Megadeath
Well-known member
Hell of a lot easier to recover anything meaningful if it lands in water than if it impacts the ground. They didnt exactly shoot it down over the Marianas trench.
Breaking News US tracking suspected Chinese surveillance balloon
- Thread starter Robovski
- Start date
God damn it Megadeath now I owe Bear Ribs 5 dollars,
That is 5 dollars I am not getting back I hope your happy with yourself.
Megadeath
Well-known member
Honestly, kinda. Care to share your little wager?
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
Not from me? My position is it's nothing but a stunt to give biden a boost and keep America's puppet theatre going. The fact that drumph is coincidentally tied to it is as predictable as usual for the illegitimate tyrants in charge.
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
Yeah, electronics that have been soaked for days in salt water after being hit with a missile are always in so much better condition than ones that lay on the ground outside for a few hours.
Megadeath
Well-known member
That's a blatantly disingenuous comparison. "lay on the ground outside for a few hours"? Yeah, that bit would be fine. They'd do less well with the bit where they slam into the ground from 60,000ft. Should also be noted that the electronics weren't hit with a missile. The balloon was. If the electronics had been hit by a missile though then that would also apply regardless of where they ended up. And in order to operate in the extreme conditions they do, the important parts are going to be protected to some degree against moisture and other environmental factors. Not protected against lithobraking though.
EDIT; And, since @Cherico has gone quiet, maybe you would like to share how you've earned five bucks off him?
Bear Ribs
Well-known member
No, you're the one being blatantly disingenuous. The effects of slamming into water at terminal velocity are pretty much the same as hitting dirt once you get up to that speed. Water only provides protection from fall damage at that kind of height if you're playing Minecraft.
OTOH, salt water utterly ruining electronics will happen no matter the height of the fall has enough aerobraking to land softly, in which case it will also land softly on the ground. Of course that also presumes the object managed to take not a scratch from a missile exploding a dozen or so feet away from it, if it did then saltwater is still a guaranteed big honkin' mass of corrosion while a ground landing isn't.
If reports are correct, they even disobeyed Biden telling them to shoot down this one.
I don't like Biden, but the military needs to listen to the Commander in Chief.
Our military has gone rogue.
In a lot of ways it has, that's for sure.
This thing should have been shot down over the Aluetians or Bering Sea, if they wanted to keep debris off land, not Myrtle Beach.
The president has the right to fire any officer at will
Megadeath
Well-known member
🤨 At what point does not sharing information become treason? There are all sorts of inconsequential details that never get bought to the presidents attention because they're (theoretically) dealing with more important things and the bigger picture. In trumps case specifically, there was also plenty they did tell him that went in one ear and out the other because it didn't fit his preconceived narrative, or involve him directly enough.
Given that the general consensus is that such balloon's don't really offer any practical improvement to China's intelligence gathering, and SOP seems to be ignoring them like you would a child waving his hand in your face whilst repeating "Not touching you!" why would they or should they have told him? My understanding is it only got bought up this time because the public noticed and made a big deal of it.
DarthOne
☦️
If the Mattis story is true, then I’m pretty sure he committed treason. Which means the USA is at least partly under the command of a military junta.
Which also means we need to break out the firing squads for these people.
Megadeath
Well-known member
prinCZess
Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
I mean, there is the possibility of previous balloons being weather-collection systems (even the same lingering possibility, if seemingly remote, that this latest one was).
So perhaps the ass-covering being done by this administration is pointing at previous weather balloons more solidly-known as weather balloons because it makes them look less incompetent for allowing the latest balloon to float around for so long (whether it was a spy-balloon or even a weather one itself). And that ass-covering information-manipulation is probably the preferable hypothetical as compared to 'America's military in charge of observing domestic radar and flight-paths just assumed prior balloons weren't anything to be concerned about' which makes them sound incompetent or the still-worse 'elements of America's military covered it up' which makes them sound either like a junta keeping information away from civilian commanders (which happened on other things so uhhh...) or outright Chicom plants/patsies (which ALSO happened on other things with Milley's famous 'I'll totally call you and warn you if we're going to attack' statement).
...None of this exactly eases the mind since even in the best-case interpretation you're deliberately ignoring bits of...circumstantial evidence that sure make it look worse.
(and this is all ignroing the inconvenient fact that prior balloons weren't spotted by anyone, whereas this one was pretty quickly after entering even the little-populated state of Montana...so it only got through the even LESS populated Alaska/Canada corridor without raising ruckus. Other balloons presumably shoudl have been spotted as well)
So perhaps the ass-covering being done by this administration is pointing at previous weather balloons more solidly-known as weather balloons because it makes them look less incompetent for allowing the latest balloon to float around for so long (whether it was a spy-balloon or even a weather one itself). And that ass-covering information-manipulation is probably the preferable hypothetical as compared to 'America's military in charge of observing domestic radar and flight-paths just assumed prior balloons weren't anything to be concerned about' which makes them sound incompetent or the still-worse 'elements of America's military covered it up' which makes them sound either like a junta keeping information away from civilian commanders (which happened on other things so uhhh...) or outright Chicom plants/patsies (which ALSO happened on other things with Milley's famous 'I'll totally call you and warn you if we're going to attack' statement).
...None of this exactly eases the mind since even in the best-case interpretation you're deliberately ignoring bits of...circumstantial evidence that sure make it look worse.
(and this is all ignroing the inconvenient fact that prior balloons weren't spotted by anyone, whereas this one was pretty quickly after entering even the little-populated state of Montana...so it only got through the even LESS populated Alaska/Canada corridor without raising ruckus. Other balloons presumably shoudl have been spotted as well)
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
It is possible previous balloons were smaller ones so they weren't spotted by people, thus military could pretend they don't exist, while this one was big enough to be spotted by people on the ground and thereby couldn't be ignored. Keeping up appearances is important.