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by npnpnp 1218 days ago
A lot of other comments have covered other aspects, and here's another one. If balloons become commonplace, I'd bet that they don't scramble the latest and greatest to shoot them down. It could probably be done with a turboprop.

The F-22 was probably used in the most popular case as a show of force.
2 comments
somat 1218 days ago
The f-22 was used because it was the on-call aircraft and the balloon was at 60+ thousand feet. the f-15 perhaps could have done the job, but the f-16 would have trouble. Apologies for the meme format but it explains it so well.

https://youtube.com/v/koEQp8ImlnI?t=649

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catketch 1218 days ago
Turboprops have a max ceiling of around 30,000 ft, while these types of balloons can easily be more than twice as high. Really not the right mission profile
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