Posted on 02/13/2023 8:39:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
bttt
Does anyone know if a sidewider explosion destroys the “object” or is there anything left that is recoverable?
Good point.
I don’t know that this is true, but on Warroom today they said one of the “objects” we shot down was allegedly one of our own weather balloons.
That would be fitting.... a 400k missile to shoot down a National Weather Service balloon. You can’t make this stuff up so it’s probably true.
How about Alaska, Yukon, Montana, or Lake Huron?
Wimps.
In the wreckage, did they find a sign that said: “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!!” /s
Matter is not “destroyed” by an explosive. I believe the sidewinder gets close and the warhead explodes (proximity fuse?) sending fragmentation or peppering the target with metal fragments.
“Matter is not destroyed by an explosive”
Picky, picky.
After detonation of a Sidewinder missile warhead, does the resulting damage to one of these “objects” make them unsuitable for analysis?
About like a shotgun blast, the further away, the fewer fragments hit.
A lot of balloon stuff, so where are the pics of the electronics hanging from it?
I believe the warhead was defused on these sidewinder, to minimize damage.
> In the wreckage, did they find a sign that said: “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!!” /s
I thought it was “happy valentine’s day eric! from fang fang”
:)
It is just not safe to be an alien right now. USAF is trigger happy.
Bkmk
Inflicting Damage: WDU-17/B Warhead
In addition to fighter jets, you’ll also find Sidewinders on attack helicopters, like this AH-1W Cobra.
The current Sidewinder, as well as its replacement, the AIM-9X, carries the 20-pound (9-kg) WDU-17/B warhead. The WDU-17/B consists of a case assembly, a good amount of PBXN-3 high explosive, booster plates, an initiator device and nearly 200 titanium fragmentation rods. When the target detector senses the enemy aircraft, it activates the fuze mechanism, which sends an explosive charge through the initiator (a train of low-explosive material) to the booster plates. The explosive charge from the initiator ignites low-explosive material in the booster plate channels, which ignites explosive pellets surrounding the high-explosive material. The pellets ignite the high explosive, causing it to release a huge amount of hot gas in a short amount of time.
The powerful explosive force from this expanding gas blasts the titanium rods outward, breaking them apart to form thousands of metal pieces, all zipping through the air at top speed. If the warhead goes off within range of the target, the speeding titanium fragments will break apart the enemy aircraft’s fuselage. In some cases, the missile may go right up the target’s tailpipe, demolishing the aircraft from the inside. The WDU-17/B is referred to as an annular blast fragmentation warhead because the explosive force carries the metal fragments outward in all directions, in an annular, or ring-shaped, pattern.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/sidewinder8.htm
Oh no pics of that - the pics shown are a complete joke
Last week a couple of reports said the balloon was 200 feet tall. So not your typical weather balloon.
It’s been rumored that one of the items recovered so far was a huge shrink wrapped pile of very good counterfeit US currency somewhere in the millions with a note that said, Thanks Big Guy.
I, for one, am glad to see those lads out there removing all that one-time-use plastic from the sea.
Someone should issue Pres. Diaper Pail a ticket for littering.
“ I believe the warhead was defused on these sidewinder, to minimize damage.”
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Do you have a link to that information? I hadn’t heard that before.
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