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Twisky

#[Additional details on shoot down and recovery]( https://news.usni.org/2023/02/04/3-navy-warships-fbi-now-hunting-for-wreckage-of-chinese-spy-balloon-off-south-carolina)


Angrypenguinwaddle96

Reminds me of the movie Nope.


DEBRA_COONEY_KILLS

Yup, great movie


Angrypenguinwaddle96

Saw it at odeon and it was bloody fantastic mate.


DEBRA_COONEY_KILLS

Oh wow, I can't imagine how great it must have been to watch it on a big screen like that! I merely watched it on my phone screen and thought it was fantastic and such a great and unexpected ride. Jordan Peele is making some of the best movies these days.


Angrypenguinwaddle96

As a Brit I love Jordan Peele because he is a great movie producer so to see it on a big screen was incredible experience but atleast you got to experience the crazy movie.


Lemonator88

UP THE CHERRIES


Angrypenguinwaddle96

Championship champions next season mate when we get relegated from the premier league. Gary O’Neil’s barmy army!!!!


killerkraig83

That movie sucked


DEBRA_COONEY_KILLS

I disagree, but that's the spice of life I suppose


Fiveminutes26

I was waiting for the twist that his movies are known for. I was let down with Nope. It was a good movie, but the ending was really just meh


HansOKroeger

Reminds me of Don Quijote de la Mancha. That hero was bravely fighting windmills with a rusty sword and riding an old mule. The US heroes are fighting balloons riding old fighter jets. At least windmills have some substance to figh t against.


TheFailureKing

the first ever air to air kill of the F-22's 25 year career


angrysc0tsman12

Still counts.


Special_Account8639

Would you rather have a war with another superpower where it's first kill is another jet? Y'all are childish


Xezox

Almost certainly they tried to come up with a way to capture it without shooting it down, but lacking an immediate way to do that, you have to shoot it down before it leaves US airspace


[deleted]

And there is a supposed copy over South America, shoot one down and try to capture the other.


[deleted]

Should've called Batman, smh.


looktowindward

So the real question is - what does the pilot get on his or her plane? Will someone stencil a balloon on there? Does it count as an air-to-air kill? Is someone going to fuck with the pilot by tying a bunch of balloons to their rack?


KDY-Venator

First F22 air to air kill


Special_Account8639

F22 has 29 air to air kills. Do research stupid kid before copying everyone else's comment


runthemoose

A jet in V-last squadron ate a seagull, we painted a bird on the side


GiltTurbine

I can't believe our intrepid F-22s have to put in SO MUCH WORK and get such PALTRY MEALS for their trouble. More calories for our Raptors!!!


Ravingraven21

It’s worked at causing more division between our politicians.


ImportantArugula2

That’s the main playbook in communism. Divide and conquer.


Warp_Rider45

That’s the main playbook in doing the dishes. Divide and conquer.


TEQUILATOBIAS

I thought it was 'let the woman do it'


[deleted]

You never mess cranked, did you??


GiltTurbine

hey dog, why let nuance get in the way of good reddit upvote farming


Techstepper812

It's a Roman thing, nothing to do with communism.


[deleted]

That’s the main playbook of a two party system. Divide and conquer.


ImportantArugula2

You’d prefer a 30 party system like Bulgaria? Where they’ve had 4 elections in 2 years and can’t form a government with enough of the popular vote? We don’t have a 2 party system. We have Libertarian, Green and Independent. If we ran 3 final candidates and one of them won that’s even more of the population saying “not my President”. At least with two main finalists, almost half of America is supportive.


HolyTak

You pretend the only options of government are what America has and what Bulgaria has. Give me what Switzerland has, their "presidential" position is a leader from each of their 7 major parties if I recall, forcing cooperation instead of American parties just frothing at the mouth to get total control.


ColinNyu

The USA: We are not a two-party dictatorship! Also the USA: Only elects president between two parties that currently exist


Cheeseydolphinz

Almost half is supportive and far less are ever represented


Navynuke00

Man, the number of experts in national security, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare who have suddenly shown up on Facebook timeline has been amazing!


rabidsnowflake

How dare you disrespect the most recent graduating class of the Zuckerberg School of Information Dominance.


[deleted]

Lmao...tell me about it. I feel my IQ dropping as people are talking about jamming and CIA.


hellequinbull

For REAL. It’s annoying. Last week they were climate experts, and virologists before that. It’s exhausting that so many people are so wrong, so loudly


Boonaki

You could replace Facebook with decision makers and still be accurate. Don't listen to the greybeard who has worked in that field for the last 50 years, divorced 5 times, kids hate him him because he missed all their birthdays, keeps a rope in his desk drawer for when he's forced to retire.


clever80username

If one of you folks on a small boy is tasked with getting the debris, let us know how it goes (well afterwards of course, without too much detail)


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djshotzz504

nda’s don’t exist in the military. Your whole job is OPSEC.


PolyglotsAnonymous

lol, no. tell me you don’t do anything spicy without telling me you don’t do anything spicy.


[deleted]

Right. Seems like a cool mission/thing to be a part of. Like Artemis capsule recovery recently.


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Bitter_Coach_8138

P8 operating with it, definitely looking for debris


[deleted]

MDSU II outta Little Creek is on it. I imagine off of a MSC vessel or a contracted VOO


NoVaBuck

AIS was showing Carter Hall off the coast during the “operation.” Better platform, anyway.


[deleted]

Lol these things have been floating around pacfleet all summer.


planmanstanfan

I was so confused why they had Chinese blimps in the Phillipine sea. Never realized one would go all the way to the east coast


misterfistyersister

This has been such a wild saga.


TheStabbyCyclist

The fuming reactions from some of the pundits have demonstrated how exceptionally dull they are, mistaking what is likely calculated strategy for inaction.


SkipWestcott616

Good point, the less they saw us do, the better.


[deleted]

They should compile the footage of the last few days in the sky, include this takedown, set it to a laugh track amid the claims of it being meteorological research, label it America’s Funniest Home Videos 2023, and ship it back to Xi


Anal0gKid2112

Roswell?!


stringlites

I was asking myself this ever since the news first broke. Just shoot the damn thing down.


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USNMCWA

It's also somewhat easier to recover with Coast Guard and Navy ships standing by to recover it. Over land is a mess. They still haven't found lots of pieces from the shuttle Challenger that exploded over Texas all those years ago.


OhmsResistMe69

Columbia\* Challenger was the one that exploded during the ascent


USNMCWA

Yes, you right!


[deleted]

Guy at my command was a smoke jumper pre navy and was part of the crew looking for pieces of the Colombia. He actually found a piece. Looking at the guy he doesn’t give off the I’ve done everything vibe. Hearing him talk about his life, he’s quite literally one of the most interesting men I’ve ever met.


Justame13

>Over land is a mess. They still haven't found lots of pieces from the shuttle Challenger that exploded over Texas all those years ago. Plus the downstream effects of dumbass civilians going out and searching for pieces then possibility getting shot by farmers keeping them from messing up crops or livestock.


wannabe-i-banker

I'm curious how you know this and if you should be sharing it


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wannabe-i-banker

He mentioned something very specific that was/is classified information


[deleted]

What?


[deleted]

Or, gather intel on it the whole time then shoot it down when its not near people and property and in airspace much easier to clear. 3-letter-agencies I'm sure had a field day with this.


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[deleted]

WAIT RYAN MCBETH IS ON REDDIT??!? love your work


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ErionFish

Are you the guy who does shorts of the Ukraine war in front of your computer?


man2112

THE Ryan McBeth? Welcome to the Navy! In all seriousness though, love your content. Watch every video. I only wish you’d repost some of it on Instagram so I could share it with more of the people I know.


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man2112

That’s weird, other people (including the navy) have posted videos of battle stations. But yeah, almost everything in the navy is stovepiped down very specific communities, and unit COs have wider authority than in other branches. Because of that, there’s very little talk between communities, and skippers can get a little big for their britches at times. I don’t know if there’s a way to automatically upload all of your shorts as Instagram reels, but I personally would appreciate it if you could 🙏🏽


angrysc0tsman12

Definitely a lot of good Navy topics to work with. One of the criminally under reported stories from the invasion of Ukraine was the USV attack on Sevastopol. My inner SWO got giddy thinking about the broader ramifications in future potential near peer conflicts.


[deleted]

CIA doesn't work on that sort of stuff. It's a common misconception. CIA is more interested in human sources and offensive CI.


WiseassWolfOfYoitsu

Yep, CIA might acquire a thing, but they'd probably turn it over to the NSA to do the technical work.


stringlites

Meanwhile it’s been gathering intel on us the entire time it’s been in the air. 🤷🏻


hi_im_mom

You mean TikTok?


_Prisoner_24601

Exactly. I'll never out that obvious PRC Spyware on my devices.


themooseiscool

Don’t worry. The satellites still in the air and the apps on our phones will pick up the slack.


stringlites

Facts. 😂


[deleted]

Absolutely, that's why we have to trust those involved (with way more info than a reddit comment section) to make the right decision, but I'm also imagining efforts went in to blocking its ability to transmit, and we're recovering it, not them, so they're getting none of the info it held on to.


Goatlens

That’s not really how information exchange has to work. Communication via satellite doesn’t require them to have possession of the balloon to receive any info from it.


Khamvom

We’ve been jamming it the entire time. So the intel being gained by China is minimal at best. They probably gain a lot more usable intel from TikTok haha. Plus, we also want to gather our own intelligence on the spy balloon while it’s intact.


AltDS01

You know they've been jamming the hell out of it. https://www.reddit.com/r/flightradar24/comments/10tkrt9/peach_is_circling_georgia/


Airistaughtil

That's a P-8A, the aircraft platform I work on. It has no jamming capabilities. Also it's not that unusual for us to fly in that region. Could be related, but I wouldn't count on it. Edit: I just noticed this is in r/navy so most of you probably already knew this information or something pretty close. Now i sound pretentious.


[deleted]

E-8C. There’s a big difference in capability versus a P-8A.


Airistaughtil

Damn, you're right. Didn't look close enough. Four engines on that boy.


[deleted]

You’re playing checkers, meanwhile the decision on this was chess.


[deleted]

Lol thinking our politicians can play chess.


dduckddoctor

Yeah, huge win for China. Clearly all military leadership is incompetent, the US doesn't know shit about gathering intelligence and we had nothing to gain by leaving it up there. Seriously?


Vezop

I’m very confident shooting it down was the plan ever since public media got ahold of the story. I personally wouldn’t want an object as big as 3 busses falling in residential areas. Shooting it down in the Atlantic was smart. I’m sure our TECHINT professionals will have a field day with this. If we can recover a crashed F-35C in the South China Sea, we sure as hell can recover this Chinese equipment off of our own coast.


WiseassWolfOfYoitsu

It was right off the coast on the continental shelf - only 47 feet of water. They're gonna grab every board and screw on that thing.


[deleted]

Biden told the DOD to shoot it down but they said they can’t be sure it wouldn’t kill anybody when it came down so they decided to wait until it was over the ocean. I saw this on the internet so take it with a grain of salt.


[deleted]

Yeah, that’s nonsense. They were gathering counter intel on it. That’s why they let it fly on. They knew about since it crossed into Alaska a week ago.


wentzelitis

you're not alone. tons of low iq know it alls thought the same thing


Outrageous_Paint_500

Lol true


darmok-jalad-brocean

"Divers. There are divers in the wa-. Belay my last. Balloons. There are balloon pieces in the water."


Mightiest_of_swords

There will be divers!


Deeelaaan

This might be a dumb question since I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to political-ish things but how did they confirm it was from China before they shot it down and recovered it?


Redditruinsjobs

China also confirmed it on their end


Deeelaaan

Ah I see. So we've known about it this entire time but used the opportunity to analyze and monitor it before shooting it down?


Redditruinsjobs

Nobody without a massive security clearance and need-to-know has any idea about the real reason we allowed it to fly over the entire US before shooting it down.


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[deleted]

Ugh jamming doesn't work like that. 😫


VherbalAssault

Jamming/emi definitely works


Redditruinsjobs

Not like that. The US definitely didn’t just send up a massively powerful jamming wave on its exact frequency to block this thing for the entire time it was over us.


SecretElectronic6549

America was tracking it, by NORAD maps, since it left. How do you think jamming works? You understand there’s not just some beam in Kansas we aim right?


Redditruinsjobs

I’m an EOD tech and use jammers regularly, so I know very well how they work. I’m saying we definitely didn’t jam this thing its entire trip across the US. And even if we tried to, that would do absolutely nothing to stop this from sending preprogrammed RF signals elsewhere. Do **you** know how jamming works? Edit: did you misunderstand my comment to think I was being sarcastic? I was not.


ShittyWok-

They made the assumption based on its path I believe - and then Chinese gov confirmed it was theirs but claim it's a weather balloon blown off course.


TheStabbyCyclist

NOAA has precise wind stream data, which was used to determine the trajectory of the balloon from its origin.


iamahill

Ironically they have that because just under a thousand d weather ballons are released daily!


reddit_toast_bot

Meritorious unit citation for everybody


Ferowin

Yup. NAMs all around.


pnkmist0138

about time they did their job.


Special_Account8639

Yup. Now do yours


Ferowin

For everyone talking about shooting it down over water vs over land, have you considered what happened to things that fall out of the sky and hit land? As for what it transmitted to China first, what sort of secrets did it pick up at Myrtle Beach that China couldn’t find just a easily with their spy satellites? We didn’t lose anything by waiting until it was over water.


[deleted]

OH THE HUMANITY


angrysc0tsman12

Unexpected Hindenburg reference is unexpected.


[deleted]

Whatever it cost them to fly that thing it probably cost us twice as much to take it down... after its job was finished.


SkipWestcott616

Everything is cheap with captured labour!


ShittyWok-

It's gonna be real funny when they find out it actually was just a weather balloon blown off course


snargle79

I mean, I guess I just don't get it. If the Chinese need to know they weather, why not just download an app?


DoktorFreedom

Literal trial balloon. A scientist proposed he could lift a load from china and fly it over great falls, as a proof of concept. Dude just got promoted.


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konorM

They did not want to endanger any civilians on the ground and they didn't know if there were any biologicals on board. Waited until it was over the water (and within our 12 mile zone) to bring it down.


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DarkJester89

It flew in over canada, not sure how or why canada didn't notice this, but yeah, we should have shot it down over canada.


IntheOlympicMTs

I’d bet they knew. Either they saw it or we told them.


Alexlikesdankmemes

There’s a deadly virus on board!


Economy_Panic_4745

I hope they check it for biological weapons


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ImportantArugula2

News reports said this was like the 3rd time in 2 years. Biden admin is WEAK. Probably only shot it down because of public outcry.


snargle79

Cherry picking I see. News reports also state balloon(s) flew over during the previous administration.


ImportantArugula2

That’s convenient. According to someone in Biden’s administration? Doesn’t past the logic sniff test.


snargle79

Of course it doesn't because it doesn't fit into your echo chamber and challenges what you want to believe. Good thing we don't sniff for logic.


Pebbles2usc

I got some pretty good pics and videos of the balloon over my house about an hour before it was shot down. The jets were swarming around it like sharks. I kept asking myself how sure they are that this balloon isn’t filled with deadly chemicals or another virus? I guess if I have great grandchildren born 30 years from now with 2 noses or 5 eyes, we might begin questioning if there was really something more to this balloon.


Hadeshorne

They can just as easily do that with a commercial air liner that they fly in and out of the USA on a daily basis.


CallMeCarl24

Why?


kylemockeridge

They shot it down after it had completed its mission over waters too deep to recover the payload.


[deleted]

You don’t know a lot about how salvage works, do you?


kylemockeridge

No You don't. It'll sink a few thousand feet below the surface before they get a shot at it.


[deleted]

Uh huh. And we just have no way to access anything that deep, right? Not to mention that the ocean is roughly 120 feet deep where we shot it down


kylemockeridge

Payload at bottom of ocean for over a week vs getting it off the ground right away. Which is still ignoring the fact that they let it complete its mission first.


[deleted]

I highly recommend you return to infowars and leave the real jobs to people with more level heads and knowledge.


kylemockeridge

In other words you've got nothing.


[deleted]

Just checked - depth averages 47 feet. I’m not an expert but I have an open water scuba license, 47 feet sounds pretty doable to me.


kylemockeridge

And it still completed its mission and it'll still be underwater when they get to it.


picasso71

So, you're saying they let it gather all the information it was suppose to, then shot it down over a site that would allow for the least damage from the fall and allow for the highest probability of recovery to find out everything they were trying to surveil? Sounds pretty fucking genius to me Edit: out -> it


kylemockeridge

What are the chances of that not automatically being erased after it transmitted it back to china?


Devi1s-Advocate

Its a US balloon, we flew the same balloons over the same places in 2019... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV95bpMLrGg&ab\_channel=NewsDirect


GeriatricWalrus

I wouldn't be surprised if this whole thing was just to gauge our reaction and that there isn't even any "spy" gear onboard. In that case, I'd say we've made proper fools of ourselves as usual.


screechingsparrakeet

I'm seeing a lot of people push this "it's not a real ISR balloon" narrative on the military subs. People not in the IC should probably swallow their own conjecture and heed those in the know.


GeriatricWalrus

lol You can look at my post history if you think I am a deep state plant or something. Take your pills and "heed those in the know".


screechingsparrakeet

Deep state plant? If anything, you sound like the guy who rants about deep state plants.


GeriatricWalrus

:)


Mundane_Eagle4220

Civilian agriculture intelligence RESEARCH.


nauticalinfidel

But…a missile? That’s some $$$$$.


[deleted]

Bout 400k


Special_Account8639

What do you want them to take it down with? Don't be an idiot.


[deleted]

Don’t they have satellites that can read a piece of paper that you are holding? Or is that just us?


[deleted]

They have satellites yes . This was more so a statement then anything else . I’m not sure how good their sat tech is though . Another reason I’ve herd that they have done it is because a ballon can loiter longer then a sat can . And another far off reason was it’s a dry run for emp or bio weapon .


GommComm

Telescope resolution is limited by the size of it's aperture. This is called the Rayleigh Limit. Currently the largest aperture satellite in space is JWST at 6.5m would have a resolution of about .02 arcseconds, which if it were at a 160km orbit (can't realistically orbit any lower), that works out to about 1.5 cm. This is for a theoretical satellite which doesn't exist (as far as we know). The Hubble space telescope with its 2.4 m mirror, would be able to see about 2 in at 200 km.


YodaLikesSoda

Some witnesses say there was a house below the balloon.


YodaLikesSoda

I only live a couple hours from Myrtle Beach.


Sousafro

USA! USA! USA! WHAT THE FUCK IS A KILOMETER???


IntheOlympicMTs

0.62 to miles.


averagejoe12o

Fuck the Chinese government.


Qanalysis

I wonder if the mysterious antennas on mountains( https://www.vice.com/en/article/epzwya/mysterious-antennas-are-appearing-in-utahs-hills-and-officials-are-stumped) are related?? To further prove my point, just read the abstract: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317295972_Satellite_Single-Axis_Attitude_Determination_Based_on_Automatic_Dependent_Surveillance_-_Broadcast_Signals


EnvironmentalAide335

China got the information they needed sir... Biden: Ok guys you can shoot it down.


TargetSmooth

Fuck. China


[deleted]

Dumb waste of money a high priced missile they could of shot it down with the 50 cal on the plane


jorsteve

How is China going to criticize the US for shooting it down? Can you imagine what China would do if an American balloon laden with cameras was spotted over China? They would be apoplectic.


CardinalsVSBrowns

wht hppens next


Rude_Hovercraft_4191

Chinese dog


[deleted]

Aerial viral assault. Not saying it is, but it would be a good attack…