to sea). In other words, the 'damage' (such as it is) was already done, so I'm wondering why they bothered to shoot it down once it completely traversed the continent. Just a flex? The thing had dropped below 60,000' in altitude, so I wonder if there's an airspace deconfliction rationale. Makes me also wonder if there will be in increase in the cowboy flying over the South China Sea, where PRC pilots are already too dangerous in their formation intercepts.

Also interesting that they knocked it down with a basic IR missile. It's a passive launch and guidance system, so there is no electronic signature broadcast by the launching aircraft (F-22) that could be collected in the balloon's dying moments.

And no, I do not think anyone's pulling tail at the bar for shooting down a balloon. Maybe a glass of milk on the house.

I dunno. Fox News was still talking about it this morning.

I saw a couple of comments that the balloon was probably broad spectrum jammed the entire time it was over US airspace. Maybe even the Canucks gave us permission to fly electronic warfare aircraft up there as well. So they probably didn't get much of anything, and we probably learned a great deal about how it collected info...and of course even more once it's been fully recovered.