Does anyone know if a sidewider explosion destroys the “object” or is there anything left that is recoverable?
Good point.
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.
About like a shotgun blast, the further away, the fewer fragments hit.
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
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.
My guess…. I don’t have a lot to go on. Early on in the South Carolina saga, I saw some amateur photos and news mentions that give me some opinions.
Re. the Sidewinder taking down the Carolina balloon, I saw a picture of the balloon after the missile hit that showed a chunk of the balloon fabric missing. Yes, that loss of lift brought the balloon down. No, the Sidewinder did not blow anything up. I have the impression that it was more like the kinetic energy of the sidewinder grazing the edge of the balloon and just disintegrated off a chunk of fabric.
20lbs blast fragmentation warhead...enough to blow the wing off a jet.