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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 pixl97 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:41PM (#34661154)
The US has done tons of research on high energy lasers to the point we had weapons that could target ICBMs. Now for anti-missile they weren't terribly practical, but for a large slow ballon its possible they could be. I've not found any research on lazing balloons, but I guess it exists out there somewhere.
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by dividedbyzero on Sunday February 05, 2023 @05:27AM (#34663648)
How do quickly can those lasers be repositioned and fire? Couldn't China just launch a ton of these from many locations and let those disperse further, and make them extremely reflective in the relevant wavelengths? Also, not sure if a few small-ish holes would actually bring one of these down, they don't have a big pressure differential at altitude.
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