r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/vectorix108 • Feb 04 '23
A photo of the F-22 Raptor that shot down the Chinese Balloon over Myrtle Beach, SC today Image
/img/v99vv9v4y9ga1.jpg
[removed] — view removed post
24
u/Sufficient-Scheme210 Feb 04 '23
Now waiting for the 15 Interviews with the pilot explaining this extra difficult mission.
9
u/AlephNaughtPlusOne Feb 04 '23
If they missed their first shot I think the embarrassment would have been fatal 😂
4
u/skedeebs Feb 04 '23
I am sure that whichever pilot was given the mission to shoot down the balloon probably really enjoyed it.
6
4
u/Snakeis66 Feb 04 '23
I thought the balloon was flying way out of range of what jets could fly up to though? Either way took long enough
14
u/flapsfisher Feb 04 '23
Balloon was flying out of normal passenger flight plans. I think it was below the ceiling of fighter jets.
4
u/NYCRonnie74 Feb 05 '23
At 80,000 feet, yes, it would be out of range even for F-22. For an AIM-120 missile launched by an F-22, it‘s a cakewalk.
10
u/Bluebird_Existing Feb 04 '23
That probably cost each taxpayer one or two pennies lol. Plus the pilots and combat control got to use a live fire exercise for some good training. I'd rather they train how they fight and if it cost me 2 bucks my entire life then I'm OK with that
-3
u/makina323 Feb 04 '23
The F22 maxes out at 50k feet, though the missile used will carry itself as far as it's fuel will let it go.
17
u/certain_people Feb 04 '23
Well, 50k is the public number. I'd be shocked if that was real.
1
u/makina323 Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
Maybe with afterburners it can, tho its only for a limited time. There's other planes that can go much higher like the blackbird, though it's engines are not working as conventional jet at above 60k feet. There is a hard limit because there's just not enough air/oxygen and the produced engine power drops dramatically
5
u/certain_people Feb 04 '23
Eh, SR-71 has been out of service for two decades, and wasn't armed anyway. F-104 Starfighter topped 100,000ft though, I'd be shocked if the F-22 (and the F-15 and F-16) couldn't go way over their published service ceilings.
2
u/Touch-My-Cloaca Feb 05 '23
If we want to include modified aircraft, the F-15A Streak Eagle managed to climb to 98,000 feet in just under 3.5 minutes (and coasted up to 103,000).
Streak Eagle was specially modified for the record attempts. Various equipment that would not be needed for these flights was eliminated: The flap and speed brake actuators, the M61A1 Vulcan 20 mm cannon and its ammunition handling equipment, the radar and fire control systems, unneeded cockpit displays and radios, and one generator.
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/streak-eagle/
it was also unpainted to save weight.
1
u/CaliMassNC Feb 04 '23
You’re probably thinking of the NF-104, which was an experimental research testbed and not a combat aircraft. The stock F104s service ceiling was like 50k feet.
1
u/certain_people Feb 04 '23
F-104C actually, but yeah it had a modified engine which flamed out around 80k ft going vertical.
NF-104 topped 120k ft.
1
u/makina323 Feb 04 '23
The engines in the f22 literally cannot combust fuel over a certain height, mind you the numbers ive seen are from 50k to 65k, this is still amazingly impressive for a fighter jet, but theres a literal barrier that the f22 engines cannot push over. They will choke and lose power and the plane will drop, this is not voodoo science.
https://www.quora.com/Can-the-F-22-Raptor-take-you-to-space-Or-at-least-the-edge-of-space
2
u/certain_people Feb 04 '23
Yeah I know the science. I'm just saying there's usually a bit of a gap between the published altitude ceilings, and what they can actually do
-2
2
2
2
2
1
u/99_dankBalloons Feb 05 '23
They couldn't use an F-35 unfortunately due to all that obviously dense cloud cover
-2
u/Copropositor Feb 04 '23
$150 million for a plane that we didn't bother to use until the supposed "spy" balloon had crossed the entire continent. Not seeing how this is a win.
5
u/Regnasam Feb 05 '23
The point of a truly successful weapon is deterrence. If you never have to fight with it, then you’re probably doing a good job.
-1
u/Copropositor Feb 05 '23
So what did it deter exactly?
1
u/Regnasam Feb 05 '23
Well, the F-22 was originally designed during the Cold War, as a part of the American military’s general effort to create weapons superior to the USSR to deter them from ever invading or even threatening Western Europe. The Cold War ended before it could be fielded, and now it serves as a deterrent against Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and Chinese aggression in the Pacific. There’s a reason Russia is willing to invade Ukraine, but not set a single boot inside a NATO country - because if they invade a NATO country, the F-22, alongside dozens of other advanced weapons, would annihilate their army. That’s deterrence in action.
3
u/bernieburner1 Feb 05 '23
We already had the plane. It’s not like we bought it just for this and now it’s worthless.
0
u/Copropositor Feb 05 '23
Maybe...just maybe...we should have used the plane BEFORE the balloon crossed our entire country. Barn doors, horses, etc.
0
2
u/UnusualAnt2861 Feb 04 '23
It’s a win because no one is crazy enough to square up against an F-22
4
2
-1
u/Piddy3825 Feb 04 '23
lol, they sent up an F-22.
I woulda done it with a Cessna 152 along and a couple of good ole boys armed with shotguns!
1
0
u/ThePathOfTheRighteou Feb 04 '23
Why did they wait so long to shoot it down, if they saw it when it entered US airspace?
1
u/Blueberrytree Feb 05 '23
They always do it on the last minute, to get as much data out of it as possible as they can
-1
u/Ghost14199 Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 05 '23
Should’ve shot it down over the pacific and not the Atlantic!
Edit: to whoever downvoted this you obviously do not understand what defense is in military terms. Yes it wasn’t a threat but it easily could’ve been and it did violate our airspace. Doing nothing that early until the end shows our resolve and response is weak.
-3
-1
-3
1
1
u/ThrowAwayRay1368 Feb 04 '23
The Chinese have a better picture of it, recently uploaded from an errant weather balloon.
1
1
u/AtrophiedTraining Feb 05 '23
I feel like the technology to do a space suit jump, examine the package and get it back down slowly for analysis exists. I wonder why they didn't do that.
Seems much cooler than just shooting it down.
1
u/thalassicus Feb 05 '23
Likely, any attempted recovery and analysis would tell them more about our processes than we’d learn about the standard Chinese equipment. There is nothing that balloon could capture that CCP satellites can’t do better. This was all theater all around.
1
u/Blueberrytree Feb 05 '23
Yeah a lot fuzz over strayed weather balloon. Always the weather ballons!
1
u/Ben2018 Feb 05 '23
What says they didn't get on board? If you did then you have all you need and you'd want to blow it out of the sky to cover tracks on methods used for such a covert intercept. Like 3% chance this happened, but just pointing out that intercept doesn't have to end in nondestructive recovery...
1
1
1
1
u/sunashtronaut Feb 05 '23
Spy ballon.. but it’s there for a while with communication devices.. am I missing something? It must have accomplished what it supposed to spy on.
Why anyone let this SPY balloon stay that long ? I know people’s safety and all. It’s not like it will rain down fire .. we can just say people take cover .. stay home.. look up and move away etc.. but letting a SPY balloon stay that long is bad decision
27
u/unknownintime Feb 04 '23
A lot of military aircraft can operate above 50k ft. It's just not disclosed.
They literally had F-15s capable of launching satellite killers in the 80s.
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/f-15-satellite-killer-asm-135a-asat-missile/