A mystery object shot down by U.S. fighter jets amid ongoing hysteria sparked by a Chinese spy balloon may have been a $12 inflatable launched by a hobby group in Illinois.
The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) reported one of its balloons ‘missing in action’ around the same location – and at the time time – a U.S. Air Force jet downed an unidentified object near Alaska using a $400,000 Sidewinder missile.
NIBBB said its ‘K9YO’ balloon last reported its location shortly before 1am GMT on Saturday, February 11 (8pm EST on February 10), near the coast of southwest Alaska.
Bottlecap Balloon Brigade – a Missouri hobby group – claims its $12 weather balloon last pinged near Yukon on February 10 – hours before F-22 brought down UFO in SAME area with $400k missile
— Read more at the Daily Mail
"The descriptions of all three unidentified objects shot down Feb. 10-12 match the shapes, altitudes and payloads of the small pico balloons, which can usually be purchased for $12-180 each, depending on the type"
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) February 16, 2023
In Presser, Biden Can’t Explain Why He’s Softer On Chinese Spying Than On Weather Balloons
The three unidentified objects the U.S. military shot out of North American airspace last week using six-figure missiles were “most likely” instruments owned by private research and recreation organizations for scientific purposes, President Joe Biden told reporters during a press conference on Thursday.
According to Biden, the U.S. government is still uncertain about what these objects are and what they were used to do, which is why crews are working to uncover the downed objects’ debris.
Despite the objects’ seemingly innocuous purposes, Biden bragged that if “any object presents a threat to the safety and security of the American people, I will take it down.”
— Read more at Politico
President Biden acknowledges that he shot down three runaway weather balloons, yet he had a *Chinese spy balloon* in his sights over the Aleutians, failed to take the shot, and let it float across America. Pathetic.
The CCP is laughing at him, which is dangerous for America.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 16, 2023
To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America…. https://t.co/kk5NNMtDCE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 16, 2023
Joe shoots down the made in America object, but lets the Made in CHine object tour the whole nation to compete its mission before taking it out? Sounds like a Chinese bought Puppet to me, pulling their Pinocchio puppets strings to Make China Great Again, denouncing ANYTHING Trump did to protect THE PEOPLE and Make AMERICA Great. He treats these ballons like he treats our economy,,,,if it helps the CHinese and his family to get rich it takes on a life of its own, if it makes THE PEOPLE richer in wealth, it gets shot down faster than an American Oil Pipeline or Drilling rig. Just how obvious is it that he is a traitor, not just to his race, his gender, his church, and his Party, but to the entire country as well. He even failed when his major employment Hobby was just to Lobby.
it certainly wouldn’t shock me to find out, what was shot down one of the ‘balloons’ was a HOBBY balloon, from a local group..
Let’s step back for a moment and look at where we are militarily”
We supposedly have the most sophisticated equipment on the planet. We have detection capabilities that are second to none. We have the hardware and the systems. What we lack is capable personnel and human intelligence. When we pulled out of Afghanistan, all the talk was about the expensive high-end equipment that we left there. Yet, we can’t clearly identify three objects that appear in our airspace. And our efforts at dealing with them are clumsy at best.
Three objects appear in our airspace—the most serious of which was spotted by a citizen. After waffling back and forth, our Commander-In-Chief decides to take it out. A $400,000 missle was deployed—not knowing anything about the object being taken out—and the first attempt resulted in a miss—so, were there actually two $400,000 missles deployed in this cowboy show?
Not much is being revealed about the one identified as Chinese in origin—nothing is known about the other two. If this is a show of military readiness, we are in seriously deep trouble.
A couple of cheap machingun bursts by a WWI snoopy the Red Baron Bi-plane could have accomplished the same job in about the same time, but not with this Democrat Prince of Sandwitches running the show, who thinks our American socially redistribued wealth is infinite, while every one now seeks how finite and infinitely small Joe’s brain has become. Obama was a “Lead from the Rear” military commander,,,,,Joe is a think and respond from the rear President.,,,,the same kind that led to all those COVID toilet paper shortages.
This must mean we have a few missiles left. They were not ALL sent to the Ukraine. LOL
What a revolting development this balloon fiasco turned out to be.
WE MAY Have had the bestest gear, people etc.
BUT WOKENESS and ineptitude by the higher ups in the DOD, has made that phrase, NO LONGER true.
joe has top men on this, the China spy balloon goes untouched for a week but when children put up weather balloons, they shoot them down immediately. So, when they said they scanned the first balloon, and it showed no sign of danger to the public and left it cross the country, what did they scan the kid’s balloon with that required them to shoot them down so quickly? Hmmm, JMO
Here’s the deal. Per recent reports, we now know the US was tracking the first “balloon” from the moment it left the ground in China. We followed it all across the ocean, across Alaska, into Canada, then across the US, till it was shot down off South Carolina.
The first balloon was ginormous – 200 feet high, at least 3 school buses wide, and its payload was the size of a small jet. Total weight of the balloon and payload was something over a ton. This thing also had solar arrays, antennae, was steerable/controllable, etc. Also, I’ve heard a sound bite from an official stating we did not, in fact, succeed in jamming its transmissions. Clearly not a weather balloon, and clearly a threat needing to be downed.
The other 3 objects had no appreciable heat signatures. These $400K Sidewinders, which have a supercooled seeker head, specifically for locking onto heat signatures, didn’t need to be used against them. Conventional machine gun fire would’ve been sufficient.
We use high-tech, high-dollar ammo to shoot down what appear to be, by all accounts, benign objects, yet we allow something, clearly a threat, given it’s size, payload and maneuverability, free-reign to traverse our whole country, and surveil 3 of our most sensitive nuke sites, before finally using a $400k missile to knock it down?
Something’s clearly wrong with this picture and this president. To say he’s compromised is an understatement which dwarfs “Huston, we’ve had a problem.”
It has never made sense to me. 475k dollar missiles to shoot down a 10 cent balloon.
I doubt their balloons were 10 cents… If they were really big hobbyiests, they probably cost a good hundred or so.. BUT yea, wasting a half a mil MISSILE to take it out, is overkill.
Biden shot down the hobby balloons to look tough after deliberately allowing the real spy. balloon complete open access to the country.
Then they hype the Ohio train derailment (including Fox News) so they don’t have to talk about the total criminal ineptness of the senile old fart in the White House. That said, I know the train derailment is also a criminal lack of action by the senile old fart’s administration. And I know it’s serious.
dear meathead-I am giving a birthday party this weekend and giving out about 100 mylar balloons-and surely some will be lost into the heavens-
please refrain from spending a half million dollars in order to shoot it down –
So what what is the big deal about using $400k to shoot these things down. What did it cost to fly Michelle Obama to Los Angeles on a separate flight a few hours after her husband flew there on Airforce one. Could have flown with him.
ITs like driving a Ferarri, just 2 blocks to pick up some milk, vs just walking or taking the bus.. EXCESSIVELY Wasteful.