Chinese Spy Balloon/"Civilian Airship"/UFO Shootdowns

[Anianna]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

[NT2C]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

Well, that sucks.

Bet they're all just hiding out in the back, making personal-sized pizzas in it. 

[Anianna]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

Well, that sucks.

Bet they're all just hiding out in the back, making personal-sized pizzas in it. 

🤣

I figure the reason the tracking is wonky is because it's technically delivered to the post office, but nobody's been there to actually sort the boxes.  There wasn't even a package slip in my box, yet.

[NT2C]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

Well, that sucks.

Bet they're all just hiding out in the back, making personal-sized pizzas in it. 

🤣

I figure the reason the tracking is wonky is because it's technically delivered to the post office, but nobody's been there to actually sort the boxes.  There wasn't even a package slip in my box, yet.

And yet, it shows as available for pickup.

[Anianna]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

Well, that sucks.

Bet they're all just hiding out in the back, making personal-sized pizzas in it. 

🤣

I figure the reason the tracking is wonky is because it's technically delivered to the post office, but nobody's been there to actually sort the boxes.  There wasn't even a package slip in my box, yet.

And yet, it shows as available for pickup.

Huh.  Maybe they got it sorted Saturday afternoon. 

[NT2C]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

Well, that sucks.

Bet they're all just hiding out in the back, making personal-sized pizzas in it. 

🤣

I figure the reason the tracking is wonky is because it's technically delivered to the post office, but nobody's been there to actually sort the boxes.  There wasn't even a package slip in my box, yet.

And yet, it shows as available for pickup.

Huh.  Maybe they got it sorted Saturday afternoon. 

Nope, as of 9PM Friday

9305589703000418503341

[Anianna]

I'm going to be making so many little personal pizzas with my einkorn flour in this thing! 

Did you pick it up today?

Unfortunately, my post office is extremely understaffed and only open randomly a few days a week.  They weren't open Friday or Saturday.  I guess I'll have to try again Tuesday.

Well, that sucks.

Bet they're all just hiding out in the back, making personal-sized pizzas in it. 

🤣

I figure the reason the tracking is wonky is because it's technically delivered to the post office, but nobody's been there to actually sort the boxes.  There wasn't even a package slip in my box, yet.

And yet, it shows as available for pickup.

Huh.  Maybe they got it sorted Saturday afternoon. 

Nope, as of 9PM Friday

9305589703000418503341

Oh, no, there was no slip as of 10AM Saturday.  Hopefully, they'll be open Tuesday so I can ask about it if there's no slip by then.

[Anianna]

I'm glad you told me about the package because there still was no slip in my box, so I wouldn't have known to ask for it.  The guy at the desk was tickled over my tiny toaster. 

Check this thing out, y'all!  My signature blue camo boonie (protect ya damn face, y'all) with binder clip for scale:



It's so cuuute!



Thank you!

[NT2C]

I'm glad you told me about the package because there still was no slip in my box, so I wouldn't have known to ask for it.  The guy at the desk was tickled over my tiny toaster. 

Check this thing out, y'all!  My signature blue camo boonie (protect ya damn face, y'all) with binder clip for scale:



It's so cuuute!



Thank you!

I wasn't sure what color but the "good" colors cost a couple bucks more and Chimpski and I were going for... "economical". 

[Anianna]

I'm glad you told me about the package because there still was no slip in my box, so I wouldn't have known to ask for it.  The guy at the desk was tickled over my tiny toaster. 

Check this thing out, y'all!  My signature blue camo boonie (protect ya damn face, y'all) with binder clip for scale:



It's so cuuute!



Thank you!

I wasn't sure what color but the "good" colors cost a couple bucks more and Chimpski and I were going for... "economical". 

This is exactly the color I would have picked had I bought it for myself, so glad it was the economical option!

[MacWa77ace]

What are the logistics issues regarding our LaWS laser weapon system being used to defend against spy balloons? Its normally ship mounted but is there any way to put it on a C-130 or other aircraft for mobility [not altitude] to use against balloons?

Cause we're using $400K ammo to shoot down these 'balloons'. Which is really not even made for that. There needs to be a heat signature to lock on with that ammo. The laser system can be aimed at and will hit the balloon part, deflate it, and not damage the payload at all. and the balloon part will act as sort of a parachute for the payload. For $1 a shot.

The payload was destroyed on the first balloon. It seems to me that if we can mount the LaWS on an aerial platform we can cover a large area ALASKA and the west coast with one or two mounted that way.

Then one on a ship in Hawaii, and maybe a few other stationary in the north.

Destroyed payload. Think laser an just Pop the balloon. Range and speed of target are not an issue with the LaWS.

[NT2C]

This was 5 years ago and was publicly announced: ETH LASER HEADING INTO THE STRATOSPHERE WITH NASA

Now consider what could have been done since then and not announced.

[MacWa77ace]

This was 5 years ago and was publicly announced: ETH LASER HEADING INTO THE STRATOSPHERE WITH NASA

Now consider what could have been done since then and not announced.

That's private sector, but the military has the laser and the aircraft. I wasn't actually thinking that big though, that is really cool, there must be a smaller more agile solution, that can be called into action and stationed at multiple locations [bases].

But that gave me the idea that the laser should be compartmentalized as an air craft accessory, sort of like on a pallet that you just load on and plug into the aircrafts electrical system. So the aircraft can be used for its regular duties daily but then when there is an alert the LaWS get 'mounted' and the plane goes out on its mission and can be on station with the laser in an hour or two.

[NT2C]

And then there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1

[majorhavoc]

What are the logistics issues regarding our LaWS laser weapon system being used to defend against spy balloons? Its normally ship mounted but is there any way to put it on a C-130 or other aircraft for mobility [not altitude] to use against balloons?

Cause we're using $400K ammo to shoot down these 'balloons'. Which is really not even made for that. There needs to be a heat signature to lock on with that ammo. The laser system can be aimed at and will hit the balloon part, deflate it, and not damage the payload at all. and the balloon part will act as sort of a parachute for the payload. For $1 a shot.

The payload was destroyed on the first balloon. It seems to me that if we can mount the LaWS on an aerial platform we can cover a large area ALASKA and the west coast with one or two mounted that way.

Then one on a ship in Hawaii, and maybe a few other stationary in the north.

Destroyed payload. Think laser an just Pop the balloon. Range and speed of target are not an issue with the LaWS.

Earlier in this thread (before Anianna inadvertently revealed she has hacked into the Pentagon's secure conferencing system and spilled the military's exact plans to bring it down off the East Coast), a directed energy weapon is what I was suggesting. Perforate the canopy and the payload section would then be attached to what would have amounted to a very inefficient parachute.

It would have brought the thing down over dry land, relatively intact and with negligible risk to persons and property. 

Clearly UFoZs should be in charge of these important national security decisions. We are a goddamn genius bar of military planning.

[MacWa77ace]

phhhhtt Gates, not a visionary. Program cancelled.

Secretary of Defense Gates summarized fundamental concerns with the practicality of the program concept:

"I don't know anybody at the Department of Defense, Mr. Tiahrt, who thinks that this program should, or would, ever be operationally deployed. The reality is that you would need a laser something like 20 to 30 times more powerful than the chemical laser in the plane right now to be able to get any distance from the launch site to fire ... So, right now the ABL would have to orbit inside the borders of Iran in order to be able to try and use its laser to shoot down that missile in the boost phase. And if you were to operationalize this you would be looking at 10 to 20 747s, at a billion and a half dollars apiece, and $100 million a year to operate. And there's nobody in uniform that I know who believes that this is a workable concept."

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

What are the logistics issues regarding our LaWS laser weapon system being used to defend against spy balloons? Its normally ship mounted but is there any way to put it on a C-130 or other aircraft for mobility [not altitude] to use against balloons?

Cause we're using $400K ammo to shoot down these 'balloons'. Which is really not even made for that. There needs to be a heat signature to lock on with that ammo. The laser system can be aimed at and will hit the balloon part, deflate it, and not damage the payload at all. and the balloon part will act as sort of a parachute for the payload. For $1 a shot.

The payload was destroyed on the first balloon. It seems to me that if we can mount the LaWS on an aerial platform we can cover a large area ALASKA and the west coast with one or two mounted that way.

Then one on a ship in Hawaii, and maybe a few other stationary in the north.

Destroyed payload. Think laser an just Pop the balloon. Range and speed of target are not an issue with the LaWS.

Earlier in this thread (before Anianna inadvertently revealed she has hacked into the Pentagon's secure conferencing system and spilled the military's exact plans to bring it down off the East Coast), a directed energy weapon is what I was suggesting. Perforate the canopy and the payload section would then be attached to what would have amounted to a very inefficient parachute.

It would have brought the thing down over dry land, relatively intact and with negligible risk to persons and property. 

Clearly UFoZs should be in charge of these important national security decisions. We are a goddamn genius bar of military planning.

And we could do it a lot cheaper too.

We probably wouldn't even need 400K missiles and 35 million dollar fighter jets. Just a couple of Joerg Sprave's slingshots, some steel ball bearings, a hot air balloon and we could probably take out a Chinese spy balloon for way less than that.

If nothing else, we could probably use one of NT2C's high powered flashlights to pop the balloons and safely bring down the payload.

[MacWa77ace]

Earlier in this thread (before Anianna inadvertently revealed she has hacked into the Pentagon's secure conferencing system and spilled the military's exact plans to bring it down off the East Coast), a directed energy weapon is what I was suggesting. Perforate the canopy and the payload section would then be attached to what would have amounted to a very inefficient parachute.

It would have brought the thing down over dry land, relatively intact and with negligible risk to persons and property. 

Clearly UFoZs should be in charge of these important national security decisions. We are a goddamn genius bar of military planning.

I'm trying to figure out the logistics for them, we have the planes and the LaWS, put them together and you get a CSB MAC MOD 1 and game over for the balloon industry.

[flybynight]

Oh they are way beyond that,

Actual classified photo of the pilot who shot down the balloon

[MacWa77ace]