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A comment on U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Parent comment

Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by onlyrealcuzzo on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:27PM (#34660112)
What did they use to shoot it down?
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by maximinus_thrax on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:29PM (#34660133)
https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/32...

> An F-22 Raptor fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile at the balloon.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by onlyrealcuzzo on Saturday February 04, 2023 @07:56PM (#34660338)
So it probably cost >$1M to shoot it down?

How much did that balloon cost to make?

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by dragonwriter on Saturday February 04, 2023 @08:16PM (#34660507)
> So it probably cost >$1M to shoot it down?

AIM-9X looks to be around $400k, F-22 is $85k per flight hour, so, probably not.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by LarryMullins on Saturday February 04, 2023 @08:07PM (#34660440)
> So it probably cost >$1M to shoot it down?

Basically free, when you consider they were going to fly planes and shoot missiles anyway for practice.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by herewulf on Sunday February 05, 2023 @02:56AM (#34662869)
Except the military has lots of different pots of money and lots of red tape about how they're spent. No guarantees the cost of this little escapade came out of a training fund.
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by sabujp on Saturday February 04, 2023 @08:02PM (#34660386)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34660282
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by IAmGraydon on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:31PM (#34661079)
What's your point?
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by programmarchy on Saturday February 04, 2023 @10:32PM (#34661528)
Seems to be implying if it’s cheap enough then they could send 1 million balloons next time, and it’d be impractical to shoot them all down.
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by xeromal on Sunday February 05, 2023 @12:26AM (#34662215)
Sounds like a job for a c130 at that point. lol
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by ttul on Saturday February 04, 2023 @10:20PM (#34661441)
Sure. $1M for the AIM, and $100M for all the other gear and personnel involved.
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