A small, globe-trotting balloon declared “missing in action” by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10.
The club—the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB)—is not pointing fingers yet.
Hobby Club’s Missing Balloon Feared Shot Down By USAF
Mystery Over Missing Sidewinder Missile That Failed to Shoot Down UFO
But the F-16 jet tasked with shooting the object over Lake Huron on Sunday “missed on its first attempt,” according to Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson.
Citing U.S. officials, Tomlinson wrote on Twitter that a second Sidewinder air-to-air missile was required, and it is “not clear where the first missile landed.”
A Defense Department spokesperson told Newsweek they were “certainly aware of the reporting on this,” but did not have any other details they could provide at this time. [Yet Kirby ‘can’t’ confirm that it happened]
…
“The warhead is relatively small, as is the missile, limiting potential damage if it misses or something goes wrong,” [Jodi] Vittori previously told Newsweek.
National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Monday that the objects downed in Alaska and Canada “are in remote and wintry terrain,” with the object over Michigan likely to be “in very deep water in Lake Huron.” This makes salvage operations more difficult, he added.
Thanks to Dave DeCamp for this find! FYI, according to Wikipedia, the Sidewinder is almost 10 feet long, 5 inches wide, and 188 pounds. The warhead, itself, is 20.8 pounds. They’re shooting down these unidentified objects, all willy nilly, but I’m not supposed to be concerned about a missing missle?! Sorry, not sorry, this one hit too close to home! Time to look for more memes, I guess! 😅
Related:
Jet that shot down unidentified object over Lake Huron took off from Madison (missing missile was noticed when the F-16s landed back in Wisconsin)
Read More »China accuses U.S. of flying spy balloons into Chinese airspace more than 10 times
John Kirby, spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a MSNBC interview on Monday that this claim was not true.
“Any claim that the US government operates surveillance balloons over the PRC is false. It is China that has a high-altitude surveillance balloon program for intelligence collection, that it has used to violate the sovereignty of the US and over 40 countries across 5 continents,” wrote Adrienne Watson, another NSC spokesperson, on Twitter.
Previously:
U.S. military’s newest weapon against China and Russia: Hot air
The Pentagon is working on a new plan to rise above competition from China and Russia: balloons.
The high-altitude inflatables, flying at between 60,000 and 90,000 feet, would be added to the Pentagon’s extensive surveillance network and could eventually be used to track hypersonic weapons.
We talk to legendary Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh about his latest bombshell scoop: the United States, on President Biden’s orders, blew up the Nord Stream pipelines that were foundational to Germany’s export economy until last year.
Seymour Hersh on US Bombing Nord Stream Pipelines — Radio War Nerd EP #366 via Radio War Nerd
Previously:
US bombed Nord Stream gas pipelines, claims investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
Airforce Spent Millions To Shot Down A Failed U.S. Weather Balloon – Biden Is Happy It Did So
So it looks like the airforce sent up an AWACS surveillance plane, a tanker and an F-22, the most expensive fighter plane ever, to fire a $400,000 Sidewinder missile to take down a failed weather balloon.
The bombing of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea was a covert operation ordered by the White House and carried out by the CIA, a report by a veteran investigative journalist claims.
US bombed Nord Stream gas pipelines, claims investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
Full Story:
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 05.02.2023
A US jet destroyed a Chinese weather balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday, with US officials saying the balloon had engaged in espionage as it flew over US airspace over the past several days. Beijing insists the dirigible was just a meteorological research balloon that drifted off course.
Spycraft or Not, Shootdown of Chinese Weather Balloon Using 5th-Gen Jet Looks ‘Silly’
China is laughing at the Biden Admin! FYI, they’re launching more spy ballons! 😉
It is just as well that Antony “Guardrails” Blinken has called off his long-scheduled visit to Beijing, which was due to begin Tuesday. It would have been his first since taking over at State and the first by a secretary of state in four years. But Blinken would not have got any guardrails in place or built any exit ramps, which he seems to consider his highest calling. Let us wonder, parenthetically, if our Tony wasn’t meant to be a transportation engineer.
Patrick Lawrence: The Pentagon’s Balloon Floats On
The tests were carried out by U.S. Southern Command, or Southcom, which is part of the Department of Defense and is responsible for intelligence operations, security cooperation and disaster response in Central and South America. It’s a joint effort by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Army and other forces whose main task is finding and intercepting drug shipments that are destined for the U.S. According to the Guardian, as many as 25 unmanned solar powered balloons were launched from rural South Dakota and made their way 250 miles across the neighboring states in tests.
Related:
Stratollites can maintain position over specific areas of interest for days, weeks, and eventually months on end. This allows for more sustained measurements and monitoring capabilities over a targeted area. Stratollites can carry a wide variety of commercial payloads (sensors, telescopes, communications arrays, etc.), launch rapidly on demand, and safely return payloads back to earth after mission completion.
Some interesting ‘coincidences’:
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