Posted on 02/06/2023 12:57:48 PM PST by BenLurkin
The Chinese spy balloon that traversed US airspace before being shot down over the weekend was roughly 200 feet tall, weighed thousands of pounds — and may have carried explosives meant for self-destruction, a top US general revealed Monday.
The since-obliterated spy craft’s payload was approximately the size of a regional jet airliner, Air Force General Glen VanHerck, head of US North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and Northern Command (NORCOM), said as he disclosed fresh details about the surveillance device.
“Of the payload itself, I would categorize that as a jet-airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet such as a ERJ [Embraer Regional Jet] or something like that. [It] probably weighed in excess of a couple thousand pounds.” [???]
Asked about the potential hazards if the balloon had been shot down over land, VanHerck said the device had “glass off of [its] solar panels; potentially hazardous material, such as material that is required for batteries to operate in such an environment as this; and even the potential for explosives to detonate and destroy the balloon that could have been present.”
He stopped short of confirming that the balloon was, in fact, carrying explosives.
China tried to claim the balloon was just a weather research “airship” that had blown off course...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’m just thankful it didn’t contain an EMP.
Not Santa?
200 feet tall and 2000 pounds. NBA scouts were drooling.
But for reals, that descriptions alone says it was dangerous.
This is a NOAA radiosonde. Temperature, pressure, humidity, altitude, GPS, and the balloon it's attached to is tracked through a required radar reflector. It weighs 500 grams.
What China sent was not like this.
It was just a Chinese birthday balloon off course.
200 feet tall?
https://www.exploreminnesota.com/article/discover-paul-bunyan-larger-than-life-lumberjack-minnesota
bttt
Let’s see. Shoot it down over the US and the first guy to get there posts it on twitter. Government can’t have that so how do they know how big it was. Was it really Bin Laden buried at sea?
What does the UCMJ say about this kind of thing?
I’m surprised it wasn’t in the shape of a giant middle finger or a large thumb and waving fingers on the end of a giant nose.
tell china, one more won ton soup and we launch full-on nuclear war
How do we know that it didn’t leave a trail of Anthrax...
Nobody knows this, but, it was secretly manned.
It was a manned mission, and the Chinese inside are now 50 feet under water. ;)
Because Xi would have denied him his 10%.
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