Miscellaneous News

jwnz

Junior Member
Registered Member
I figured it would be a weather balloon from the start and didn't think it will errm.... balloon to an incident of this size, but I think I agree it's actually a big shock to the yanks because regardless of what they are saying, it's demonstrating that their homeland isn't safe. Worse still they didn't have any indication this was possible and who knows what other tricks CPC got up its sleeve.

People on weibo have found photos of similar solar panel equipped large balloons:
View attachment 106530
It apparently has 3 tons of payload!
So is it a weather balloon or spy?
 

supercat

Colonel
War is Peace.
Ignorance is Strength.
Research balloon is Spy balloon.

Why it's probably not a spy balloon:

Good question, maybe the U.S. MSM want to distract its readers from some other bad news, such as an impending disaster in Ukraine?

Our propaganda vs theirs:

Many U.S. policymakers are ignorant morons.

Modi supporters now blame China for BBC's Modi documentary.
 

Atomicfrog

Major
Registered Member
This whole thing is so funny! Haha! Haha!

Okay, this I google search engine right now.


What is coulrophobia? Coulrophobia (COOl-ruh-FOE-bee-uh) is a fear (phobia) of clowns. Children and adults who fear clowns may experience extreme, irrational reactions when they see clowns in person or view pictures or videos of clowns.


That is what this whole episode is about.

When confronted with a toy balloon, we find out that the Americans are afraid of clowns.

Did not see that one coming, lol, lol, lol,

Haha! Hehe! Hee Haw!

:D:p
You can add globophobia, globophobia is an extreme, overwhelming and irrational fear of balloons.
 

ACuriousPLAFan

Brigadier
Registered Member
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
I thought the excuse "could cause damage on the ground" was pretty flimsy given it was over Montana. Perhaps the US is just not capable of shooting down this balloon.

To combat this sort of target the Soviet Union actually went to the trouble of designing a dedicated high altitude anti-aerostat interceptor called M-55 Geophysics. It ended up not been used for that role but it shows engaging this sort of target is not a trivial task.

1351115776_m55-1.jpg

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Imagine USAF decide to go for it and they fire several AIM-120 or THAAD and miss? They'll be the laughing stock of the world.
Didn't the US still have U-2 spy planes in active service with a service celling of 80 thousand feet? Should be able to handle it if the plane can carry machine guns onboard.
 

pmc

Colonel
Registered Member
Even by your standards that's a bad take. America isn't sacrificing itself to save Europe, the opposite is happening. When America tells a Dutch semiconductor company to stop exporting to China how does it help them? Sanctions affect resource deprived Europe far more than the affect America.
how exactly this Dutch loss?. new Fabs are coming in US/Europe/Japan/Korea. some of the auto production will shift from those countries to other parts of the world like India or Mexico that will free up more labor over time. The advantage of this approach is that countries like South Korea has now largest trade surplus with countries like Vietnam. high tech will be kept in Global North while medium tech will be shifted to global south.
It's most apparent in the military industry, where Europeans are voluntarily disarming themselves of their European made weapons
European made weopons are too expensive and not standardized so its better to disarm now than endlessly wasting money on maintaining them long term. US can hire practically any immigrant to run the show in military.
. Rearming is going to be difficult - most of the European military industry has disappeared or is very uncompetitive compared to the American MIC. It will just be cheaper to just buy ready to go American platforms instead of developing their own after two decades of stagnation.
thats the point buy American weopons and let Europeans make other industrial products. Germany has tremendous labor shortage in key areas. it is not like they have extra people sitting around waiting for government contracts to make weopons.
A graph showing VW has no bearing on the point you are making, it's like you've merged two seperate wrong posts into one. It's also wrong.
this is the correct graph and very relevant to the point i am making.
The reason German cars are (were) popular in China is because they are good compared to the domestic alternative. Once domestic cars improve in quality, all those VW sales will disappear.
It should have been strategic decision of Chinese government not enrich Germans. Car is discretionary spending. They could have encouraged Japanese or Korean cars if domestic alternative not available. Japan or Korea can never become a threat unless they are backed up by Europe.
This isn't even conjecture, it's exactly what happened in Japan. In the 60s everyone in Japan drove American cars, how many American cars do you see on Japanese roads today?
Japan can refuse to buy American cars. but if same Japan made part of EU than let see how much of Japan auto industry left or for that matter anything else. Germany is much more ideological and Globalist than any one else. Just look at German President and Chancellor international visits. they are much more than any Japanese or American leader per year. Infact German President and Chancellor both visited Japan same year. that by itself unique. Germany know how to slap down countries inside EU. (they already tought lesson to UK for leaving EU). Germany will move globe against you.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
“We have proven this with reports and documents and gave them to NATO. NATO saw the truth,” Cavusoglu said. “Our expectation from France at the moment is for it to apologize in a clear fashion, without ifs or buts, for not providing the correct information.”
 

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
I thought the excuse "could cause damage on the ground" was pretty flimsy given it was over Montana. Perhaps the US is just not capable of shooting down this balloon.

To combat this sort of target the Soviet Union actually went to the trouble of designing a dedicated high altitude anti-aerostat interceptor called M-55 Geophysics. It ended up not been used for that role but it shows engaging this sort of target is not a trivial task.

1351115776_m55-1.jpg

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Imagine USAF decide to go for it and they fire several AIM-120 or THAAD and miss? They'll be the laughing stock of the world.

So I guess Yankeesama is right about PL-10 being a better missile than he thought then.
 

Faithfreedom

Just Hatched
Registered Member
Post only news articles in this thread. No discussion. You may express your opinion over the article you post only. Find another forum for political discussion.

bd popeye super moderator

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Old news, this happened years ago.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
I thought the excuse "could cause damage on the ground" was pretty flimsy given it was over Montana. Perhaps the US is just not capable of shooting down this balloon.

To combat this sort of target the Soviet Union actually went to the trouble of designing a dedicated high altitude anti-aerostat interceptor called M-55 Geophysics. It ended up not been used for that role but it shows engaging this sort of target is not a trivial task.

1351115776_m55-1.jpg

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Imagine USAF decide to go for it and they fire several AIM-120 or THAAD and miss? They'll be the laughing stock of the world.
THAAD is an Army weapon. It doesn't have a warhead, just uses kinetic energy against incoming missiles. Useless against balloon.
 
Top