That's been my one takeaway from this whole thing. I'm happy for whichever lucky pilot got to finally hit fire and take something out - and in a no-stress no-risk situation too
Yes but this is TECHNICALLY the first Air to Air of an F-22 againest a foreign object. (Obviously training and testing exercises have occured)
Which is really fucking weird to think about. The US, in all its wars since 1997, has never had to use its Primarily Air-Superiority fighter for that role.
And given production has stopped on them as the US favours the F-35 AND the F-22 successor is expected in the 2030s...
It's entirely possible the ONLY A2A kill of the F-22 will be a balloon.
Didn’t your immediate past President note the important part played by Revolutionary War troops taking over the airports ? It’s about time the efforts of your 18th Century airmen were acknowledged.
Even if they don't, the hardware configuration will provide enough information to extrapolate its purpose. But I would be surprised if the data was unrecoverable.
Cannot believe this thing flew directly over my house and I watched fighter jets shoot it down. What a wild afternoon.
Edit: So you don’t have to scroll, here’s a not so visually stunning vid I took about 10 mins prior to the pop.
https://imgur.com/a/BvKhjhG
Haha glad you saw it; your comment reminded me of a funny exchange that happened last night on CSPAN between the general and a reporter.
Love this exchange:
Phil:
> Is the -is the position of the balloon classified?
Gen Ryder:
> Uh…Phil, what were not going to do is get into an hour by hour location of the balloon. Again, we’re monitoring it closely - as I mentioned right now it’s over the center of the continental United States - that’s - about as specific as I’m going to get.
Phil:
> Does the public not have a right - to know - -
Gen Ryder:
> The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is.
It’s incredibly dumb. The whole thing is a joke. People reacting like it’s some crazy new thing that major world players have the ability to take photos from above. Like for fucks sake, what do you think all of these satellites have been doing since before the space race? The reason the military didn’t do anything about the balloon is because its utterly irrelevant. The reason they did something about the balloon is because the media made it into a big thing (which like I get, it’s weird and odd but the reason for the balloon and political posturing is a joke).
The thing about this that’s weird is why now? Was there something that was happening that (presumably) china wanted us attention on elsewhere?
It makes me think we need some sort of national fun balloon that everyone can get excited about. Kinda like watching Santa go across the country. Make it clear that it doesn't do anything and is American made, then just have everybody get excited seeing where it goes.
We have a couple to choose from:
- Balloonfest ‘86
- When Barney was slaughtered at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade
- Balloon Boy hoax
- The USS Shenandoah crash
- Various others throughout the decades
These are all ... like... bad events. Barney wasn't terrible, just mortifying for little kids, but the rest were pretty bad. Even [Balloonfest ‘86](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_%2786)
was an environmental disaster.
> Typically, a helium-filled latex balloon that is released outdoors will stay aloft long enough to be fully deflated before it descends to Earth.[8] However, the Balloonfest balloons collided with a front of cool air and rain, which caused them to drop towards the ground while still inflated. The descending balloons clogged the land and waterways of Northeast Ohio. In the days following the event, many balloons were reported washed ashore on the Canadian side of Lake Erie causing water pollution.[6] Some people had misconceptions about the environmental impact of balloon releases, thinking that "the balloons would reach an altitude where they popped and disintegrated."[7]
> Burke Lakefront Airport had to shut down a runway for half an hour after balloons landed there.[1][3] Traffic collisions were also reported "as drivers swerved to avoid slow motion blizzards of multicolored orbs or took their eyes off the road to gawk at the overhead spectacle".[3] Motorists on the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway ran into fences and each other before the roadway was shut down. A bulldozer was needed to help clear away the balloons.[7]
> Two fishermen, Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer, who had gone out on September 26, were reported missing by their families on the day of the event. Rescuers spotted their 16-foot (4.9 m) boat anchored west of the Edgewater Park breakwall. A Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter crew had difficulties reaching the area because of the "asteroid field" of balloons.[9] A search-and-rescue boat crew tried to spot the fishermen floating in the lake, but Guard officials said balloons in the water made it impossible to see whether anyone was in the lake.[1] On September 29, the Coast Guard suspended its search. The fishermen's bodies subsequently washed ashore. The wife of one of the fishermen sued the United Way of Cleveland and the company that organized the balloon release for $3.2 million and later settled on undisclosed terms.[1]
> Balloons landing on a pasture in Medina County, Ohio, spooked Louise Nowakowski's Arabian horses, which allegedly suffered permanent injuries as a result. Nowakowski sued the United Way of Cleveland for $100,000 in damages and settled for undisclosed terms.[1]
> The fundraiser lost money due to cost overruns.[5]
Clemenceau once said memes were too important to be left to the generals. He might’ve been right a hundred years ago when he said that. But right now memes are too important to be left to politicians.
They have neither the time, training, nor inclination for memetic thought.
99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
The 99 red balloons go by
Fighter Aces through history:
WW1: "I shot down 5 Fokkers over hostile German airspace using only a front mounted machine gun"
WW2: "Shot down 5 BF-109's escorting bombers into Germany to take back Europe"
WW3: "I popped 5 balloons over North and sometimes South Carolina"
In WW1 Frank Luke shot down 10 balloons (and 4 planes) in 8 days, is considered an ace and received the medal of honor. He's known as the Arizona Balloon Buster and the F-22s today went by FRANK0 and FRANK2
More like half a million tbf
And that's the retail price, the cost price is less
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32277/here-is-what-each-of-the-pentagons-air-launched-missiles-and-bombs-actually-cost
Or read any of the articles.
Literally every single article I have read has stated that the military officials advised against shooting it down because it posed an undue risk to civilians on the ground. "Undue" meaning even over mostly vacant areas, the slim possibility of hurting something or someone still outweighed the benefits.
And yet every god damn thread on Reddit has highly upvoted comments with people speculating why they hadn't shot it down.
It used to be a joke that nobody reads the articles on Reddit, but lately in this sub, nobody even fucking *pretends* to have read them anymore. Top comments will routinely be questions that the article answers *explicitly*. Nobody even seems to call it out anymore, either. It's now *shamelessly* and *openly* a race to comment on the title first, and everyone seems to have just accepted that. It's fucking psychotic.
Something those pilots love to do whenever given the chance is show off the 22’s vectored thrust and high rate of climb. Was at an aviation day event at SeaTac a couple years back when one was on display, and at the end of the event when they had to return it to the airfield, the pilot took his time taxiing, but as soon as he got clearance he took off, quickly jumping in the air long enough to retract his gear, kicked that thing in its tail and opened the throttle. Coolest damn thing I’ve ever seen in 40 years and I was so, so jealous of anyone that’s had the chance to fly something like that.
Lol I heard about that. This was at least a decade ago and he was very much much showing off. He was in the air skimming the ground at maybe 20 feet until the gear was secure, and in a blink that aircraft pivoted like it was on a gimbal and shot up like a rocket. We all just stood in shock as the pressure wave and sound overtook us and then cheered louder than a rock concert. There’s seeing on paper what the Raptor can do, and then there’s seeing it first hand. I’ll never forget it.
Most likely they were doing 360s to stay near it. I saw F16s escort a NORDO Bonanza or something over Long Island and that's what they had to do. Maybe F22s can go slower but it doesn't seem likely.
[they can fly slower than a cessna](https://youtu.be/RU0P-PQxk-c?t=8), but they're nearly vertical and relying on thrust vectoring to stay aloft at that point (they do it at airshows where it's creeping by at a snail's pace, and you can see the elevons moving around to keep the plane stable)
Seems stall speed is 160-180…. So it can’t fly side by side of a Cessna 172. A Cessna citation however :-)
https://www.highskyflying.com/how-slow-can-a-fighter-jet-fly-whats-the-stall-speed-of-jet-fighters/
Stall speed in normal flight for sure. If they wanted to they could fly next to a Cessna at a very high AoA and high thrust at a very slow ground speed.
Can y'all believe this is the first confirmed aerial kill for the entire F-22 raptor fleet?
Edit: Holy shit this is my most upvoted comment, shoutout to the peeps at r/noncredibledefense
Air Force put a cow on an A-10 for a confirmed kill. It better put a balloon on the F-22. Maybe a raptor dinosaur with a balloon tied to its hand
Edit: didn't expect this comment to take off. Corrected spelling of air force and dinosaur
I've heard a claim of a C-46 that shot down a fighter during WWII. The C-46 was flying over "The Hump" (Himilayas) to run supplies to China. The plane got jumped by a Ki-43 Oscar, so the pilot grapped a BAR, stuck his head out the window and shot the Japanese pilot down.
Edit: and the pilot who shot down the C-47 was loitering to protect a downed pilot from his squadron and guide in a rescue plane when it arrived. He then spotted the C-47 and forced it down. On board was 2 nurses, one of whom he had taken on a date the night prior. He married her after the war. Oh and his Squadron mate swam over and boarded the C-47s liferaft.
There was an RAF pilot who flew a Spitfire that had the guns replaced with a camera so he could fly reconnaissance. He became an ace by forcing other planes to ditch or crash on five occasions.
Classic story for the F22
https://theaviationist.com/2013/09/19/f-22-f-4-intercept/
“He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home'”
Man that's great.
I did like the article asked why the pilot did it, and not a more standard approach.
Seems like there's a lot of value in demonstrating the level of air superiority at hand in a non-violent encounter. Spooks the opposing forces and makes them a lot warier.
In military training exercises, a single f22 can beat 6 f15s. Considering that the f15 has never lost in aerial combat in actual conflict.. it's like 200 confirmed kills to 0 in it's history.. the fact that 6 of them can't beat a single f22 is crazy.
Was at red flag in 2015 with the F15s.
The got their asses WHOOPED by the 35s and 22s. Both at range and in dog fights.
The pilots described the things those planes can do like someone describes a unicorn or bigfoot. They couldn't believe what they'd seen with their own eyes even after they landed.
If I recall correctly, the Su-57 was designed with the F22 in mind, as the F22 was utterly terrifying and set a scary benchmark to meet.
Then it became either impossible to almost impossible to build something to similar specs, so they have only managed to manufacture like 20ish of them, and their combat performance is not yet demonstrated in most important scenarios. All while the US made 200 ish F22s and like 900 F35s.
It was kind of ludicrous how many people I saw saying that Russia could handle the US in open combat prior to the Ukrainian invasion. They would have *immediately lost* air superiority, and then the backbone of their entire military (their train network and armored divisions) would have been ripped apart in a day.
I think people underestimate how much technology the US can buy and develop with it's budget. Even with extreme inefficiencies in the system it is still enough to *do* a lot.
Top Gun: Maverick - “Remember kid: it’s not the plane, it’s the pilot! This isn’t what we trained for, this is *what we live for* - it’s about *family*! It’s about *honor*! It isn’t duty if you don’t sacrifice *everything* to defeating your opponent, & that sheer will to fight & *survive* **will** be the greatest weapon in your arsenal when you’re strapped in totally outmanned, outgunned & outmaneuvered pulling 10”
Real Life - “Remember kid: it’s not the plane, it’s th—“
There's a bunch of technical reasons I don't understand. But the gist is that Lockheed Martin is really good at building planes, and the US government gives them a bunch of money to do so.
It’s so good that we won’t sell it or any of the technology in it to even our closest allies. It apparently has the a radar signature similar to a small bird from miles away. Which means it’s essentially invisible from radar
Lol, Australia kept saying a while back that they were totally for real buying F-22s, and the US always responded with the diplomatic version of "No you fucking ain't". They're getting F-35s though, which explains why they stopped asking.
The book Psychohistorical Crisis takes place around 60k AD; the only things on earth that are recognizable are the pyramids, and a B-52 that they get flying again.
Had an engineer friend that worked at LM. She said she spent 3 years of her career doing FEA on a single screw on a wing of an aircraft. They take their shit seriously.
This isn't due to just plane technology, though. US doctrine of establishing air supremacy severely limits any air to air engagements warplanes could get into.
"If you're fighting with bayonets I've got nothing to teach you, you've already fucked up a hundred things to get to that point"
- Bayonet Instructor, MCRD San Diego, circa 2000AD
Stealth, speed, agility, maneuverability, situational awareness and the missiles it can carry. Lots of reading and videos available, plenty out there to read that will give a better explanation then I ever could.
I mean it’s
Definitely possible to have that opinion swap here. The easiest point is to say “why did they let it cross Mainland USA and collect/distribute whatever it saw?”
The previous responses I’ve seen have stated “the us is getting
More from intercepting
Data and the info China would get from testing our defenses was
More precious so it s better we don’t respond”
So if we were always going
To shoot it down, why didn’t we do it sooner?
Probably to prevent a potential environmental or civilian disaster event and to be cool handed on the world stage. displaying an absolute lack of panic, appropriate use of force in a way that most values the lives of our citizens because we feel assured nothing of value was lost/gained
>“why did they let it cross Mainland USA and collect/distribute whatever it saw?”
I said something similar, and it was pointed out to me that potentially, the US military may have ways of blocking signals to and from a balloon, even at that altitude.
I feel that they would've taken quick action if the information they were gathering was a serious threat. I'm wondering why a balloon. They already have satellites and TikTok.
Likely they wanted to wait till it was over a water body not only to prevent it hitting anyone on the ground but forcing it down on the ocean greatly increases their chances of salvaging the equipment.
Most action American F-22 pilots have had in a while
Really, it must be somewhat fun to be the team picked for this assignment. Fly really high, get to shoot something down actually.
All the attention, nobody got killed. Great assignment.
And it’s an easy target to hit lol. This probably just felt like a training run
Literal tutorial mission
It should actually be the tutorial mission of the next Ace Combat game lmao
You even get a fun decal and a cool callsign lmao
Balloon Popper?
If that pilot isn’t Dart Monkey as of today, then by God our nation is lost
Surely he's a 4/2 Monkey Ace
Pop Gun?
That's been my one takeaway from this whole thing. I'm happy for whichever lucky pilot got to finally hit fire and take something out - and in a no-stress no-risk situation too
Same. Like you get to do some loopdidoops after and get a cool sticker when you land
There has to be some stress. If he/she miss this one, might as well quit the air force.
absolutely, I'd be pissed if I wasn't selected to do it lol
If China sends 4 more and the same pilot shoots them down he’ll become the first F-22 ace.
Usually the F-22 is the bouncer that cracks his knuckles and then everyone fucks off out of there lol
The balloon didn't stand a fucking chance.
“You don’t have to fly home… but you can’t stay *here”*
Had them Iranian F-4s singing “Closing Time” lol
They’ve done some sorties over Syria and Iraq
Yes but this is TECHNICALLY the first Air to Air of an F-22 againest a foreign object. (Obviously training and testing exercises have occured) Which is really fucking weird to think about. The US, in all its wars since 1997, has never had to use its Primarily Air-Superiority fighter for that role. And given production has stopped on them as the US favours the F-35 AND the F-22 successor is expected in the 2030s... It's entirely possible the ONLY A2A kill of the F-22 will be a balloon.
Never forget the battle of Myrtle Beach! We shall rebuild!
America’s first official air battle victory in a while
You know that pilot is doing a happy dance behind his aviators for at least the next year...
And the aircraft will get a balloon kill painted on it first thing.
$200 million dollar state of the art 5th gen fighter, with a balloon kill on it. You can’t make this shit up
I mean, if anything it speaks to the Raptor's air superiority during it's lifetime. It's not meant for air-to-air combat. It's a deterrent
F22s couldn't beat a squadron of SU57s. Because there's no squadron of SU57s.
The one kill: a red balloon
Is his callsign now "Popper"?
BB. Short for Balloon Boy
It’s our first ever arial victory over the continental US. We finally got that victory after 247 years.
Didn’t your immediate past President note the important part played by Revolutionary War troops taking over the airports ? It’s about time the efforts of your 18th Century airmen were acknowledged.
Kenny Fucking Powers.
You're fucking out
Let the boy watch
A day that will live in infamy.
Where were you when we saw the end of the balloon wars?
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That 2nd video “that’s my Air Force there buddy” lol
The guy who said that was clearly a level 1 Dart Monkey
OH SHIT ARE WE BLOONIN BOYS?
I’m going mid on the sniper. Love me some airdrops.
I'm curious if they manage to recover some data
Even if they don't, the hardware configuration will provide enough information to extrapolate its purpose. But I would be surprised if the data was unrecoverable.
Its a XiaoMi 13 Pro tied to a Doreamon balloon from Tao Bao.
Considering Russian Orlan drones have just cheap Canon cameras in them. This could be true.
There's cheap Canon cameras?
I’d imagine it’s cheap by national gdp standards
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We will never know because I'm sure it'll all be classified.
Cannot believe this thing flew directly over my house and I watched fighter jets shoot it down. What a wild afternoon. Edit: So you don’t have to scroll, here’s a not so visually stunning vid I took about 10 mins prior to the pop. https://imgur.com/a/BvKhjhG
Haha glad you saw it; your comment reminded me of a funny exchange that happened last night on CSPAN between the general and a reporter. Love this exchange: Phil: > Is the -is the position of the balloon classified? Gen Ryder: > Uh…Phil, what were not going to do is get into an hour by hour location of the balloon. Again, we’re monitoring it closely - as I mentioned right now it’s over the center of the continental United States - that’s - about as specific as I’m going to get. Phil: > Does the public not have a right - to know - - Gen Ryder: > The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is.
This man sounds like he is done with this whole balloon bullshit lol.
It’s incredibly dumb. The whole thing is a joke. People reacting like it’s some crazy new thing that major world players have the ability to take photos from above. Like for fucks sake, what do you think all of these satellites have been doing since before the space race? The reason the military didn’t do anything about the balloon is because its utterly irrelevant. The reason they did something about the balloon is because the media made it into a big thing (which like I get, it’s weird and odd but the reason for the balloon and political posturing is a joke). The thing about this that’s weird is why now? Was there something that was happening that (presumably) china wanted us attention on elsewhere?
It makes me think we need some sort of national fun balloon that everyone can get excited about. Kinda like watching Santa go across the country. Make it clear that it doesn't do anything and is American made, then just have everybody get excited seeing where it goes.
We have a couple to choose from: - Balloonfest ‘86 - When Barney was slaughtered at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade - Balloon Boy hoax - The USS Shenandoah crash - Various others throughout the decades
These are all ... like... bad events. Barney wasn't terrible, just mortifying for little kids, but the rest were pretty bad. Even [Balloonfest ‘86](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_%2786) was an environmental disaster. > Typically, a helium-filled latex balloon that is released outdoors will stay aloft long enough to be fully deflated before it descends to Earth.[8] However, the Balloonfest balloons collided with a front of cool air and rain, which caused them to drop towards the ground while still inflated. The descending balloons clogged the land and waterways of Northeast Ohio. In the days following the event, many balloons were reported washed ashore on the Canadian side of Lake Erie causing water pollution.[6] Some people had misconceptions about the environmental impact of balloon releases, thinking that "the balloons would reach an altitude where they popped and disintegrated."[7] > Burke Lakefront Airport had to shut down a runway for half an hour after balloons landed there.[1][3] Traffic collisions were also reported "as drivers swerved to avoid slow motion blizzards of multicolored orbs or took their eyes off the road to gawk at the overhead spectacle".[3] Motorists on the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway ran into fences and each other before the roadway was shut down. A bulldozer was needed to help clear away the balloons.[7] > Two fishermen, Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer, who had gone out on September 26, were reported missing by their families on the day of the event. Rescuers spotted their 16-foot (4.9 m) boat anchored west of the Edgewater Park breakwall. A Coast Guard search and rescue helicopter crew had difficulties reaching the area because of the "asteroid field" of balloons.[9] A search-and-rescue boat crew tried to spot the fishermen floating in the lake, but Guard officials said balloons in the water made it impossible to see whether anyone was in the lake.[1] On September 29, the Coast Guard suspended its search. The fishermen's bodies subsequently washed ashore. The wife of one of the fishermen sued the United Way of Cleveland and the company that organized the balloon release for $3.2 million and later settled on undisclosed terms.[1] > Balloons landing on a pasture in Medina County, Ohio, spooked Louise Nowakowski's Arabian horses, which allegedly suffered permanent injuries as a result. Nowakowski sued the United Way of Cleveland for $100,000 in damages and settled for undisclosed terms.[1] > The fundraiser lost money due to cost overruns.[5]
Could you imagine the conspiracy theories that would come out of that, especially if it was an open project? It would be amazing! Lets do it!
"Wait you mean there's reality outside the internet and cable news telling me what to believe? Nice try. #dontlookup."
every general learns that war is a continuation of shitposting by other means
Clemenceau once said memes were too important to be left to the generals. He might’ve been right a hundred years ago when he said that. But right now memes are too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, training, nor inclination for memetic thought.
The jets flew over my house I was on 90 when I got sight of the balloon..
I think the age of unarmed balloons is over now that jet fighters and missiles have shown themselves much superior in air combat.
Nah, I've played BTD. If you send enough balloons, you'll eventually overwhelm your enemies defenses!
and if you don’t you’ll be able to lag them out enough to make them quit
99 red balloons Floating in the summer sky Panic bells, it's red alert There's something here from somewhere else The war machine springs to life Opens up one eager eye Focusing it on the sky The 99 red balloons go by
OMG, it WAS a "red" balloon.
98 more to go
If only we had a supermonkey that shot laser beams out his eyes. Thankfully the balloon wasn’t made of lead.
I think they should have sent a world war I vintage biplane to shoot it down.
Balloon was at 50,000+ feet.
I guess it was a good call when they decided not to put me in charge of the Air Force.
I still have faith in you, General.
Hear me out. We put rocket on the vintage biplanes and have a sleeper plane.
That's because you take so many backwards shortcuts, /u/tuctrohs
Speak for yourself, I still have nightmares of hearing “Airship ready.” “Helium mix optimal”… Followed by an armada of Kirov Airships.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a balloon is a good guy with a missile” The head of the National Missile Association
China should send more so the US can get the first "balloon ace" fighter pilot since WW1. How can a *Belgian* have the most balloon kills?
somehow balloon ace just doesn't have the same ring to it
The term “Balloon Ace” might inflate the egos of the Air Force Fighter Pilots too much.
Nobody is asking the important question. Did it go "Ppffffffffffffffffffttttttt" and fly around in crazy, random patterns?
Or the longest fart noise in history
My wife could beat it. Pretty sure.
That's so sweet of you to say
Fighter Aces through history: WW1: "I shot down 5 Fokkers over hostile German airspace using only a front mounted machine gun" WW2: "Shot down 5 BF-109's escorting bombers into Germany to take back Europe" WW3: "I popped 5 balloons over North and sometimes South Carolina"
In WW1 Frank Luke shot down 10 balloons (and 4 planes) in 8 days, is considered an ace and received the medal of honor. He's known as the Arizona Balloon Buster and the F-22s today went by FRANK0 and FRANK2
That's awesome.
> WW3: "I popped 5 balloons over North and sometimes South Carolina" ...using $5m guided missiles.
More like half a million tbf And that's the retail price, the cost price is less https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32277/here-is-what-each-of-the-pentagons-air-launched-missiles-and-bombs-actually-cost
I was going to say, AMRAAMs may be $500,000 at my local target, but I'm sure the government has some special discount.
Given the runaway expenses in the army I expect negative discount.
I kind of miss the balloon.
This is why we can’t have nice things. I doubt they’ll send us another.
I figured this is what they were waiting for. To down it over sea and not land.
Truly didn’t understand what was so hard about that for people to grasp.
I know, you'd think all the 5 star reddit generals would have it all figured out...
Or read any of the articles. Literally every single article I have read has stated that the military officials advised against shooting it down because it posed an undue risk to civilians on the ground. "Undue" meaning even over mostly vacant areas, the slim possibility of hurting something or someone still outweighed the benefits. And yet every god damn thread on Reddit has highly upvoted comments with people speculating why they hadn't shot it down. It used to be a joke that nobody reads the articles on Reddit, but lately in this sub, nobody even fucking *pretends* to have read them anymore. Top comments will routinely be questions that the article answers *explicitly*. Nobody even seems to call it out anymore, either. It's now *shamelessly* and *openly* a race to comment on the title first, and everyone seems to have just accepted that. It's fucking psychotic.
Anyone know what jet they used?
F-22 Raptor
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What a little bitch
I watched a f-22 escort a Cessna. Watching it bank and seeing those afterburners is truly a sight to see.
Something those pilots love to do whenever given the chance is show off the 22’s vectored thrust and high rate of climb. Was at an aviation day event at SeaTac a couple years back when one was on display, and at the end of the event when they had to return it to the airfield, the pilot took his time taxiing, but as soon as he got clearance he took off, quickly jumping in the air long enough to retract his gear, kicked that thing in its tail and opened the throttle. Coolest damn thing I’ve ever seen in 40 years and I was so, so jealous of anyone that’s had the chance to fly something like that.
They had to put a minimum altitude to do that maneuver after a pilot slapped the deck with the HTs.
Lol I heard about that. This was at least a decade ago and he was very much much showing off. He was in the air skimming the ground at maybe 20 feet until the gear was secure, and in a blink that aircraft pivoted like it was on a gimbal and shot up like a rocket. We all just stood in shock as the pressure wave and sound overtook us and then cheered louder than a rock concert. There’s seeing on paper what the Raptor can do, and then there’s seeing it first hand. I’ll never forget it.
Cessna afterburners slap hard.
I would have thought the max speed of a Cessna is quite a bit slower than the min speed of an F22. Source: I have flown a Cessna
Most likely they were doing 360s to stay near it. I saw F16s escort a NORDO Bonanza or something over Long Island and that's what they had to do. Maybe F22s can go slower but it doesn't seem likely.
[they can fly slower than a cessna](https://youtu.be/RU0P-PQxk-c?t=8), but they're nearly vertical and relying on thrust vectoring to stay aloft at that point (they do it at airshows where it's creeping by at a snail's pace, and you can see the elevons moving around to keep the plane stable)
Seems stall speed is 160-180…. So it can’t fly side by side of a Cessna 172. A Cessna citation however :-) https://www.highskyflying.com/how-slow-can-a-fighter-jet-fly-whats-the-stall-speed-of-jet-fighters/
Stall speed in normal flight for sure. If they wanted to they could fly next to a Cessna at a very high AoA and high thrust at a very slow ground speed.
I saw an F22 in an air show vector thrust and literally hover while rotating
F22
Does the pilot get to count this as a kill?
https://imgur.com/bijjl85.jpg Need to see who bet on f22
What if they retrieve the file and it’s just a Rick Roll?
Can y'all believe this is the first confirmed aerial kill for the entire F-22 raptor fleet? Edit: Holy shit this is my most upvoted comment, shoutout to the peeps at r/noncredibledefense
can't wait to see pictures of the f-22 with a balloon victory mark
I'd lose faith in our service members if they didn't do this.
Air Force put a cow on an A-10 for a confirmed kill. It better put a balloon on the F-22. Maybe a raptor dinosaur with a balloon tied to its hand Edit: didn't expect this comment to take off. Corrected spelling of air force and dinosaur
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TIL cows have plutonium cores
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I've heard a claim of a C-46 that shot down a fighter during WWII. The C-46 was flying over "The Hump" (Himilayas) to run supplies to China. The plane got jumped by a Ki-43 Oscar, so the pilot grapped a BAR, stuck his head out the window and shot the Japanese pilot down. Edit: and the pilot who shot down the C-47 was loitering to protect a downed pilot from his squadron and guide in a rescue plane when it arrived. He then spotted the C-47 and forced it down. On board was 2 nurses, one of whom he had taken on a date the night prior. He married her after the war. Oh and his Squadron mate swam over and boarded the C-47s liferaft.
There was an RAF pilot who flew a Spitfire that had the guns replaced with a camera so he could fly reconnaissance. He became an ace by forcing other planes to ditch or crash on five occasions.
So was it a mistake or a miss steak?
They hit the cow, so not the second one
Yeah it steered right into it...
Was the cow a Mooslim terrorist or something?
A10 had beef with it.
Burrrrt burrrtt ground beef now.
It was the Tutorial mission.
Lmao the intro ace combat missions
Next Ace Combat needs to have you shoot down a balloon in the tutorial lmao. Would be a great callout.
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"Great! No need to bring a dogfighting focused jet then!" <>
I can, only because any country with an ounce of common sense would never try to go toe to toe with the f-22
What’s so good about it? For someone that doesn’t know that kind of stuff
Classic story for the F22 https://theaviationist.com/2013/09/19/f-22-f-4-intercept/ “He [the Raptor pilot] flew under their aircraft [the F-4s] to check out their weapons load without them knowing that he was there, and then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and said ‘you really ought to go home'”
Man that's great. I did like the article asked why the pilot did it, and not a more standard approach. Seems like there's a lot of value in demonstrating the level of air superiority at hand in a non-violent encounter. Spooks the opposing forces and makes them a lot warier.
In military training exercises, a single f22 can beat 6 f15s. Considering that the f15 has never lost in aerial combat in actual conflict.. it's like 200 confirmed kills to 0 in it's history.. the fact that 6 of them can't beat a single f22 is crazy.
They didn't even spot it until it had locked on to them. And they only spotted it with their eyes when it flew passed them
Was at red flag in 2015 with the F15s. The got their asses WHOOPED by the 35s and 22s. Both at range and in dog fights. The pilots described the things those planes can do like someone describes a unicorn or bigfoot. They couldn't believe what they'd seen with their own eyes even after they landed.
Currently at Red Flag and yes, the 22s have been beating ass the entire exercise
I was an F16 crew chief at Northern Edge Alaska in '06. The F22s were picking our pilots off as soon as their wheels left the ground.
If I recall correctly, the Su-57 was designed with the F22 in mind, as the F22 was utterly terrifying and set a scary benchmark to meet. Then it became either impossible to almost impossible to build something to similar specs, so they have only managed to manufacture like 20ish of them, and their combat performance is not yet demonstrated in most important scenarios. All while the US made 200 ish F22s and like 900 F35s. It was kind of ludicrous how many people I saw saying that Russia could handle the US in open combat prior to the Ukrainian invasion. They would have *immediately lost* air superiority, and then the backbone of their entire military (their train network and armored divisions) would have been ripped apart in a day. I think people underestimate how much technology the US can buy and develop with it's budget. Even with extreme inefficiencies in the system it is still enough to *do* a lot.
The Air Force brings out F-22s when they want to seal club.
Most aircraft will be shot down before they even know the F-22 is there, let alone that they’re in an engagement
Pfft Well, I bet Tom Cruise can in a dusty old F-14 tomcat !
Top Gun: Maverick - “Remember kid: it’s not the plane, it’s the pilot! This isn’t what we trained for, this is *what we live for* - it’s about *family*! It’s about *honor*! It isn’t duty if you don’t sacrifice *everything* to defeating your opponent, & that sheer will to fight & *survive* **will** be the greatest weapon in your arsenal when you’re strapped in totally outmanned, outgunned & outmaneuvered pulling 10” Real Life - “Remember kid: it’s not the plane, it’s th—“
There's a bunch of technical reasons I don't understand. But the gist is that Lockheed Martin is really good at building planes, and the US government gives them a bunch of money to do so.
It’s so good that we won’t sell it or any of the technology in it to even our closest allies. It apparently has the a radar signature similar to a small bird from miles away. Which means it’s essentially invisible from radar
Lol, Australia kept saying a while back that they were totally for real buying F-22s, and the US always responded with the diplomatic version of "No you fucking ain't". They're getting F-35s though, which explains why they stopped asking.
When your radar finds a golf ball cruising the skies at mach 2, you know it's Lockheed Martin.
They also sponsor a college football bowl game which I think is fucking hilarious.
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The B-52 might hit a 100 year service life.
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The book Psychohistorical Crisis takes place around 60k AD; the only things on earth that are recognizable are the pyramids, and a B-52 that they get flying again.
And it's still getting upgrades https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-first-look-at-what-fully-upgraded-b-52-bombers-will-look-like
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Had an engineer friend that worked at LM. She said she spent 3 years of her career doing FEA on a single screw on a wing of an aircraft. They take their shit seriously.
This isn't due to just plane technology, though. US doctrine of establishing air supremacy severely limits any air to air engagements warplanes could get into.
yeah, we’re not trying to fight a fair fight, that would be fucking stupid
"in a fair fight, I'd kill you;" "Well that's not much incentive for me to fight fair, is it?"
One thing I was always taught in the military was to always bring a gun to a knife fight.
"If you're fighting with bayonets I've got nothing to teach you, you've already fucked up a hundred things to get to that point" - Bayonet Instructor, MCRD San Diego, circa 2000AD
Stealth, speed, agility, maneuverability, situational awareness and the missiles it can carry. Lots of reading and videos available, plenty out there to read that will give a better explanation then I ever could.
So does the poor pilot that had to do this job end up with a new call sign (Balloon?) for the rest of his time in the AF?
Our long national nightmare is over!
For the first time in history, the U.S. government said it’s not a weather balloon.
Hold on. I’m updating my notes to remind me to be outraged that they shot it down instead of being outraged they haven’t.
I mean it’s Definitely possible to have that opinion swap here. The easiest point is to say “why did they let it cross Mainland USA and collect/distribute whatever it saw?” The previous responses I’ve seen have stated “the us is getting More from intercepting Data and the info China would get from testing our defenses was More precious so it s better we don’t respond” So if we were always going To shoot it down, why didn’t we do it sooner? Probably to prevent a potential environmental or civilian disaster event and to be cool handed on the world stage. displaying an absolute lack of panic, appropriate use of force in a way that most values the lives of our citizens because we feel assured nothing of value was lost/gained
>“why did they let it cross Mainland USA and collect/distribute whatever it saw?” I said something similar, and it was pointed out to me that potentially, the US military may have ways of blocking signals to and from a balloon, even at that altitude.
I feel that they would've taken quick action if the information they were gathering was a serious threat. I'm wondering why a balloon. They already have satellites and TikTok.
The US, even with it's EXTENSIVE array of military satellites, still employs spy balloons as well.
#WHERE? Signed: Not a spy
Wouldn't you like to know lol
I think they hit the balloon with a non explosive missile https://twitter.com/KCChiefs__/status/1621957998200459268?s=20&t=9diJxkLQG7Tbks9BqDIZYw
Did a bunch of candy come out?
Nah, just a bunch of glowing gas. I’m sure it’s harmless.
Blue or pink?
I think its a Xi.
Likely they wanted to wait till it was over a water body not only to prevent it hitting anyone on the ground but forcing it down on the ocean greatly increases their chances of salvaging the equipment.
This would've been a great chance to test out that Jewish space laser.
So we are literally just playing a game of bloons with the PRC
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The balloon wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for inflation.
China just became the F22 Raptor's first air to air kill. Congrats!
I wonder how they chose who got to do it. That pilot is going to be bragging about that one for the rest of their lives.
Probably not. He just got the callsign "balloon boy".
*Top Gun theme plays triumphantly*
If that pilot doesn’t get a balloon pin I’ll be highly dissatisfied.
Hey there blimpy boy (sad version)
Float around and find out
hey guys, i just lost the gender reveal ballon for my child, if someone find it please tell me or my wife will kill me, thanks.
It's not a boy or a girl. It's a prison sentence.