Summing up the reactions by Murican politicians, news media agencies and netizens today:
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Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
My personal theory is that probably some desperate grad student at Sichuan University needed something impressive for his end of term project.
This is a democracy judgement. USA bless Philippine!
escobar
Brigadier
What you can collect at 30 km altitude with near zero relative velocity to the ground is distinctly different than what you get at 500 km and 7 km/s with only minutes over target: Much better valuable data for Electronic signature collection. Closer proximity gets better performance from sensors and can offer persistence measured in months. 80k feet air baloon is basically a temporary satellite
Probing for military posture and response is what PLA is doing with this thing. No response from US sets a new normal. US don’t want to shoot it down most likely because China could reciprocate by shooting down USAF spy drones flying near or "into" PRC airspace
New level of “Salami slicing”...
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Why did BBM come to beg for money from China than his daddy USA? Cancel investment projects, reduce trade, and reinforce the defences in the parts of SCS claimed by Phillipines. Hope his masters in DC will reimburse the costs of being a slave.
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"
Imagine if a balloon makes the Democrats lose the 2024 elections.
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My understanding so far is it's actually quite a tricky target to engage. It's flying so high that even if F-22 climb to its ceiling and release an AIM-120 the balloon is at just about the edge of the missile's capability.
It would be hilarious if under all that pressure Biden ends up ordering for it to be shot down, and they have to launch a THAAD interceptor to take it out.
If would be extra hilarious if AIM-120 or THAAD is used and misses, as I doubt that's the sort of target they were designed to engage.