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2023-02-07 Science & Technology
The F-22's first air-to-air kill (and dispelling balloon myths)
[YouTube] On Saturday, an American F-22 Raptor shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina using an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. In the days leading up to the intercept, the balloon had traversed the U.S. mainland and portions of Canada, leaving a flood of conspiracy theories in its wake.

Let's talk facts and dispel some of these myths and misconceptions.
Posted by DarthVader 2023-02-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11132 views ]  Top

#1 NORAD detected Chinese spy flight before it reached US, but 'could not' take action, general says
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-07 05:19||   2023-02-07 05:19|| Front Page Top

#2 F-22 is pictured heading to kill Chinese balloon as it's revealed U2 spy planes tracked the craft and two more sites in Virginia and California were previously spied on... but Pentagon dismissed balloons as UFOs
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-07 05:29||   2023-02-07 05:29|| Front Page Top

#3 The AIM 9-X Sidewinder missile that was used to shoot down the Chinese balloon costs taxpayers $427,000.

So much for guns. Wasn't one available given the time everyone had tracking the thing to the Atlantic?
Posted by Procopius2k 2023-02-07 06:34||   2023-02-07 06:34|| Front Page Top

#4 The USAF A-22 maximum operational ceiling just above 50,000 feet (9.4 miles), the operational range of an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile is 0.6 to 22 mile, and the balloon was said to be at about 70K Ft. (13.2 miles).

Would make it an interested kill and begs the question of why not done sooner?



Posted by NN2N1 2023-02-07 07:17||   2023-02-07 07:17|| Front Page Top

#5 /\ Contracting delay. Took time for Raytheon to send out a AIM-9 w/o a warhead ?

Balloon MOD to existing contract. New price: $17,427,000. (Biden Crime Family cost imbedded)

No Charge for JIT delivery.

Posted by Besoeker 2023-02-07 07:22||   2023-02-07 07:22|| Front Page Top

#6 The AIM 9-X Sidewinder missile that was used to shoot down the Chinese balloon costs taxpayers $427,000.
So much for guns.

This has been explained in the video and other places. Guns have been used. The Canadians used guns to try to shoot down a rogue weather balloon. After 200 hits and 1000 rounds later, it kept going. Plus it is possible the payload would have been hit. So the Air Force used an inert missile to rip the bottom of the balloon off and save what they could of the payload for examination. There actually was a method to the madness.
Posted by DarthVader 2023-02-07 08:06||   2023-02-07 08:06|| Front Page Top

#7 ^ Yeah, I'm a little surprised nobody chimed in with "muh A-10..."
Posted by M. Murcek 2023-02-07 08:13||   2023-02-07 08:13|| Front Page Top

#8 
begs the question of why not done sooner?
Your question "begs the question" of failed attempts by US air defense in the days before the balloon was downed -- attempts that failed and have not been disclosed outside of the military. The message that the high command to Biden that downing the balloon was impossible could have been based on their very recent experience.
Posted by Gromble Dribble4342 2023-02-07 08:37||   2023-02-07 08:37|| Front Page Top

#9  There has been no discussion online that the US once had missile armed equivalents of the Blackbird that were operational at Mach 3 and 80,000 feet, which did succeed in launching AIM-type air-to-air missiles at high altitudes.
Posted by Gromble Dribble4342 2023-02-07 08:40||   2023-02-07 08:40|| Front Page Top

#10 All according to the incredibly clever Biden plan to capture the balloon for its intelligence secrets!

YJCMTSU
Posted by Bobby 2023-02-07 08:46||   2023-02-07 08:46|| Front Page Top

#11 ^ There is no sense in capturing the balloon for its intelligence secrets until it obtains some intelligence secrets. That is why Brandon let if drift across the entire continental United States.
Posted by SteveS 2023-02-07 09:07||   2023-02-07 09:07|| Front Page Top

#12 Yeah, I'm a little surprised nobody chimed in with "muh A-10...

It can only go 45,000 feet up and I would pay money to see it rip on that balloon though
Posted by DarthVader 2023-02-07 09:55||   2023-02-07 09:55|| Front Page Top

#13 The "Balloon Intercept Gap"!

I smell a new boondoggle from the MIC arising.
Posted by Procopius2k 2023-02-07 10:17||   2023-02-07 10:17|| Front Page Top

#14 Yeah, I'm a little surprised nobody chimed in with "muh A-10...

It can only go 45,000 feet up and I would pay money to see it rip on that balloon though

AGM-65

Can also mount AIM-9
Posted by swksvolFF 2023-02-07 11:29||   2023-02-07 11:29|| Front Page Top

#15 The speculation that the balloon was missed by radar in the path it took was either unrealistic or worrisome.
Posted by Super Hose 2023-02-07 12:05||   2023-02-07 12:05|| Front Page Top

#16 ...RE: the gun...

The M61 Vulcan is on the -22 because 50+ years ago, it wasn't on the F-4. The Fighter community swore then that they were never going to war again without a gun, and by God and Robin Olds, they've stuck to it...even though that in terms of modern air-to-air combat, if you find yourself in a situation that your best/only option against an enemy aircraft is the gun, you have seriously screwed up. (The F-35 has a larger caliber gun, but since in theory it will be used as a CAS bird, that makes sense.)

Hitting a stationary target like the balloon sounds like it should be simple, but at that altitude, it's far from easy. They wanted to keep the balloon as intact as possible, and the solution - using the -9X with an inert warhead to literally harpoon the damn thing - worked beautifully.


Mike
Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-02-07 13:31||   2023-02-07 13:31|| Front Page Top

#17 why not done sooner?

Perhaps a soft payload landing in a technically challenging deep water trench was a goal.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-07 16:22||   2023-02-07 16:22|| Front Page Top

08:52 Matt
08:38 Gleng Whaick2262
08:35 Gleng Whaick2262
08:35 Gleng Whaick2262
08:33 Gleng Whaick2262
08:32 Gleng Whaick2262
08:31 Gleng Whaick2262
08:28 Gleng Whaick2262
08:24 Matt
08:20 SteveS
07:43 Procopius2k
07:42 BrerRabbit
07:42 Procopius2k
07:39 Procopius2k
07:36 Procopius2k
07:35 Procopius2k
07:34 trailing wife
07:31 Procopius2k
07:30 NN2N1
07:22 NN2N1
07:18 trailing wife
07:14 Richard Aubrey
07:10 NN2N1
07:09 Besoeker









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