There's no coexisting with these people
(media.scored.co)
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If we can make defense systems that can intercept missiles flying at hundreds of miles an hour, we should be able to hit a big slow moving balloon.
It isn't hitting it that is the issue.
At maximum altitude it is something like 35 km up, two microns thick and filled with low pressure gas. It is very slightly more substantial than a cloud.
Poking a little hole in it will only allow gas exchange by diffusion. That is, very, very slowly. It won't pop like a latex party balloon!
Who said anything about 'poking a little hole'? High explosives with flak would rend it asunder. The array it was hauling was also a pretty big target.
So flack is launched from Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Got any laying about? How about AAA with the capability of hitting targets at an altitude of 35 km?
As for proximity fused cannon shells; cool! you are shooting at a cloud. Proximity to what?
Two fighter jets strafed the balloon with anti-aircraft cannons and it didn't care. It was eventually shot down with an air burst of a guided missile. That would be hundreds of thousands of dollars of ordinance.
The array was an insignificant target compared to the balloon, which was about the size of a football stadium at that point; Moreover shooting the array would not bring the balloon down.
This is what I was talking about. They could have done this the moment it entered US airspace, instead of waiting for it to complete it's mission when it made its way to the goddamn Atlantic. the hell are you being such a pedantic faggot?
They exist, they just aren't readily available.