Don’t we have planes with guns?
Must close to ~1,000 feet for an air-to-air 20mm guns kill. The AIM-9X allows a standoff shot at ~1 NM or greater. Important if one of the balloons might include weapons or explosives. Also, have heard these are non-warhead shots in order to preserve as much of each balloon as possible for recovery and analysis. Difference between using a shotgun versus an arrow.
Re #50, test they do. Apparently 25mm cannon shells are not effective. For some reason, these UFOs are not visible to the naked eye. We’re going to start war of the worlds.
RE: Don’t we have planes with guns?
The Warthog A-10 Thunderbolt II, rapid firing platinum rounds I saw at an airshow looked menacing. They let us touch the inner surface with its sharp lines.The aircraft is being phased out they say.
Detail:
Carries the 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger, a powerful cannon able to fire at a rate of roughly 4,000 rounds per minute. The seven-barrel gun was designed for close air support (CAS) missions and is famous for the thundering “BRRRRRRT” noise it makes when fired.
“Guns” are not very effective against balloons or semi-rigid airships. The rounds just pass through the cloth, creating small holes relative to the volume of the supporting gas. Tracers would probably ignite hydrogen, but after the Hindenburg, nobody uses hydrogen any more.
A few years back the Canadians tried pumping ~1000 20mm cannon rounds at a balloon. It took the thing 3 days to come down.