U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon

Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by idlewords on Saturday February 04, 2023 @10:49PM (#34661631)

The precursor to a strategic balloon arms race that it chills the blood to contemplate. All it takes is one push of the button and, 14 days later, death comes drifting in from above.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by sitkack on Sunday February 05, 2023 @12:21AM (#34662187)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4UFQWKjy_I

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by throwaway313313 on Sunday February 05, 2023 @08:41AM (#34664802)

I know it's a joke and I laughed, however now consider that large balloons are very cheap compared to anything that can reach 60,000 feet, or even a single TOW anti-tank missile provided to Ukraine.

Now imagine having to deal with 10 million balloons launched at the same time with various capabilities.

Imagine 9 million decoy balloons, 900,000 cheap instrumented balloons, 100,000 weaponized balloons. Mix in some differing sizes. Go nuts with it.

Good luck defending.

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