Airforce Spent Millions To Shot Down A Failed U.S. Weather Balloon - Biden Is Happy It Did So
Yesterday the U.S. airforce shot down another weather balloon:
The Pentagon said it shot down an unidentified object over frozen waters around Alaska on Friday at the order of President Biden, less than a week after a U.S. fighter jet brought down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic in an episode that increased tensions between Washington and Beijing.
This 'unidentfied object' was much smaller than the previous balloon.
Three U.S. officials said that as of Friday evening, the government did not know who owned or sent the object seen above Alaska, which, like the Chinese balloon last week, was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet using a Sidewinder air-to-air missile.Several officials said they believed the object shot down Friday was a balloon, but a Defense Department official said it broke into pieces when it hit the frozen sea, which added to the mystery of whether it was indeed a balloon, a drone or something else.
Mr. Kirby said that the object was “much, much smaller than the spy balloon that we took down last Saturday” and that “the way it was described to me was roughly the size of a small car, as opposed to the payload that was like two or three buses.”
The Chinese weather balloon taken down earlier had likely nothing to do with spying. The crazy disinformation and policitics around it are just propaganda. There were antennas on Chinese weather ballon but all weather balloons are carrying radiosondes to send down whatever they find.
After their measuring tasks are done weather balloons are supposed to fly higher until the pressure within the balloon is much higher than the thin air surrounding it. In consequence the balloon will rip open and its radiosonde and debris will come down on a small parachute. There is usually an address on these and a request to send them back for reuse. In case you find one please do so.
Sometimes the mechanism sending the balloon higher will fail. The balloon will then just follow the winds until something happens that brings it down.
That may well have happened to the Chinese weather balloon as well as the the weather balloon sent up by the National Weather Service from its measuring stations in Kotzebue or Noma in northwest Alaska.
Dan Satterfield @wildweatherdan - 21:41 UTC · Feb 10, 2023I back forecasted the latest "Balloon" shoot down in AK. Based on the location and time, it tracks back to near the Kotzebue NWS Rawinsonde site. Did we shoot down an NWS Weather balloon?? There is no data for the 12Z launch from that site and all the rest worked. #Chinaballoon
If not, then it goes back to the Bering Sea and then to NE Russia.
Also possible they did not launch a balloon at Kotzebue this morning at 12Z.
bigger
A rawinsonde is by the way a combination of wind sensors and radiosonde:
rawinsonde - An upper-air sounding that includes determination of wind speeds and wind directions.Historically, wind data were obtained by tracking a balloon-borne radiosonde with a radio direction finder. Contemporary methods include measuring position or radiosonde velocity from a global positioning system or Loran radio navigation signals.
Another weather station is in Nome, Alaska, which is in the same area as Kotzebue.
Dan Satterfield @wildweatherdan - 21:54 UTC · 10 Feb 2023Nome sounding stopped at 100 mb today. It could be the NOME rawinsonde balloon had issues.
If the measuring stopped at 100 millibar air pressure the balloon failed to rise further up into thinner air.
More:
Dan Satterfield @wildweatherdan 22:14 UTC · 10 Feb 2023Could be the NOME Balloon if it failed and data stops at 100 mb at NOME on the 12z launch. It could have not gone up and burst as it should.
That isn't the only account that came up with such findings:
altNOAA @altNOAA - 3:15 UTC · Feb 11, 2023I could still be wrong, but it looks like balloon was launched at approx 2:00 am (Alaska Standard Time) from the National Weather Service WSO in Kotzebue, AK. It was intended for the 12z data (balloons launched twice per day approx 1 hr before 00/12 Zulu time). 6am eastern.
And to whoever flew this one... I hope your buddies are not too hard on ya. And thank you for your service!
This page should be populated with a SKEW-T diagram showing the 12z data from Kotzebue. The sounding diagram doesn't exist because the data doesn't exist because the balloon that was to send that data no longer exists.
(Pic of failed page search)
and
altNOAA @altNOAA - 8:04 UTC · Feb 11, 2023The USAF either shot down the 12Z weather balloon from Kotzebue or (bear with me here), they shot down a little tiny spaceship from the Planet Smallrocksia. I'm seriously leaning towards our weather balloon. And it's pretty well supported with the balloon optimization Hysplit.
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I will admit that I'm not 100% on either possibility yet (99.998% positive it wasn't a little tiny spaceship tho). I'm not even 100% sure if a 12z balloon was released at Kotzebue. But, I'm going to find out.
So it looks like the airforce sent up an AWACS surveillance plane, a tanker and an F-22, the most expensive fighter plane ever, to fire a $400,000 Sidewinder missile to take down a failed weather balloon.
Had the balloon continued to fly it would have turned towards the north pole. So a few millions were spent to shot down a U.S. launched failed weather ballon on the tiny, tiny chance that some passenger plane would have crossed its path at its unusual 40,000 feet flight level.
I think that was a waste of money.
But it brought Biden some better press than the Chinese weather balloon disaster did. So there is the real reason for doing it.
Posted by b on February 11, 2023 at 16:54 UTC | Permalink
next page »It's good to see that the US military has finally found an adversary they can actually win against
"BALLOONISTAN"
Posted by: Oldcutlas | Feb 11 2023 17:10 utc | 2
When you are the face of Might-Makes-Right patriarchal empire this is how you approach the unknown.
Empire is in serious desperation mode now and this is more Wag The Dog grist for the public to lap up while other shit happens behind the curtain.
Inflated Balloonacy - The sequel continues
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 11 2023 17:10 utc | 3
They will do an information blackout on this one if analysis of moa is right
Posted by: A.z | Feb 11 2023 17:11 utc | 4
stupid fucks dont even know what it was they shot down
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Feb 11 2023 17:14 utc | 5
So it looks like the airforce sent up an AWACS surveillance plane, a tanker and an F-22, the most expensive fighter plane ever, to fire a $400,000 Sidewinder missile to take down a failed weather balloon.Maybe it failed because of the encounter with the Sidewinder?
What kind of stupid idiocy is this US behaviour? Should we laugh or cry?
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2023 17:22 utc | 7
Barflies, any comment on these musings?
Historical atlases show that in the Middle Ages there was ´Red Russia´, ´Black Russia´ and ´White Russia´, which may have been the origin of the Russian emperor´s title as "Tsar of all the Russias".
It seems that White Russia was what is now Belarus, Black Russia was what is now the Ukraine and Red Russia was Muscovy which expanded north to the Arctic and east to the Urals during the Middle Ages.
Red Russia then expanded to become Great Russia, acquiring an empire stretching from Petersburg to Alaska.
In the 19th century colonial period, the Russians occupied the Turkestans and the Caucasians, which declared independence in 1989. In WW2, the Soviet Union added the Baltics which regained their independence also in 1989.
"The Ukraine" never appeared until 1917 when the victorious Germans (well Prussians, not Austrians) knocked Russia out of WW1. The Ukraine was cut out of Russia at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk but reversed when WW1 was over and reverted to Russia which transformed into the Soviet Union.
So it doesn´t surprise me that Putin doesn´t want to restore the Soviet Union but he wants to defend Russia - and that appears, from history and population, to include Black Russia, aka "The Ukraine".
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 11 2023 17:30 utc | 8
Breaking news! The Airfarce just declared war on the National Weather Service! News at 11.
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Feb 11 2023 17:31 utc | 9
i read they're also sanctioning companies that produce weather balloons. maybe they're planning ahead for the next conflict with China after Ukraine collapses and they have to find a new war.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 11 2023 17:31 utc | 10
John Merryman no. 7
Some handy hints for balloon shapes:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEbBgIK7M3g
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Feb 11 2023 17:32 utc | 11
I figured it out: they’re just helping the governor of Alaska to get “foreign policy experience” for a future vice-presidential nomination.
Posted by: Dalit | Feb 11 2023 17:37 utc | 12
Thanks, b :-)
The complete absence of any kind of description of the object shot down persuaded me that SOMEONE started bragging about this "victory" before demanding a positive ID.
This is about dumbass Yankees believing too much of their own balderdash. It's going to get a lot of them killed...
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 11 2023 17:38 utc | 13
@ThusspakeZarathustra | Feb 11 2023 17:32 utc | 10
Kim Jong Un should make a giant balloon looking like himself and let it drift in the Jet Stream across the US.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2023 17:38 utc | 14
Alex Christoforou
Object over Alaska. Moldova gov resigns. 35 countries Olympic ban. Estonia, f-16 make believe. U/1
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2023 17:43 utc | 15
At least the Yankees are taking their own comedy with a grain of salt. Not so, with the dummy European lapdogs. They are still blaring the news on headlines and TV reports as "High-altitude object shot down off Alaska, US says".
Posted by: Steve | Feb 11 2023 17:48 utc | 16
More balloonacy from the UselesS A.
Are there any adults over there? It’s looking doubtful...
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 11 2023 17:51 utc | 17
psychohistorian | Feb 11 2023 17:10 utc | 3
Ah, I see you got to the balloonacy before me :)
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 11 2023 17:53 utc | 18
Who should star in the upcoming Movie: Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise?
Posted by: par4 | Feb 11 2023 17:59 utc | 19
Who should star in the upcoming Movie: Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise?Posted by: par4 | Feb 11 2023 17:59 utc | 18
As the Balloon? Brendan Fraser of the "The Whale", obviously.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13833688/
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Feb 11 2023 18:09 utc | 22
So it looks like the airforce sent up an AWACS surveillance plane, a tanker and an F-22, the most expensive fighter plane ever, to fire a $400,000 Sidewinder missile to take down a failed weather balloon
Paranoia may destroy ya
Posted by: circumspect | Feb 11 2023 18:12 utc | 23
Again, while I enjoy reading the anti-globalist / anti-Neocon / anti-MIC essays, articles and comments here on MOA, this particular story is simply America bashing. For instance, did whoever sent this object (balloon?) over Alaska's airspace notify the US government of its intended flight plan or possible deviations thereto? EVERY country on Earth has the right to keep their airspace (but not outer space) clear of potential threats. For example, when the US was over-flying Iraq for 10 years before the 2003 invasion, Iraq had every right to shoot down US warplanes but they just didn't have the means.
Posted by: Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 24
Given there are not so many things happening right now that would capture the attention of the Western audience it's a good story the MSM can focus on given they're too reluctant to even mention Seymour Hersh's story.
Posted by: xor | Feb 11 2023 18:23 utc | 25
The Pentagon said it shot down an unidentified object over frozen waters around Alaska on Friday at the order of President Biden
Americans have no respect even for Santa.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 11 2023 18:26 utc | 26
hey henry read the article its an own goal for propaganda
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Feb 11 2023 18:35 utc | 27
It seems as if China has the initiative here in 5th G warfare, and the dimwits out of DC are just making one bad choice after another.
I trust the folks living in the lands know better.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 18:38 utc | 28
Did you know 6th G warfare has already been conceived - it plays at a whole different level.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 18:39 utc | 29
also Ukraine related.
This was the week. Using “a balloon to beat up China.”
Biden bullies China. But it won’t work
by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
There is no question that the circumstances surrounding the “balloon affair” between the United States and China are dodgy. Burlesque does not belong to China’s diplomatic toolbox. China never used balloons to browbeat adversaries.
Unsurprisingly, expert opinion largely tends to go along with the Chinese contention, which implies that Beijing had no need to resort to such outmoded and difficult-to-control means such as a gas-filled balloon hoisted at 60000 feet above ground propelled by the winds to conduct surveillance over America’s super-secret nuclear weapon sites when it has as sophisticated means as Americans would have to spy other countries through satellites. That seems a credible rationale, isn’t it?The big question is, can the balloon affair be the work of Vayu, the Hindu god of the winds, who in Indian mythology also is believed to act at times as the divine messenger of the gods?
Seriously, Beijing insists that a Chinese company’s weather test balloon “with limited self-steering capability” deviated far from its planned course and was blown by winds across North America sometime early last week.
[.]
And this beauty in M. K. Bhadrakumar's 2nd article
Waiting for Biden’s definition of victory in Ukraine
The nugget:
[.]Herein lies the paradox. On February 1, four senior Defense Department officials reportedly told the US House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing that the Pentagon doesn’t believe Ukraine has the ability to force Russian troops out of the Crimean peninsula. After the briefing, the House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) asserted in an interview that the war “needs to end this summer.”Senator Rogers said: “There’s a school of thought … that Crimea’s got to be a part of it. Russia is never going to quit and give up Crimea… What is doable? And I don’t think that that’s agreed upon yet. So I think that there’s going to have to be some pressure from our government and NATO leaders with Zelensky about what does victory look like. And I think that’s going to help us more than anything to be able to drive Putin and Zelensky to the table to end this thing this summer.”
This is the first time that a top US political personality has called for a timeline for the war. It came as no wonder, as Senator Bob Menendez the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who presided over the hearings on Ukraine on January 26 — also addressed the core issue in a question for the record to the US Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland who was testifying.
The influential senator bemoaned that Washington has “no definition of victory,” and sought an answer from Nuland, who was rendered speechless.
But it must have rankled her, for, at the fag-end of the hearing, she volunteered a reply: “If we define winning as Ukraine surviving and thriving as a cleaner democratic state, it can, it must, it will.” Period.
Nuland fudged. But that is also what President Biden did in his State of the Union address on Wednesday by sticking to his tiresome mantra — that the US will support Ukraine for “as long as it takes.” That said, significantly, Zelensky has taken off for a tour of major European capitals to discuss what could possibly constitute peace. [.] (emphasis added)
Good luck. Credibility shot and buried. Looking for a negotiated “peace” under 1/8 of a pebble.
Onward to Odessa and north to the Poland border.
Posted by: Likklemore | Feb 11 2023 18:40 utc | 30
Daily dose/reminder for the western plebs ("We're good; they're evil"). The U.S. worked hard and hence is at the peak of their propagandistic power in their sphere of influence.
Posted by: Tapio | Feb 11 2023 18:48 utc | 31
when the US was over-flying Iraq for 10 years before the 2003 invasion, Iraq had every right to shoot down US warplanes but they just didn't have the means.Posted by: Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 23
In other words, noone cares about "your rights" when they have the might.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 11 2023 18:50 utc | 32
weather off north carolina got rough yesterday, us navy suspended operation to raise the ballon’s electronics package.
if they lose it that should suppose it would have embarrassed the empire, even more.
Posted by: paddy | Feb 11 2023 18:55 utc | 33
Josh | Feb 11 2023 17:01 utc | 1
What's that?
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No...
It's a bunch of bored arctic scientists fishing for sidewinders.
Posted by: David G Horsman | Feb 11 2023 18:57 utc | 35
"So it looks like the airforce sent up an AWACS surveillance plane, a tanker and an F-22, the most expensive fighter plane ever, to fire a $400,000 Sidewinder missile to take down a failed weather balloon"
The only way the weather service wins this one is to start launching decoy weather balloons in the hope that enough real weather balloons will survive for data to be collected.
News at 11? What about the weather?
Posted by: David G Horsman | Feb 11 2023 19:09 utc | 36
Everyone, can we do a United States-wide helium filled white balloon release in solidarity for the two innocent balloons that were unjustly popped?
Posted by: Christy | Feb 11 2023 19:10 utc | 37
Smallrocksia
I've not heard of this "planet"....can somebody elaborate?
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 19:16 utc | 38
"this particular story is simply America bashing."
Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 23
Hi Henry. Because many of us feel the intent of all this is to distract their public we're just having a little fun here.
It just happens that they picked an issue that is such ripe fruit for mockery.
Posted by: David G Horsman | Feb 11 2023 19:17 utc | 39
Did you know there is a place in Tejas where a lot of helium resides?
That is something I looked up a long time ago....I mean helium is pretty rare on planet earth.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 19:18 utc | 40
If you think I'm full of talk, I don't care, but check this out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Helium_Reserve#:~:text=The%20helium%20is%20stored%20at,the%20Helium%20Act%20of%201925.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 19:20 utc | 41
Now, I know I could have posted that link more succinctly, but it is my speculation the balloons so far have been filled with helium because a balloon filled with hydrogen is like to burst into blue flame when a spark penetrates.
BK
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 19:22 utc | 42
@Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 23
Again, while I enjoy reading the anti-globalist / anti-Neocon / anti-MIC essays, articles and comments here on MOA, this particular story is simply America bashing.America? This isn't about America, it is about the US that apparently believes itself to be beyond ridicule of its self-inflicted stupidity. Just learn to take it.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2023 19:24 utc | 43
Just for the fun of it a poem:
hydrogen gas just loves to burn...
ask the passengers on the dirigible burned up so....
wonder what they used in WWI....
well, by time of WWII aeroplanes got past the point they
needed some cellulose acetate
dope on the wings
to stay afloat
in the rain..
~
but how can one not ponder whether the advances have been for nought...
cause if the pompous continue to harm....
then it will make no difference...
either way.
~
Still, who doesn't love a balloon
floating in the sky
whether it has
helium in it
or something
else.
~
BK - a poem about balloons, helium and hydrogen for that matter...
nothing but a poem on a Saturday when the weather seems idle where I reside.
Posted by: Buffalo_Ken | Feb 11 2023 19:26 utc | 45
David G Horsman | Feb 11 2023 19:09 utc | 35
"The only way the weather service wins this one is to start launching decoy weather balloons in the hope that enough real weather balloons will survive for data to be collected."
The NWS can join the campaign to get NATO to self-demilitarize by sending up enough balloons. The F-22 isn't really up to such an attrition war.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Feb 11 2023 19:35 utc | 46
I'm sure when President Zelensky drops in on the Pentagon during his world tour, he won't be impressed that F-22 fighter jets are being deployed to shoot down weather balloons instead of being sent to Ukraine to be shot into scrap metal instead.
Posted by: Jen | Feb 11 2023 19:43 utc | 47
Friendly Fire!
Shoot first, ask questions later. US foreign policy comes home.
Posted by: James Cook | Feb 11 2023 19:52 utc | 48
Norwegian no. 13
That'd make them really flip. They'd send up the whole "space farce".
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Feb 11 2023 19:55 utc | 49
The western lumpenproletariat and sheeple are so easy to distract from the things that are screwing them. Lies are so omnipresent that the have become the norm. The nation that spies on every phone call, every text, every email is calling the pot black and no one is calling bullshit. I might have missed it but if the revelations about the act of war sabotage by Seymour Hersch was not reported on DW. Only the AFD dares to bring up the multi billion euros destruction of the German industrial state by the "Ally" USA. The ol'saying, keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down is acceptable to the German leadership of today. Compradors and Quislings of Germany and Europe rejoice, your sheeple are eating it up.
Posted by: Bob | Feb 11 2023 20:07 utc | 50
They don’t know what they show down?!
Seriously, their nukes need to be confiscated.
Posted by: Rae | Feb 11 2023 20:11 utc | 51
I know a bush pilot that lived in Kotzebue in the 90s and in Alaska 50+ years. His comment:
"I watched them launch in Kotz. Weather balloons are only about 2m in diameter and the radiosonde package it carries is only the size of a cereal box."
I asked for clarification about recent practices, but have not heard back.
Posted by: upstater | Feb 11 2023 20:18 utc | 52
More balloons (video)
Translated:
A new "invasion" of balloons in the USA 😀.
Over the west coast of the United States again noticed flying objects similar to balloons.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin/77859
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2023 20:30 utc | 53
I don't understand the problem here.
1. The unidentified object was maneuvering aggressively, using winds aloft as a cover - a common trick used by hostile nations to spy on American nuclear sites.
2. It did not respond to repeated communication attempts on navigation or emergency frequencies, and was not broadcasting an ADS-B identifier. Suspicious!
3. There is no proof it was unmanned, only evidence that it was ignoring communication attempts. Could have contained miniature communist!
4. It was approaching Alaska from Russian/Chinese territories... just like nukes would.
5. Obvious copycat tactic after sneaky, gigantic Chinese balloon was missed by NORAD. That clever trick won't work again, evildoers.
6. Sure the National Weather Service sends up sounding balloons an hour before noon/midnight GMT every single day. Perfect cover for covert Chinese/Russian biological weapons attack. Send debris to U.S. funded biolab in Wuhan for further study. And maybe the FBI needs to talk to some of those shady NWS weather boys in Alaska. Who really knows their true loyalty after being that close to Russia?
7. Clearly illustrates the need for more financial assistance to Ukraine. Print it NOW!
Many other groups use such balloons, too. Elementary school student groups launch them with electronics on board. Raspberry Pi's are frequent payloads. Space weather is tracked by them, including ones measuring cosmic rays and solar radiation. A group who also has sensors on commercial high-altitude jets monitoring radiation of cosmic rays launches a ballon weekly. See
https://spaceweather.com/ . You can help fund them by buying "romantic" jewelry that has flown to the stratosphere. Maybe Biden hates such jewelry.
Many boomers remember wanting to buy one of the surplus weather balloons advertised in the back of comic books.
Posted by: barstool | Feb 11 2023 20:47 utc | 57
I don’t think bar flies are taking this seriously enough. After all lease ended, Alaska is Russian. So the balloon is technically Russian. That’s a grave violation of the rule based order people who don’t know grammar call a rules based order.
Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Feb 11 2023 20:59 utc | 59
also: the f-22 has 20mm gatling guns. i'm guessing the ammo doesn't cost the same as a mortgage on a f_cking house like the missiles. obviously for show to impress whatever vermin cared about this sh_t to begin with. good thing they didn't send out an f-35; there'd be way more debris to clean up when it lightly grazed the balloon and burst into billion dollar flames.
(side note: at the press conference some idiot asked if either balloon may have a person in it. so it's officially balloon boy 2.0.)
Posted by: the pair | Feb 11 2023 21:16 utc | 60
Henry @23
You don't have a problem when its Russia Russia Russia bashing?...and besides these fools have become the laughing stock of the world which they have brought upon themselves.
Posted by: Sisofia | Feb 11 2023 21:24 utc | 61
Worth noting Russia is a major supplier of helium.
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Feb 11 2023 21:45 utc | 62
"China has balloons for only two days"Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 11 2023 20:43 utc | 54
They should put like 1000 balloons per day and let them fly towards the US. It's that easy.
Posted by: Vikichka | Feb 11 2023 21:54 utc | 63
Posted by: Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 23
so should the US have notified itself before it shot down its own weather balloon?
Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 11 2023 22:05 utc | 64
"Dont you tell me i dont know foreign policy. I can see Chinese aggression from my front porch!"
Sarah Palin,former governor of Alaska
Posted by: Rjb1.5 | Feb 11 2023 22:14 utc | 65
General Deptula in a CNN interview said that many airline flights, bound from eastern US to Asia, fly a 'great circle" route through Alaska airspace. So knowledge of weather and wind-speed is especially interesting in that area.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Feb 11 2023 22:19 utc | 66
@Tannenhouser stupid fucks dont even know what it was they shot down
The danger is these idiots will eventually shoot down a Boeing ferrying people from somewhere to wherever.
Again.
Posted by: Fred777 | Feb 11 2023 22:42 utc | 67
Do any other barflies hear what I hear? I hear the RoW laughing their asses off.
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 11 2023 19:26 utc | 43
Absolutely! From quiet chuckling to outright guffaws echoing around the planet.
Mockery will always overcome arrogance, even if it takes some time.
#BalloonLivesMatter
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 11 2023 22:49 utc | 68
just to recap, the US spends millions on purpose to attack one of its allies, and millions to accidentally shoot down one of its own weather balloons. what a country.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Feb 11 2023 22:50 utc | 69
So, it is now Saturday afternoon on the left coast and they have shot down another wx balloon.Is there special nose art for the F22? Any suggestions?
Posted by: Wiry | Feb 11 2023 22:56 utc | 70
Alas, suffusive madness loses its hilarity, in the final analysis. In the other thread, a barfly shared the classic line for our time, 20th century poetry, adapted to the 21st:
not with a bang, but a facepalm
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 11 2023 22:57 utc | 71
@the pair also: the f-22 has 20mm gatling guns
Well done, you’ve just added the mockery of the pilot being unable to hit it to the story.
Posted by: Fred777 | Feb 11 2023 22:58 utc | 72
"this particular story is simply America bashing.
Posted by: Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 23"
Americans are wonderful people, but the last few decades of US governments, that are installed by corrupt insiders, work against your interests and endanger the world.
When are you guys going to take up arms ? Again. You are one of the very few Peoples who have sufficient guns to do it.
As to the balloons, Canada (an American colony, like Europe) just got Captain Biden to shoot down a balloon over Canada.
Amazing how balloons have never, ever been seen before floating over North America.
Posted by: kupkee | Feb 11 2023 23:06 utc | 73
I think now that they have shot down the mean bad balloon, Biden should declare victory in Ukraine, put on his clown outfit and we should all go to the birthday party.
Posted by: Prickypaw | Feb 11 2023 23:10 utc | 74
And so forth...
That comes to three little balloon-decals for your F-16 nose-art, at this counting.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 11 2023 23:22 utc | 75
We have no idea what it was but we shot it down. I had to laugh! But on a serious note,the news was delivered in such a way as to link the two incidents together and thereby further develop this idea of the evil Chinese spying on us.
Posted by: Joffan | Feb 11 2023 23:26 utc | 76
Henry @ 23
The rest of the world hates the USA with a passion. Even most of the population of its vassals. The US needs to be 'bashed', preferably with a huge wave of Kinzhals. To get it to wake up to itself and start behaving like a decent international law abiding country instead of the thieving world thug that it is.
Posted by: Denise | Feb 11 2023 23:45 utc | 77
It's all a distraction from Hersh's report of the US sabotage of NordStream II. Washington will continue to find (or create) other distractions until Hersh's report is memory-holed.
Posted by: Ian2 | Feb 11 2023 23:54 utc | 78
Larf? I nearly peed myself 😂
Where’s an old lady with a jar of pickled cucumber when you need one to bring down a pesky balloon, or …
F22 is letting the whole ballon edifice down - by bringing a sharp missile to the inflatable USA.
It’s the way I tell ‘em!
Sorry, I’ll get my coat..
Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 12 2023 0:16 utc | 79
NZ calling USA, are there any adults available? Has your whole country turned into a kindergarten? Here in NZ we fly balloons at children's birthday parties and pop them with pins.
Posted by: Nick J | Feb 12 2023 0:28 utc | 81
How many balloons does it take to make ace?
... asking for a friend
Posted by: BlackC | Feb 12 2023 0:33 utc | 83
Car sized object threatening civil aviation in the busy Alaska-Siberia air corridor?
They just shot down SANTA's SLEIGH !
Posted by: Webej | Feb 12 2023 0:40 utc | 84
F22 is letting the whole ballon edifice down - by bringing a sharp missile to the inflatable USA.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 12 2023 0:16 utc | 78
---
These people...fainting at the sight of a balloon, but having no qualms about slitting the wrists of their friends while they are not looking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXoKaqqQyl4
Posted by: Nobody | Feb 12 2023 1:06 utc | 85
Posted by: Henry Jones Jr. | Feb 11 2023 18:21 utc | 23
America bashing? I’d say that a country which shoots down its own weather balloon because it’s panicking about … well about weather balloons … should be able to take a little good natured ribbing. We scrambled jet fighters to shoot down our own ballon, Henry. Just stating the facts counts as “America bashing” because the facts are damning.
If I was China I’d start handing out weather balloons to every school, community, senior citizen center and anyone who wanted one. For science. Can you imagine the sheer terror and panicked that would ripple through the strongest nation in the history of mankind (TM) if thousands of Chinese balloons were marching on the homeland?
Posted by: Lex | Feb 12 2023 1:37 utc | 87
Let us pray some giant needle may descend upon the maggot infested satanic sodom on the potomac and deflate the vast balloon of pedophiles and child traffickers who pose as 'elite' rulers.
Posted by: old coyote | Feb 12 2023 3:42 utc | 88
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that on his order a U.S. warplane shot down an unidentified object that was flying high over northern Canada, acting a day after U.S. planes took similar action over Alaska.
“I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. @NORADCommand shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.”
Posted by: Don Bacon | Feb 12 2023 4:28 utc | 89
"the object seen above Alaska, which, like the Chinese balloon last week, was shot down by an F-22 fighter jet using a Sidewinder air-to-air missile."
So theres at least 2 F-22s with balloon kills marked on them.
Posted by: GDmofo | Feb 12 2023 5:33 utc | 90
I bet the pilot gets kill credit towards Ace status.
Posted by: Stunned by bullshit | Feb 12 2023 6:02 utc | 91
Stunned by bullshit | Feb 12 2023 6:02 utc | 91
"I bet the pilot gets kill credit towards Ace status."
We don't know yet what the kill ratio will be in this incipient F-22 vs. balloon attrition theater. Given the USAF hardware deployments thus far they must be assuming severe danger. Might as well give the pilots the benefit of the doubt and start counting now. (After all it's not likely they'll ever go up against any other opponent, although it's true many municipalities are having problems with loitering flocks of Canada geese.)
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Feb 12 2023 6:47 utc | 92
I just want 99 luftballons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY
Posted by: HTG | Feb 12 2023 7:02 utc | 93
'If at first you don't succeed try try again.' Since the whole world is now laughing at the previous 'Chinese spy' ballooney fiasco missiled, burned and crashed along with whatever remained of President Poopy-Pants' credibility, they try again...
NORAD Shoots Down 'Unidentified Object'Over Yukon under PM Trudeau's Orders':
LOL...
Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 12 2023 8:24 utc | 94
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 11 2023 19:26 utc | 43
Do any other barflies hear what I hear? I hear the RoW laughing their asses off.
I haven't observed much mockery at all, to be honest. Not that the subject isn't funny, but the story as we are reading it here simply isn't out there.
The Chinese balloon made the headlines on a nearly hourly basis for two days, yet with no information at all about balloon flight and weather patterns, such as b has provided. As far as I can tell, the overall lasting impression that audiences may have registered is that the Chinese are engaging in intrusive espionage operations.
As for the recent Alaskan balloon shoot-down, it was only very briefly mentioned and the story now appears to be over. There certainly wasn't any suggestion that it could have been a NOAA weather balloon.
Posted by: robin | Feb 12 2023 8:39 utc | 95
The US Air Force used to have a policy of debunking UFOs. “It’s just a weather balloon.”
Now it has a policy of shooting down UFOs without even bothering to find out what they are first. “It might have been a weather balloon, but we shot it down out of an abundance of caution.”
I would have thought an abundance of caution would cause a sane intelligent person to not shoot something down without being certain what it is. Let’s hope that there aren’t any real space aliens, or that if there are, they’re a lot saner and more intelligent and less vindictive than the US leadership.
Posted by: Dalit | Feb 12 2023 9:32 utc | 96
Santa Claus, having become very worried about his sleigh and reindeers being shot down by Trudeau or Biden, today has filed an appeal with the United Nations, asking for international standards to be set, so that some Elmer Fudd doesn’t try to down him next Christmas Eve.
Posted by: Gerald | Feb 12 2023 9:33 utc | 97
bog standard cheap weatherballoons:
The ones I had contact with sent their data continuously after launch.
Ground based radar follows the reflector hanging below the balloon and sensor payload.
( producing drift/wind data @ height. The balloons are supposed to rise and expand on the way till the latex skin is overstretched and rips.)
Thus data for the flight should be available till it got out of range.
Posted by: Makk | Feb 12 2023 9:53 utc | 98
@robin | Feb 12 2023 8:39 utc | 95
I haven't observed much mockery at all, to be honest. Not that the subject isn't funny, but the story as we are reading it here simply isn't out there.
Top story at Zero Hedge today:
Third High-Altitude Airborne Object Shot Down By US Fighter Jet
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 12 2023 10:08 utc | 99
The comments to this entry are closed.
What's that?
Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
No...
It's #BALLOONGATE, and #BALLOONGATE 2.0...
Coming soon to a television near you, on the official nightly news!!!
Posted by: Josh | Feb 11 2023 17:01 utc | 1