Pilots Audio of Spy Balloon Shooting.

[JBP55]

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Bam Bam]

The chatter is rather unemotional, I would have figured that firing a live missile at a "hostile" target would get the blood running.

 

[machinedrummer]

Baroon is dowrn….fa rah rha rah rah rah rah…rha!!

 

[Mitch Dufour]

The chatter is rather unemotional, I would have figured that firing a live missile at a "hostile" target would get the blood running.

Hostile?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;
They have their exits and their entrances..... William S. Circa 1600

 

[Fordfella]

Hostile?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;
They have their exits and their entrances..... William S. Circa 1600

All the world’s indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers

Rush "Limelight" 1981

 

[Abby Normal]

Da Baroon shoot down waz enevreabull.

 

[machinedrummer]

Glittering prizes and endless compromises shatters the illusion of integrity..yeah

 

[Bam Bam]

Hostile?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;
They have their exits and their entrances..... William S. Circa 1600

The recording of the shoot down refers to the balloon as "Hostile" @ 7:41.

 

[Mitch Dufour]

Yeah, I caught that Bam Bam. I just don't think our gov. saw it as hostile . If so, they would have taken it out long before it traversed our sovereign territory so casually. PsyOps all sides if you ask me, hence my reference to the stage.

 

[dwhaley929]

Why did they use a missle? Those things are expensive. I'm pretty sure the plane has a gun. A really big badass gun.

 

[foz1359]

Why did they use a missle? Those things are expensive. I'm pretty sure the plane has a gun. A really big badass gun.

Perhaps because money, borrowed or otherwise, is no object.

 

[Hermit]

Why did they use a missle? Those things are expensive. I'm pretty sure the plane has a gun. A really big badass gun.

Especially since they blew the payload to smithereens.
Seems like if they shot a hole in the balloon it mightta made a controlled decent.

 

[highstandard40]

Perhaps they were trying to destroy the evidence of what they were allowing China to do.

 

[Bam Bam]

I think at the altitude it was flying (64,00 ft) the F22 was struggling to get to that altitude and a gun they would have to get closer to the target, they would definitely wanted to keep clear of the debris field. The F-22 was supersonic meaning hitting a stationary target at max altitude with a gun, aim, fire, then avoid the debris would have been impossible. Just my .02 cents!

 

[Abby Normal]

Here’s a good & detailed explanation.

 

[dwhaley929]

I think at the altitude it was flying (64,00 ft) the F22 was struggling to get to that altitude and a gun they would have to get closer to the target, they would definitely wanted to keep clear of the debris field. The F-22 was supersonic meaning hitting a stationary target at max altitude with a gun, aim, fire, then avoid the debris would have been impossible. Just my .02 cents!

I didn't think of that. You are probably correct.

 

[Bam Bam]

I didn't think of that. You are probably correct.

If I was the pilot, I would have at least sprayed a few hundred 20mm at it, you never know, you could get lucky and hit the balloon. But considering the "window" for knocking it down in territorial waters (within 12 nautical miles of shore) I doubt he would have had a second chance to make another run at it.

 

[Bam Bam]

The more I dig into this the more curious I get of why they did the things they did. For instance the F-22 fired an Aim9X missile which is a infrared homing missile at a "cold" target. Here's a quote from the article "The F-22 was moving at Mach 1.3 when it fired an AIM-9X at the balloon from roughly five miles away,". 5 miles is a good range to fire this weapon, but I'm struggling to understand completely why fire an infrared homing missile vs a radar homing type. From some reading i've been doing the X variant of the sidewinder is a new advanced design : The AIM-9X Block II missile adds a redesigned fuse and a digital ignition safety device to improve handling and in-flight safety. It's equipped with updated electronics, including a lock-on-after-launch capability using a new weapon datalink to support beyond visual range engagements. Sounds like its capable of more than they are saying so I guess that kind of explains this. Also flying at that speed (858 MPH) the pilot would only have had maybe 3 seconds to aim, fire and evade the debris. OK I guess they had a logical reason to do that then.

 

[Abby Normal]

I was thunkin the same thing. In the video I watched the Aim9x has a upgraded targeting system that can detect & lock on to differences in light. They said it can also be aimed by the pilots helmet via a data link. I’m Not Sure how true this is but it sounds good to me.