Behold the radio traffic from the #ChinaSpyBalloon#shootdown SNR is quite low headphones are needed! Might be worth cleaning this up through a speech filter.
If you havenβt already heard they used the callsign Frank as a reference to Frank Luke a WW1 Fighter Ace (Luke AFB is named in his honor) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Luke
Huntress is the callsign for EADS Eastern Air Defense Sector. MARSA = Military Authority Assumes Responsibility for Separation
According to @wardcarroll video the AIM-9X didnβt have a warhead! What I was thinking based on the video early but a flash in one of the videos made me think otherwise!
The missile was launched from 58kft and that Raptor makes a fairly aggressive turn after the shoot down. Think about that for just a second!Weather balloon OBS 12z
Pressure = 79.90mb
Height = 17625.12m
Temp = -70.30c
Dew point = -95.30
Wind dir / speed = 280.00deg 56.99kts
Pressure at the surface was 1033mb so 79.90/1033 = 0.07734 so 7% of the surface pressure! Water boils at 41c or 106F at that pressure! Yet that Raptor makes a fairly aggressive turn! Cool stuff!
Letβs talk about a 380lb AMRAAM intercepting a balloon. The missile will likely expend all itβs fuel which is probably 70% of its mass if the war head goes boom you scatter fragments and debris and loose maybe 20lb converting solid to gas.
That leaves nearly 100lbs of debris from the missile alone all spread out like a big shotgun blast. Whatβs the terminal velocity of the debris π€·ββοΈ Now add in the π payload that looks the be significant. The ballon has a airspeed of 0 relative to the atmospheric flow!
When an aircraft gets hit by a missile at altitude moving 500kts you tend to see fairly significant break up caused aerodynamic forces. The balloons payload wonβt see those forces unless the payload falls without a parachute which is a danger to the population.
Check out this expendable threat emitter! Seems like this could be useful somewhere π€ alert5.com/2021/03/26/u-sβ¦
Compare that to a more refined design. Note the rotary joints in the wave guide and the slip rings needed to gimbal the T/R cabinet. The above system does away with all that
If you have ever worked on slip rings you know how much trouble they can cause. With modern batteries or even a small Honda inverter generator, why not just spin the whole thing and control it wirelessly.