Chinese Balloon Inspiration?

[SCEMan]

80 years before Chinese balloon shot down, Utah sheriff took down WWII bomb by hand

The news of the U.S. Navy Fighter shooting down the Chinese spy balloon has captured so many people's attention.

idahonews.com

In 1945, a Japanese Balloon Bomb Killed Six Americans, Five of Them Children, in Oregon

The military kept the true story of their deaths, the only civilians to die at enemy hands on the U.S. mainland, under wraps

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[Chauncey Gardener]

'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'

- George Santayana

 

[chillinn]

Only the dead have seen the end of war.
— Santayana, George: Soliloquies in England, Scribner's, 1922, p. 102.

 

[Olumin]

'Drop beats, not bombs.'
- Abraham Lincoln

 

[idleprocess]

Why use a balloon?

• Optics: 12 miles in the stratosphere is a simpler problem to solve than the >99 miles of low earth orbit. Less haze/thermal gradients to peer through and you can gather markedly more light with the same size objective.
• SIGINT: Similar to optics, closer proximity simplifies reception of radio signals

Also, for the cost of a large balloon America sure got bent out of shape for about a week and the Chinese got to observe the reaction of both the intelligence and defense establishment. I wouldn't bet against the balloon's communications being jammed - or the thing being neutralized electronically - about time it crossed into our airspace well before it got into the news. And since it was seen coming some ways off odds are that targets within its path covered up or went silent or obfuscated themselves well in advance of its arrival.

 

[chillinn]

I still like the idea of lasing its CCD sensors into blindness.

 

[idleprocess]

I still like my idea of lasing its CCD sensors into blindness.

A possibility. But some novel microwave transmitters could burn out the entirety of the observation package.

 

[chillinn]

Probably could have done that with ordinary items found in the kitchen.