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by AlbertCory 1221 days ago
I'm not a radar expert, but maybe someone who is can enlighten us?

They can detect an incoming missile, so I don't see the problem. Maybe the one today IS a lot smaller; I don't think we're getting a whole lot of details on that.

As for the money: definitely. The same would be true of drones.
2 comments
dylan604 1221 days ago
From someone that has done a much smaller balloon launch, it's not the balloon that gets detected as much as the payload. Our civilian weather balloon launch had a metallic reflector in line specifically to make it more visible on radar. The images I've seen of the payload under the large balloon from last week didn't look all that stealthy in shape, but I have no idea what it was made from? If it was made of plastic, would that reflect radar?
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JohnBooty 1221 days ago
The USAF (and any functional air force) has lots of flight time budgeted for its pilots: for training, patrols, etc.

Active duty pilots must fly X number of hours per month to maintain their fight status. Essentially, they practice like athletes (because they are literally athletes, among other things)

So intercepts like these, and even silly stuff like sports event flyovers, come out of their existing budgets.

To actually cost us money in some meaningful way they'd have to send over extremely large quantities of drones that absolutely blow out the existing budgets for our bases.

The missiles are expensive, of course: $400K a pop for those AIM-9X. But the budget for the USAF is ~$160B/year, so again, drop in the bucket.

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petre 1221 days ago
If they do that, the USAF/US Army missile defense is going to zap their pesky baloons with lasers or regular ammunition.

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/12/07/us-army-laser-stry...

So far they're offering good sport for the USAF. I'm glad they decided to take action and shoot'em down instead of letting them pass undisturbed through US airspace. This should send a clear message to uncle Xi to keep his lantern festival at home.

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JohnBooty 1220 days ago 

    lasers or regular ammunition.
Bullets (technically, cannon fire) may not work as well as one would hope: https://eurasiantimes.com/1000-rounds-fired-why-canada-could...
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